Matariki: Colour-Symbol-Image

This week our literacy groups have been doing some shared readings around Matariki. After reading and responding verbally to these texts, we have used a non-verbal thinking routine called 'Colour, Symbol, Image' to share our ideas about what Matariki represents.

We shared the display we have created in a video during today's assembly, along with some of the great learning our juniors in P1 have been doing on the iPads. 

Human Migration Board Games

Linking with our migration theme, we have been looking to become 'learning leaders' by teaching others about what we have learned so far this term.

We are currently creating our own board games that teach players a little about how human migration is a response to challenges, risks and opportunities. 

If you have been following our Twitter you will have noticed some tweets about this project over the last couple of weeks. 

It began by us asking - 'What makes a good board game?'

We came up with our own criteria for board games:

1. Good length
2. Quality - Artwork and pieces
3. Challenging - But not too hard
4. Fair
5. FUN (not a 'bored' game!)

We started to design our own games. We found inspiration in the stories of human migration that we have investigated recently. Push and pull factors are used as the positive and negative effects on the players in our games, which are mostly about players trying to get themselves from one place to another.

Linking with our explanation writing focus, we have also been looking at instruction manuals for well-known board games, identifying common sections, and writing our own game instructions using appropriate vocabulary. These have been created in Google Docs and shared with Mr K for printing and laminating. 

Testing our games has proven to be so important, as others have helped us to identify flaws in our games. Most of us have found areas for improvement before we begin our final creations. 

This week we have begun on our final products. Still works in progress, but we are looking forward to inviting the rest of our senior syndicate to play our games and give us feedback. 

It is exciting to see so many board game themes arising from the literacy projects we have been involved in, from the story of Canterbury's First Four Ships, to tales of Polynesian discovery in the Pacific. The links we have made to our Geometry focus is also important, as many of the games involve the use of compass directions for navigation. This is a project that has allowed for a number of learning areas to be integrated. We are currently thinking about whether we should create commercials for our games on our iPads to 'pull in' prospective players from outside of our classroom...

Pasifika Printmaking

This past week we were lucky to have Bianca from the Christchurch Art Gallery teach us about the meaning behind the symbols we see in Siapo (Samoan tapa cloth) and Ngatu (Tongan tapa cloth). She also took us through a process for making our own prints. 

Bianca explained to us how Pasifika art can have cultural
symbols and meanings. She shared some of Fatu Feu'u and
John Pule's artwork.

We created our own geometric designs.

We rolled our own relief prints.

Our individual prints were put together to create a class piece,

This programme fitted nicely with our Migration theme, as we continue to explore the movement of people over time. The spread of culture through the Pacific is of special interest to us and here we were able to further develop our deep understandings about cultural identity.

We will soon have our prints on display and look forward to sharing them with all of our visitors. 

Human Migration Projects

It was a satisfying day for many of us today, as we had the opportunity to share some of the literacy projects we have been working on that link with our migration inquiry.

Underneath our big idea - "Human migration is a response to challenges, risks and opportunities", we have been following on from our initial investigations into the causes of human migration, to look into real examples, specifically in the Pacific. 

The push and pull factors that brought our ancestors to Aotearoa

Our groups have been working on quite different projects. The Daredevils read about Maori sailing by starlight, so they wrote poetry about Maori exploring. They also created artwork to go with their poetry in a similar style to our Anzac art. 

The Daredevils' Maori exploration art

The Iron Men used Google Slides to work on a collaborative presentation where the boys each answered different questions about Polynesian discovery and the spread of various Polynesian cultures.

Both the Flashes and the Wonderwomen were retelling real stories that involved early settlement of New Zealand and the surrounding islands. 

Our sharing session today was a great way to reflect on our learning. For those retelling real stories, several of us had factual inaccuracies pointed out to us that we had included in our presentations. We will be revisiting how these happened in our groups. One of our next steps in researching as a class is to work on our referencing and sharing our sources of information (an area we really need to develop). 

Here are some snippets of today. Not only did the presenters do a great job, the audience did so well to listen carefully and to provide thoughtful feedback. Most of us have uploaded our projects to our digital portfolios.

The majority of the class chose Jacob's Explain Everything video as their standout presentation of the day, so here it is (Note: He is aware he muddled up a couple of facts!):

We will soon be learning about the effects that migration has both on people, and on places. Keep an eye on our Twitter and blog. 

Anzac Art

We had a smaller group of us together on Friday afternoon. Our rugby players were at the Rugby Fun Day at Burnside Park, while several of our ICT experts offered to assist in the junior school in mentoring roles.

The remaining group of us created Anzac art work. We used pastels and discussed how we can blend this medium for effect, as well as how the use of contrast can have impact on the eye and add boldness.

We were trying to create a vision of some of the battlefields that many Anzac soldiers have fought and died on. Although we have learned a lot about the Gallipoli Campaign, we have also learned that Turkey is only one of many places that the Anzacs have served together.

A number of our children attended dawn services on Anzac Day, so we look forward to hearing their reports on what they were like.

We will soon have this art work on display in the school office, so feel free to come and have a closer look.

The Anzacs

Our trip to the Air Force Museum was a great spark for investigations into the Anzacs and why we commemorate Anzac Day.

The Wonderwomen literacy group have been exploring the beginnings of WW1 leading up to the Gallipoli campaign, the Daredevils have been researching and sharing their thoughts on why we commemorate Anzac Day and the class as a whole has been looking into what actually happened at Gallipoli.

