• Why Chinese inspired gliders?
• Kangaroo Flat Primary school is a Studies of Asia school, with this year being the Beijing Olympics held in China it was decided that the school would as a whole study different aspects of China. Each Easter in Bendigo there is also a large Easter procession featuring a huge section of Chinese realia, dragons and lions and the children always like to do something along the dragon theme prior to Easter.
• The senior unit of our school known as the Ironbark neighbourhood were studying symbols and symmetry so we began a study of those elements in the art room combining symmetrical dragon drawings initially with Chinese symbols, once the children felt comfortable with the symbol drawing they were asked to design on an A4 sheet of paper a shape of their choosing to be turned into a glider. ( For years at Kangaroo Flat Primary School I have made kites with the senior students however the success rate was not good due to the type of kite and the children’s inaccurate measuring.
• The gliders came from our Principal wanting a special “sparkle” element to the opening of our new school 3 years ago, her speech featured the stages of growth of a butterfly likened to our new school’s planning and subsequent building so I developed the gliders from her request, they worked well and the children pestered for ages to make one so now they are made every second year.)
• We discussed the elements required for viewing something from a height and that was moving we also discussed size of the gliders and sizes of the drawings that would feature on them. Once the children were happy with their composition they redrew the basic design onto large sheets of paper, this became the children’s pattern for transferring their design onto the Tyvek.
• Once their shape was transferred onto Tyvek the children drew onto the Tyvek as much of their individual designs as they needed to commence painting. Before the painting took place the gliders were taken home by the Art teacher and rod pockets to hold dowel were stitched to the Tyvek. Before painting commenced the children coloured the A4 drawing so that they knew what colour they wanted to go where, this also helped with the painting of areas so that two wet areas were not painted beside one another their original A4 drawing became their “bible” where they noted changes this was also used as part of their assessment. Viponds paint was used and the children were permitted to mix special colours the matte Viponds works wonderfully with the Tyvek.
• The children were totally absorbed with the painting and designing, total engagement, it was wonderful to see them working in pairs or threes as space was at a premium when we started painting, the children formed teams and were directed by the glider’s owner. Once one side of the glider was completed the children could choose either to replicate their work on the glider’s other side of simply paint the other side a different colour, many of the children replicated, some who had put a great deal of detail into the first side opted to just paint their reverse one colour where as others painted a simple pattern.
• The final detailing on the gliders was achieved using watered down black Viponds matte and Viponds gold paste, the children did practise on newspaper before working on their gliders, I was very pleased to see the accuracy and smoothness that was achieved with the final details. Many children chose to Google their nicknames to see if there was a Chinese character, those who were successful were able to paint their character on their glider. Assembling the glider required a length of fishing line, split ring, fishing swivel, bamboo pole and packing tape.    Launching of the gliders took place at our school’s special Education Week assembly so the 110 very proud students had a captive audience and with only a very light breeze the gliders performed to perfection. That is the beauty of the glider it will work in all weather conditions.
•  The children learnt that the biggest glider is not always the best and they hated cutting out their Tyvek shapes plus their only other negative comment was that it took too long but they understood why. As part of their assessment the children wrote their own comments about the glider making process, it was wonderful to read their use of specific art terms and follow through their thinking that had taken place to make their glider all children thoroughly enjoyed the process.
• Other areas of assessment were : the application of the materials used, responses of the audience, thinking process especially Green hat, children’s own comments, use of the Chinese symbols and symmetry.

Copyright 2008 Zart Art & Zart Education