In Technology & Enterprise with Ms Ross during Term One, the senior class

created their own toys. They learnt to cater for a target audience and make eco-friendly products. Which one would you like to play with?

From Kindy to Year 7…Look at her now!

Congratulations Taylor, we look forward to viewing an exhibition one day!

Successful local author and illustrator, Wendy Binks.

Wendy Binks grew up on a dairy farm in Denmark and from an early age developed a keen interest in animals and the outdoors. She became well known

for her brightly coloured terracotta pieces and quirky characters, particularly

her trademark ‘emu with attitude’.

Wendy wrote her first children’s picture book, ‘Where’s Stripey?’ with

‘Stripey’ a baby emu as the main character. Stripey was such a popular

character that as well as producing a Stripey plush toy, Wendy produced

another book ‘Scrambled egg’ again featuring Stripey on another adventure.

This book was shortlisted for the WA Premier's awards. Children and adults

alike eagerly awaited the third Stripey book ‘Invisible Me’ which was finally

published in October 2011. And, such is his fame, and growing celebrity status,

Stripey is to star in his very own Musical Theatre Production which will tour nationally in 2012!

Wendy has combined her love of the natural world with an interest in

conservation and has been a volunteer on several conservation projects. She is

actively involved in the ongoing work to save the endangered Western Ground

Parrot and to raise awareness of their plight, Wendy has introduced Toot, the

western ground parrot, as a new character to feature alongside Stripey on his

next adventure in ‘Invisible Me’.(http://stunnedemu.com.au/about_wendy.html)

Parklands School year 4 to 7 students, earlier in Term 2, went on an

excursion to visit Wendy Binks. She talked them through the characters and

stories of her famous books and showed the students how she develops an

idea and begins sketching and designing her illustrated books. She also

showed them how to draw a kookaburra and the students drew some

amazing kookaburra pictures of their own. Take a look!

On the 3rd July, the Kindergarten and the Senior class combined to walk together to view some local Aboriginal art on display at Mt Lockyer Primary School as part of the NAIDOC week celebrations. They were blessed with a gorgeous morning and the magic of mixed-age experiences was an absolute pleasure to observe. The Kindergarten children motored along as happy as anything, chatting away to their bigger buddies. All the children, both big and small, enjoyed the opportunities: the big children to show responsibility and kindness and the smaller ones to aspire to being bigger and feeling safe in the care of another.

Glenda Williams is a local artist, elder and health worker and she talked with the children about culture, art, traditions, history and her journey into painting. There was a wonderful collection of art, weaving, musical instruments and hand-made wooden objects all with a purpose or expression of the Aboriginal culture. The children moved freely around the room enjoying holding, playing and sharing the ‘feel’ of such wonderful handmade and tactile materials. The children freely examined boomerang, baskets, a didgeridoo, tapping sticks, clothing made from kangaroo skins, necklaces and textured paintings.

Glenda had also organised an art activity, where all the children got to contribute to a shared painting based on the theme of NAIDOC week. A large sheet of calico was laid out on a large table in ‘Our Place’, a large sunny art room full of paints and all sorts of art materials. The older students were challenged to paint a representation of parliament house and the younger children made their hand prints in paint around the edges. Glenda showed the Kindergarten students the technique that Aboriginal people use to make dot paintings, using the handle end of the paintbrush. It had a mesmerizing effect on the children as they became deeply absorbed when adding dots to their handprints. A lovely sunny walk back to school completed the trip.