There has been some fantastic learning being uploaded to our digital portfolios and some real shifts for some of us in how we view war in general. We know that we have a lot to be thankful for.

We have all written a short statement about why Anzac Day is important to each of us. Sonya, Danielle's mum, has been working with Danielle, Jen and Phoebe to create an Anzac sculpture for a display at the Canterbury Horticultural Society. We will post more pictures when finished. It will include our short statements about Anzac Day, which we have also mentioned below.

 

Created with Padlet

Room 14 Story Workshop

Many classrooms at our school have been running Story Workshops this year. This is based on an idea that myself and several other teachers witnessed in another school during a professional development trip last year. The concept of Story Workshop is driven by us exploring the role of the arts in literacy. See some of the other Bromley School class blogs for information about how it has been used in their contexts.

In Room 14, we have used an adaptation of this concept to generate the 'spark' for stories we are currently writing. Today all of us were given time (all morning) and choice when moving around different stations. Although some prompts have been provided for the children to help with initial thoughts, it has been interesting to see that very few children have stuck with the obvious ideas present in these prompts, taking inspiration and opting to go in a completely different direction. This may be because moving around a number of stations helped to bring more ideas together.

Engagement has been great, with many children already planning and drafting their ideas, with the goal of writing a chapter book they can be proud of. We have constantly been referring to the idea that we are authors, taking ownership of our stories and self-monitoring our writing to a high standard.

Our video shows the first session, until our morning tea break.



Keep an eye on our Twitter and USpace accounts for more information about our stories as they are created.

3D Model Of Aotearoa

This week many of us have taken on the challenge of sculpting a 3D map of New Zealand out of clay. We began by watching some fly-over videos of planes travelling around our coastlines. We then researched many of the land features that we would need to have visible in our sculptures (mountain ranges, major lakes, rivers, etc). These were all highlighted on a blank map, which we used as our design plan.

















Today we organised our workspaces and started sculpting. We will try to tweet some pictures as we finish, as well as uploading pictures to our digital portfolios.

City Centre Walkabout

This week we went on an adventure around our city as part of our 'Imagination' theme for this term. It was interesting to discover how few of us have been into the central city since the earthquakes. In our travels we found that many streets and empty lots have been used as blank canvases for artists to share their works.

We took hundreds of photos. Over the next week or two we will be looking through these, trying to interpret what we saw and possibly taking inspiration for some of our own work.

Art - Charcoal New Zealand Landscapes

Aotearoa has some amazing scenery. This has been a centre-point of our artwork.

As well as this, we have been investigating what artists do, how they approach their work and where they might get their inspiration.

We studied work by New Zealand artists like Grahame Sydney, who captures the beauty of our environment and the people who live here. We have also watched videos of artists talking about how they prepare their workspace and their mental state before working on their art.

We haven't just jumped in to creating our own work. We have tried to get to know our medium, charcoal, and how we can create contrast by experimenting and thinking carefully about how we are using it.

Take a look...

City Development Inquiry

Beauty, Fun, Play and Adventure is our theme for this term.

After completing some personal interest projects, the whole class undertook a new inquiry about making Christchurch beautiful. Following the Canterbury earthquakes, the Christchurch City Council has a number of significant projects they are currently working on. We researched modern buildings, created our own designs and then built 3D models of real buildings that people are working on in our city. 

Today we are proud to have our work on display in our school art exhibition. We left a comment box and have received some great feedback from visitors. 

Check out some photos we took along the way…

Cycle Animations

As part of our inquiry theme this term (Environment and Sustainability), we have been making animations of the explanations we have written.

We chose lots of different cycles, from food chains and life cycles, to the journey consumer products take. This involved us generating questions, creating success criteria, conducting research and organising our new learning into explanations (also designing and painting backgrounds/habitats, creating sculptures and learning to use animation software!).

This was a big process that tested our self management and organisation skills. We are happy with our results. Some of these are shown in the video below, which we played in assembly this week. The others can be viewed in our USpace galleries.

Looking Back to Look Forward - Christchurch Heritage Buildings

 Our charcoal artworks are now on display in the school office. Please take a look if you get the chance. We have had some great feedback and are proud of our work.

Looking Back to Look Forward - Christchurch Heritage Buildings

We have been working hard to produce charcoal drawings of the many heritage buildings we have in our city. 

Some of the buildings we have been drawing have now been demolished due to earthquake damage. We have been discussing why many people want to keep these buildings and what they represent in our wider community. 

We used grids to help us draw the buildings we each chose. This was very challenging for some, but so far we have had results that we are proud of. The parents that came to our 3-way conferences were very impressed and could recognise many of the buildings. We look forward to sharing the finished works in a gallery in our school office. 

Update - The World's Fastest Indian

Today the Iron Men recreated Burt's final ride in the film. They had written a storyboard and parts for each character. There was some confusion at times over roles and responsibilities, but learning will have come from this.

They showed a lot of enthusiasm for this project and should be proud of their movie scene once edited. See the image below of their Indian Scout replica.

Portraits

A number of the portraits we drew are now on display in our classroom. The others will be added as they are completed.

Can you recognise the faces?

Portraits

We have begun drawing our portraits for display in our classroom. We are using a mixture of photography and pencil drawing.

We watched some video clips about portrait drawing and practiced some new shading techniques. Everyone is enthusiastic about putting their new skills to use.