Digital Art 2019

Our Semiconductor-inspired digital installations were a hit at our recent Visual Arts Celebration.

Visitors stopped by the Kiva Theatre, gazed up towards the stars and beyond and were engulfed by surreal audiovisuals.

 

Some even dallied with the business of merchandise....

Click here for our Google Site, which features background information on our pieces of art, our inspiration and our process. 

Check out more about our learning journey - ever more relevant before the arrival of the Digital Technologies update to the New Zealand Curriculum in 2020 - on the slides below. 

He mihi nui ki a hoa/a big thank you to everyone who helped us out, appreciated our work on the night or inspired us in any way, big or small. Kia ora!

Whole Literacy & Reading Comprehension

Our rich and varied literacy programme is humming along. We want to be a community of readers, authors and critical thinkers. We are.

We are having some great conversations about reading comprehension. We know there are a range of strategies we can call upon before, during and after reading.

We have been working in small groups to unpack and practice using these strategies.

In their independent time, one group have been completing role cards that encourage deeper thinking around their personal reading.

Another group have been expanding their minds with wonderings about the strange and mysterious story The Watertower by Gary Crew. Our library has some fantastic, thought-provoking picture books. But, you know that already because John regularly shouts it from the rooftops!

Once a Panther by Victor Rodger, from the School Journal Story Library has been the subject of analysis by another group. The story of the Polynesian Panthers has students growing more curious about New Zealand's history and the lessons we might learn from it.

Our explanation writing muscle has been getting a work out explaining, among other things, the wonders of our Arts Celebration. Now we're aggressively sharpening up our pencils in preparation for persuasive writing - get ready to hear an argument or two!

Making Sense of Maths language

Today in Maths we put on our detective hats and worked on decoding maths problems.

We know we have strengths in addition, subtraction, multiplication and division. Sometimes we come across a new word for one of these operations it can all get a bit confusing. We organised these 'new' words to match with the operations we thought they meant.









We then got into groups and tried to come up with our own definitions for each of the operations. Although confused at times we had lots of conversation to make sense of all these different words and we thought it could be helpful if we had something in the class to refer to when we get stuck!

Definitions coming together..

Developing a Culture of Risk Taking, Mistake Making, Perseverance and Accepting Challenges

Beliefs about ability have a huge impact on learning so we have been learning to take risks with our learning.

We are learning to make mistakes as they are a great opportunity to learn. When we make mistakes our brain grows. No one learns without making mistakes. Risks are valuable

We are learning to set goals and reflect on our learning to see progress. 

We are learning about Growth Mindset and how to persevere through challenges with an "I can" attitude. Challenge seeking and diligent effort is the goal.

We are learning about the power of "yet." Just because we can't do something yet does not mean you can't do it. 

Do the one thing you think you cannot do. Fail at it. Try again. Do better the second time. The only people who never tumble are those who never mount the high wire. This is your moment. Own it. ~Oprah Winfrey

We watched this clip. We asked our students how you can become smarter. This is what they said:

• persevere
• don't give up
• accept challenges
• use your Growth Mindset
• practise
• try and try again
• make mistakes 
• take risks

What a success!

Thank you to all that joined us for our Arts Celebration this week. 

This week our kids enjoyed visits from our wonderful community showcasing their own art.  During the school day, we had Jane and Margaret (Amelia's Mum) from the Wellington Orchestra play cello for us on Wednesday. We also had Tim (Clem's Dad) come in and show the kids his artwork, as he worked in Matariki.

The nights have run smoothly, our students are so proud of what they have achieved - they should be! They have worked hard to work towards "understanding the visual arts in context" as they consider artists work and the reason they have created the art. They considered this when creating their own art to portray a clear message to their audience. We hope you have enjoyed this showcase of creativity and learning as much as we have!

"It has been really fun doing this art celebration planning and working with new people."
Lily V

"I enjoyed working together for the art celebration, it was fun to share ideas and take turns in painting and drawing. We used crayons, paint and coloured pencils I loved it."
Rhosyn

Sculpture!

Toia Mai te Waka!

Inspired by Arnold Manaaki Wilson, Alexander Calder, Eva Rothschild and Constantin Brancusi as artist models, our own artists have been creating. 

