Art, History, Geography in Action.

In preparation for creating our own Family Flag we did some research and reading about flags, emblems & symbols.  

Lovely's Australian flag. I LOVE his freehand Union Jack and stars!

I used 2 books from our home-library: Flags and Emblems of Australia from Kangaroo Press and Signs and Symbols from Pepin Press. 

Our discussion about the Australian Coast of Arms led to a bout of spontaneous coin-rubbing (The Oz 50 cent coin features it) using various methods: I suggested crayons then Hug decided Lyra pencil was more effective.

Coin Rubbings featuring The Australian Coat of Arms

We learnt (and yes! I admit that I didn't know these specifics :) that the Australian Flag has 1 large 7-point star and the Southern Cross is portrayed with 4 smaller 7-point stars and one 5-point star. Of course it also has a large Union Jack symbolising our historical place in the British Commonwealth. 

Hug's Union Jack. He chose to use a ruler to outline the shape before he painted. 

I guess what this particular session showed me - and may i note that it was our first formal lesson in a long time - was how much fun it is to involve art in the learning process! That hadn't been the initial plan  as the actual art element was meant to just be the Family Flag (which we did get to later that afternoon!) but it quickly became obvious that through art I could really gather the boys attention. Not only learning concepts that touched on history, geography & culture but also strengthening their artistic skills. 

Now THAT is a really cool concept that I'm eager to embrace! 

Our Aboriginal Flags. They asked me to paint too! Mama must remember to get messy ;) 

How do you use art in your daily learning?