Term 2 Week 8 – ‘Tell Your Story!’ a workshop by the Footscray Community Arts Centre

We started our excursion by learning about the history of the Footscray Community Arts Centre, the buildings and site along the Maribyrnong river. “We learned about the history of the buildings and the stories of what once happened there. It was made of blue stone and it was a piggery.” Eren. We discovered some of the stories about the past and reflected on the changes that have come with time and with the influence of more and more diversity in the area.

We went on to consider how we are connected to our pasts, how our experiences in life contribute to who we are today and how the differences between us and others in our community are interesting and fun. Students were guided by local artists to create a self portrait.

“We learned about creating interesting facial expressions and different mouths and eyes, by using layers of cardboard and colours and lots of glitter.”

Louis E

The artists and teachers encouraged students to engage with and be proud of their stories and feelings about themselves in the world. “Our portraits were meant to be a story about us.”

Louis B.

This wonderful excursion and our ‘What is a Story?’ inquiry has taught us that sharing stories is a fun way to learn about the world, to make friends and to, perhaps, sometimes, help us make decisions about our futures. In addition, we have built our capacity to create more meaningful stories and characters with layers and histories. Please see SeeSaw for posts on our writing which demonstrate our engaging characters and the excellent growth we have made over the semester.