The work is a window to their imaginations.  The mobiles delicately swing to the music of the broken piano.  We are in a dream.

We have been stacking, shaping; playing with space, exploiting shadows. Exploring humour!

Rongo, the god of peace welcomes you to our marae.  On either side of him Tūmatauenga and Tane look over the playground.  Birds sit in the trees while the waka we all arrived on paddles across Te Moananui a Kiwa.  Toia Mai te Waka!

Rongo the god of peace.

Tane the good of the forest and of learning

Tūmatauenga god of war and people.

Art Celebration: Cubism Group

Thank you to everyone who came to the Visual Art Celebration. We had lots of fun creating and preparing. Here is a showcase of the Cubism art...

Matilda: We have been drawing cubism. We have experimented with many different materials and art styles. We did 3 faces, one on brown paper with pastel, one on white paper with pencil, and one on magazine paper with sharpie. We drew our faces with Indian ink, and we decorated the frames with the things we like. We did name art, we wrote our names in block letters, drew lines through them and coloured them in with pencils. We were inspired by Picasso, the famous cubism artist.

Caleb: We have been working on drawing other people from different angles. But my favourite part was my name art. I first drew diagonal straight lines. Then I drew my name, next I coloured in my name with green and blue and the background yellow and orange, redish. I used orangy-red and yellow coloured pencils and normal pencil.

Eva: I am grateful that I finished all my artwork for the art celebration, in the end the art celebration was epic and totally worth all that time and sweat. I am grateful that my art skills have got much better after the art celebration.

This is our art celebration soundtrack. We have created this to entertain you while looking at our art. This piece of music is funky like cubism art. Scan you device on this QR code. By Theo, Liam, Luc and Finley

Arts Celebration: Weds 21st Aug and Thurs 22nd Aug

Please come along to our Arts Celebration to be inspired, motivated and moved... It is called an Arts Celebration because we are Celebrating The Arts. We are yelling it! We are on the go, we are in flow, we are breathing life into ideas. The school will be a gallery. See the new Pou which welcome you into the grounds, the waka that we arrived on, the classrooms lit, festooned with the brightness of the child’s mind. This is a dance. Students have been exploring themes of identity, who we are and where we come from, our environment. The explorers, like Kupe of Te Moana Nui a Kiwa, or of the stars, this galaxy and beyond. We have been thinking about social cohesion too; how do we connect and feel connected to our community? One way to do that is to have an art exhibition; no a celebration and make sure you invite everybody to come. Tell them to put on their finest outfit and bring their friends and their friends too. Artists models for inspiration include: Miro, Banksy, Van Gogh, John Pule, Arnold Manaaki Wilson, Alexander Calder, Emily Karaka, Matisse, Picasso and Eva Rothschild. One group have been inspired by the digital art of Semiconductor, a recent exhibition at the City Gallery. Wow! And we have been making music to go with it too! To ensure the evening runs smoothly, please read the following: Bring a torch to navigate the way as the sun sets. There will be QR codes linked to children’s artwork in order to listen to music, stories and background information relating to their art. A QR reader on your cellphone and headphones will be essential! (See below.) Parents, please note that children need to be managed at all times during the course of the evening as there are delicate pieces throughout the spaces. QR Codes This year we are trying out something new. We want to give parents and whānau more information about ideas behind artworks. Some spaces will have links to the process or music that has been created by the students, some will have links to the artists that inspired our amazing finished products. A QR code looks like this: It's a machine-readable code consisting of an array of black and white squares. The QR code then links you to a website. In the case of the Arts Celebration, you will be linked to Soundcloud, our Blogs or Seesaw. Download the reader onto your phone at the App Store to be ready for the night. Parking Parking is always tricky. If possible, walk to school and make it a night out for the family. If you do need to park - please think “will the bus get through regardless of whether you parked legally or not…?!” or this could be the result!

Eastern Zones Swimming

On Wednesday, some of us went to Eastern Zones Swimming. We raced against other schools in the Eastern suburbs. 

