Community Christmas Trees

Our school Art leaders and I (Sue Balletta/Art teacher) had a brainstorming session and made the decision to not have a traditional tree and chose the theme of Nature – plants, flowers, bugs and butterflies would be our decorations.

We used some hand painted papers done by our students to draw and make our decorations. All students had the opportunity to contribute to the tree.

It was a fun project and the students loved seeing their little pieces become part of the whole tree and enjoyed seeing and finding their individual pieces on the tree.

A big thanks to the art leaders and some keen grade 5-6 students that helped design and put it together.

Our Christmas tree is a celebration of the diverse artistic mediums our students explored this semester—clay, textiles, and paper collage. Year 5 students crafted the clay stars that sparkle on the tree, while students from our Grade 3/4 extension group hand sewed the ‘Merry Christmas’ bunting using backstitch on hessian circles.

The colourful tissue paper background was a collaborative effort, created by dedicated students from Prep to Grade 6 who volunteered their lunchtime to complete it. Although non-traditional, the vibrant colours were selected to capture the warmth and joy of an Australian Christmas in summertime!

Our Christmas tree is a celebration of the diverse artistic mediums our students explored this semester—clay, textiles, and paper collage. Year 5 students crafted the clay stars that sparkle on the tree, while students from our Grade 3/4 extension group hand sewed the ‘Merry Christmas’ bunting using backstitch on hessian circles. The colourful tissue paper background was a collaborative effort, created by dedicated students from Prep to Grade 6 who volunteered their lunchtime to complete it. Although non-traditional, the vibrant colours were selected to capture the warmth and joy of an Australian Christmas in summertime!

For our Christmas tree design we decided to go with ‘The Grinch’ theme because it’s a popular children’s story and a recognizable Christmas character. We used a simple colour palette of red, pink, light green, dark green and white. We painted our tree and added some simple patterns as a background for our decorations. We wanted to include some texture by using polystyrene balls that we cut in half, painted, and stuck onto our tree like baubles as well as a range of other craft materials. Finally, we decided to add our main character ‘The Grinch’ in a simple but effective way but including just the head and arm. We hope that our tree brings a smile to the shoppers faces.

St. Mary’s is a Teachers as Co-learners (TCL) school. This contemporary pedagogical approach
means that all teachers and students are learners of the school’s target language, Italian. Time
is allocated every day to ensure frequent exposure to, and learning of, both the Italian language
and English. Each class appoints an Italian Ambassador and a group of Grade 6 students form
the Languages CAT Team.
Italian Day is a community event conducted at St Mary’s each year. It encompasses the
traditions, landmarks, religious beliefs, food and language of the Italian culture. This tree is a
celebration of all things Italian inspired by student learning and the Artistic Elements of Design.
The collage of pasta creates line patterns and texture as a basis for design. The colours of the
Italian Flag are synonymous with traditional Christmas colours, hence the white background
provides a contrast for the red and green decorations.
Students have demonstrated the techniques of collage, textiles, weaving, modelling clay
and construction to create the many decorations which adorn this albero di Natale.
The Venetian Carnivale Mask at the point of the tree highlights tradition and celebration in the
North of Italy, but without doubt one of the most loved Italian Christmas traditions is presepe or
nativity scene, featured at the base of our tree. Nativity scenes of the birth of Jesus are
displayed in homes, churches and squares all over Italy. In fact, it seems that no matter where
you are in the country, there’s always one close by.
“Buon Natale e buoni auguri dalla comunità di St Mary”

At Streeton Primary School, we pride ourselves on our school values of Growth, Community and Respect.

Our Christmas tree, that was designed by some of our grade 5/6 students, is showcasing our values, and how we work as a community and grow together and is reflective of our school colours and school emblem in green and yellow.

We chose to represent our whole school by everyone tracing their hand and decorating it, which symbolises how we work as a community, and that we all lend a helping hand. Our hands are decorated to be reflective of our school values and what anything else that reminds us of our welcoming positive school and that it is reflective of our Growth as a school.

We also wanted to represent and pay forth Respect to the Indigenous community and their people, we are very grateful for the land that we live, grow, learn and play on. We have done this using aboriginal design printed paper and creating our hand designs on it.

A lucky grade 3 class at WHPS explored what images come to mind when they think of their own unique Christmas time with family or friends. We discussed and applied their amazing drawing skills to these cardboard baubles.

Over the year different grades have been learnt about symbols and personalised them; such as the Grade 5 students exploring symbolism inspired by street artist Jean-Michel Basquiat.

Some grade 2 students applied collaging skills creating a sunny, happy yellow star upon the top of our WHPS Christmas tree. What symbols represent your unique Christmas?

At Watsonia North Primary school, the Student Representative Council worked together to create an Australian bush Christmas tree. We took inspiration from all of the things that we associate with Christmas in our Australian Summer. We love celebrating Christmas in Australia and used uniquely Australian decorations to highlight how special our country is.