Watercolour Madness!

We tried a new medium today - watercolour! We used watercolour paints and watercolour pencils. We also got to spray our art to make it run - check out what the colours do in the timelapse at the end of the video.

Message To An Artist

We have been looking at change outside our window and using it to inspire us in art. We talked about spring and how it's almost here. Yesterday we created some floral artworks using paint but no brushes! Check them out below.

We also all wrote an email to a local artist Bridget who creates digital prints. Here is a bit of the writing we did:

To Bridget, 

I like your art. It is good. How do you draw so neatly?

Angus

To Bridget, 

I like your picture. Your pictures are cool. How do you do them?

Benjamin

To Bridget, 

I like your art. You must have worked really hard. I would like to send you a message. 

Felix

To Bridget, 

How do you do wonderful drawings? I love wonderful drawings. You must have read my mind. 

Tom

Bridget's reply:

Hi Eve,

Wow that's so cool. Please thank the children for the lovely messages and let them know that this kind of art is done on the computer so I use the computer mouse like its a paint brush!

Thanks again,

Bridget

Watch this space.....

We have been observing our environment and using it to inspire us in art. We have also been learning about different media in art. That means "the tools or materials you use for art". Tomorrow we're going to use dye and photography to create a new piece of art. Watch this space.....

Friends with Tami

Every Thursday we are lucky to have Tami who takes our friends programme. We have been using Spike the talking tool to share what makes us happy. We're talking about different feelings we feel. We feel scared, happy, nervous, grumpy, lonely and mischievous.

We practiced "milkshake breathing" which helps us relax. It was fun. We inhaled and exhaled through straws. (Check out our video below!) Listen for the sounds, it's like the Hanmer Hot Pools!

"You have to make bubbles!" - Cruz

"It sounds like the sea!" - Bella T 

"We made some pictures of our bodies and our feelings." - Ashton

"We did bubbles with the straws because it was for practice." - Beau 

"With Tami we did some bubbles with water bottles and we also some people had some straws. They had cups too. It was so fun." -Tom 

Super Spellers in KA

Today we were practising spelling words that we often use. We practised 'is', 'the', 'I', 'am', 'to', 'and', 'on' and 'like'.

Whispering, Talking and Shouting with my pencil!

Today we were using observation skills to sketch a soft toy bunny. We had to use shading to show the light and dark bits. One good way of understanding it is to talk, shout and whisper with your pencil to show the shades.  It was a challenge but we made sure we had growth mindsets and worked hard. We did a walk around and commented on each other's art. It's good to see how others do it. 

Jack Frost Visits

Jack Frost visited this morning and we were curious about the art that he created. We used our new microscopes to OBSERVE and DESCRIBE the frost crystals that he left on our seats.

Collaborative Writing

Today we wrote about our experiences in the sandpit. We collaborated during shared writing. Some of the words we used were dig, dug, smooth, sand, pat, volcano, pit, hole and potion. 

This Is My Castle

We are showing growth mindsets in writing. We are using our word cards to help us find words and sounds. Here William shows the results of hard work and a lot of thinking.

Words we were finding on the word card:

I
can
see
my
the
this
is

My House, My Castle

In writing we are using our study of homes to look back a few centuries at castles. Miss Eve showed us real castles she's been to such as Edinburgh Castle in Scotland and the Hohensalzburg fortress in Austria. Some of us have been to a real castle - Lanarch Castle in Dunedin. Hunter C went to a castle in Australia that had real jewels. We explored the parts of a castle, photos of real castles and even used a 'how to' video on YouTube to get ideas for how to draw our castles. We're going to use our castles to do some writing this week.

"Castles normally have rocks and wood. And also castles have flags, drawbridges and windows." - Tom

"A castle is a safe place where you can hide from people." - Felix

"My castle has a drawbridge, walls and a roof." - Benji

"Castles can have bricks and stones." - James

"Some castles have flags." - Lily

"They have walls and rooves." - Ashton

"Castles have really good hiding places. The enemies can fall into the moat." - Luka 

"Castles have canons and drawbridges. They pull them up and down for people to come and fight." - George 

"Castles have flags on the top of the roof." - Hunter C

Winter Fest - Sustainability Rap!

Hi there, just a reminder to please practice this rap for Saturday.

Please practice this rap every moment that you can! This will be chanted alongside our Winter Fest float next Saturday. 

Verse 1

Sh Sh  Shotover

Sh Sh  Shotover

Sh Sh  Shotover

Sh Sh  Shotover

Sustainability (uh huh)

Sustainability (uh huh)

Sustainability (uh huh)

Sustainability 

1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8!

Verse 2

You’ve got the ability for

Sustainability from

Now to infinity

(Uh huh) For our community

Go back to first verse

Verse 3

Don’t stain it  

Sustain it!

Don’t drain it 

Maintain it! (repeat this verse)

Go back to first verse

Verse 4

Uh huh Queenstown, looking fine

Uh huh Queenstown, looking fine

Uh huh Queenstown, looking fine

Uh huh Queenstown, looking fine

Repeat whole rap

Literacy Experiences

We love having literacy experiences outside of a book, too. Here Kimi Aakau are showing different ways we are writing. Tessa is enjoying chalk pens on the window, Olivia and Anja are writing on the large lines in the modelling book and Felix and George are writing in their books. Maybe at home we could show you new words we have learned.

Quarter Pizza (Caught A Pizza!)

As part of our learning in fractions we embraced our inner chefs and created pizzas. We had to put toppings onto quarters. Miss Eve wondered why there were a lot of mushrooms left over. 😎 it was fun and we wish they were edible. Ask us if we can explain the fraction that we explored today. 

From the Lions:

"My pizza had mushrooms, cheese, bacon and capsicums. It was (cut in) quarters." - Chase 

"My pizza had a quarter mushrooms and I put lots of cheese and green stuff and mushrooms on my pizza." - Tom

"I like learning about pizzas." - Thomas

"I love quarters. I think I'm never going to stop doing them." - Hunter T

"I like to learn about quarters. 2 quarters is the same as a half." - Daisy

"I like quarters. They make one whole." - Caeleigh

"I like learning and I like learning about pizzas." - Mason

"I like learning about pizzas, it is fun!" - Tessa

Old Style Dancing

We are learning about old and new things. We have been exploring old and new dance. Here's the 'Jiffy Mixer' dance. Perhaps you can play it at home and we can show you the moves or even dance with you!

A Hovering Visitor

We were so lucky to have a visit from a helicopter! Mrs Clarke's husband Shaun is a helicopter pilot and Shelly is a paramedic. They work together to help hurt people in the Wakatipu. It was so exciting to wait for the chopper to land on our school field. We use experiences like this to inspire us in writing time. 

Children's responses:

Olivia: It was noisy. Helicopters start with 'h' Miss Eve. (It's our sound of the day!)

William: It was cool going inside it and I liked the propellers.

Elsie: I thought it was weird that they didn't have a boot in the back of the helicopter because when I saw my first helicopter they had a boot where they put all their stuff. 

Thomas: It has a spinning thing on the back and on the top. On the top it had a lot of things. The rescue helicopter comes when you need it. 

Tim: I liked going through the helicopter. When I went up the steps and when I went down the steps myself.