I started off the day earlier than usual and I felt very nervous. When we got there I was helped find my way to the stands. At first I misheard the speaker and thought I was the first race but it turned out I wasn't. When it was my race turn I had to use bravery to go down and do the race. On my second race I found it difficult to swim because my breathing was very short. I used perseverance. I used zest and positivity! By Inigo

First race : Was really good because I came first but at the start I was a little nervous Second race : Was really good I came second and I wasn’t as nervous Third race : Was really good and I came second again and I wasn’t nervous at all BUT THE MOST IMPORTANT THING WAS THAT I HAD FUN !!!!!! By Mae A

This eastern zones swimming day was probably my best one. It was pretty long most of the time. I was waiting on the seat staying there for the next race. What I learnt was that you should always try your hardest. It does not matter if you loose. It only matters if you don’t try your hardest. By Nikora

Digital Art: Arts Celebration 2019

Inspired by the work of Semiconductor (the UK duo whose exhibition we viewed at City Gallery), a group of budding digital artists have been exploring ideas from our learning with a range of tools.

See the slideshow below for more of Semiconductor's work and our mahi for Arts Celebration preparation so far.

We have been thinking hard about planning our Art - we want to make sure we are telling a story about Earth's natural environment (te taiao) or outer space (tuarangi). 

"I might use garage band to record natural sounds like birds or wind and water rushing. I would also like to use dark and bright colours and earth tones." - Sabine M

"We think black holes are an interesting subject and are going for a more realistic touch, but we also still want it to make the black hole look like a black hole." - Avery D & Naomi K

"I will be using Silk and Giphy. Silk is a way to make art out of almost coloured light. Giphy is how you make the stop motion video." - Emelia K

"I want to film raindrops falling down onto a flower but the flower doesn't grow. When the rain stops and the sun comes out the flower starts growing rapidly." - Hunter T

"I want to use different digital art programs, and I also want to try and be as creative as i can!" - Raffy K

"The pictures will be like bright, glowing cobwebs and Silk. Wind and explosion audio will accompany my art." - Fülōp N

Here is a sneak peak of what we are creating. This tester was made from a mixture of one group's audio with another artist's visual, created on Silk.

Stargazing with the Stargazers

It's exciting times in Māhutonga/Matariki as we do our own group inquiries into the wonders of the cosmos. We are finding this inquiry sparking our curiosity... and at times making our brains hurt! 

"Wow, it looks like a sticker"

"That was the most beautiful thing I ever saw"

On Tuesday we were lucky enough to be visited by the Wellington Astronomical Society. The students had the opportunity to see Saturn, Jupiter and the Moon. We had an awesome turn out, thank you for braving the cold!

Joakim: Interview by Adam and Mitchell

Joakim Lihman:  Friend to Worser Bay School, native trees and many animals 

Have you ever gone for a walk around Miramar and you look around and see a young man either carrying trays of plants or traps?  That’s most likely to be Joakim Lihman. He's a very good friend of Worser Bay Whetūkairangi School and he is making a huge difference around Miramar Peninsula. We have been able to interview him about the things he has done around Motu Kairangi (Miramar Peninsula).  We asked him some questions and these are some of the things he told us about himself. He grew up in Sweden, a country with moose deer and a lot of other wildlife.  Right from the start Joakim loved nature. When Joakim was little there was a big pond that frogs mated in not far from his house.  It was an amazing ecosystem but one day the council filled the pond in and built a house over it. He was upset about it and that inspired him to dig a big six by four metre hole in his backyard. His dad was so proud of him that they went and bought a pond liner to keep the water in. A couple of years later the frogs  started mating in his pond. He was super excited because he had restored an ecosystem. 
This is the same work he has continued to do in the Miramar area since he arrived here about ten years ago. .Joakim has set up a group of volunteers who are involved with reforestation of the peninsula. They are doing amazing work. Now there is a massive programme to rid the peninsula of all pests.  Who is leading this initiative? Why it’s Joakim! Again! They have set thousands of bait stations and traps and want to try and make Motu Kairangi pest free by 2020. Join Joakim and his friends on planting projects. You can find them on facebook.

By Adam and Mitchell

Sculpture; Arts Celebration

We have been thinking about how to communicate some of the idea which are important to us with sculpture. Alexander Calder liked the idea of expressing joy and playfulness through his artworks.  We think that is a pretty cool thing to express and had a go at using his idea when we made these prototypes.