Australian National Botanic Gardens

Antonio Park Primary School - 2003

(see also 2005 entries)

Floral Emblems - a note from the teachers

Antonio Park Primary School is a 'Sustainable School.' That is, we focus on sustainability issues such as conservation, recycling and environmental studies.

Our school is located next to Antonio Park in Mitcham, in the eastern suburbs of Melbourne, Victoria. Antonio Park is attached to Yarran Dheran, 12 hectares of dense bushland. Our primary school uses this park and bushland often for science lessons, cross-country races and art lessons. We feel very lucky to have this wonderful resource so near the school. This was our major reason for choosing the Australian National Botanic Gardens project for our students that had just visited Canberra for their school tour. Another reason was that our students experienced the Australian National Botanic Gardens first hand when they had lunch there one day of their tour.

Student	Floral Emblem	Artwork click to enlarge
Mathew	Common Heath
Katherine	Boronia, Rice Flower, Native Hibiscus Wattle, Honey Flower
Tim	Common Heath
Toby	Fire
Matt	Gum sapling
Thalia	Heath, Wattle
Emilly	Wattle, Bottlebrush, Native Hibiscus, Flannel Flower
Claire	White Heath, Wattle, Boronia, Native Hibiscus
Georgia	Wattle, White Heath
Lana	Heath
Chris	Bottlebrush, White Heath
Sophie	Bottlebrush, Hibiscus
Jack	Rocks, grass, tree
Sasha	Wattle tree
Ben	Common Heath
Murray	Prickly Tea Tree
Siobhan	Grass, Wattle, Bottlebrush
Simon	Pine tree Sword grass
Sarah	Pink Heath
Dave	White Heath, Waratah
Jacob	Pink Heath, Sarofax

We initiated the project with a discussion on native plants of Victoria. We then narrowed our focus down to native plants of this area, using posters for identification. The students shared their knowledge and experience of these plants. We then explained to the students that they would be designing their own Floral Emblem for the school. Some examples of emblems were shown to the students.

We then walked through Antonio Park and Yarran Dheran, investigating and identifying the different native plants and flowers and making sketches. Students selected the native plant they believed would become a suitable emblem for our school.

Students returned to school, identified their plant if they had not previously been able to (using posters and internet resources.)

Students then experimented with design, colour and different drawing materials.
Finally, students drew their designs for their school floral emblem.

We felt that students used their increasing knowledge of both native flora of Mitcham and of the school's focus of sustainability to produce some excellent designs.

Students then wrote a paragraph about their emblem and why they chose it, used the computers to type their information, and pasted this text beside of their art work. The teachers were astonished with the quality of these emblems. The students had excelled themselves. The emblems were then sent to the Australian National Botanic Gardens to be considered to appear on their website.
Hopefully some will be posted on the website as we feel they certainly deserve to!

Gerry Fitzgerald
Peta Knauer
Annette Hayes
Grade 5/6 teachers