Impressionist Art / Camp

Kia Ora All,

Inquiry / Art

This week we've been learning about Impressionism and doing a painting inspired by Monet's waterlily / Japanese bridge works. We looked at how to build up texture by overlaying colours and using different paintbrush techniques. We've also been looking at the process that artists use to create different works. For this one we sketched a rough mid-line on the page in pencil before we started and used that to see where to sketch a rough guide for the pond and bridge. We then went in with our paint and started layering up the textures.

Camp

Mark has been over to Nelson twice and I've been over once recently preparing activities, doing a site visit etc. The activities are locked in, kids are primed and we're all looking forward to an excellent camp. On Friday I sent home a final notice with consent form, itinerary and gear list. Please make sure you receive the forms. Let me know if you need another one if Friday's one becomes lost or misplaced.

Rock On,
Mr M

Week 3 - What've We Been Doing?

Kia Ora All,

Last week was another big week in Room 2. On Friday Malcolm (who is a Teacher Aide tagged in to Room 2 one hour a day) dropped his usual maths and reading program and utilised his expertise as a hockey coach to give the kids a more in-depth session than I'm able to. What a great bunch of sports people there are in Room 2. I'm consistently impressed with both their skill and sportspersonship. 

The Majority of students also finished their one point perspective art. The finished works are on the wall in Room 2, but here are some (slightly budget - sorry about that) photographs of the finished product. I thought the kids produced absolutely stunning works. 

Just a reminder that Maths Buddy tasks are set weekly. If you don't want to do MB at home, that's absolutely fine - the students have time within the maths programme to work on it. 

In terms of reading material at home: most of the students renew their books weekly at the library, and the majority seem to go to the town library regularly. Reading to your child nightly is recommended - a chapter book of interest is ideal. Also, I think it is absolutely realistic for your child to be reading a minimum of 15 minutes per night themselves (again, chapter book of interest and appropriate level). Now's a good time to check in with your child about what they're reading and get routines in place for reading to them if you don't at present and it fits with the family schedule.

Rock On,

Mr M

Polyhedrons

Kia Ora All,

This week we've been learning about polyhedrons. Here are some photos of the students working to construct a cube at first and then other polyhedron shapes. There are also some videos (DLO's) made by the students explaining what they've learnt about polyhedrons and the vocabulary we use to talk about them.

Rock On,

Mr M

Hobo Stoves

Kia Ora All,

Room 2 and Room 5 paired up for another great activity - making hobo stoves and cooking pikelets over them. Tuakana Teina is the concept of kids learning peer to peer with an older child taking a leadership role in helping a younger child learn or do something. It was great to see the Room 2 students doing such a stellar job of helping their Room 5 buddies out by including them in all the processes as we made our stoves and pikelet mixture, built our fires, and cooked our pancakes. I thought they all did really well.

Rock On,
Mr M