Being Powerful in Lockdown

Our learner attribute this term is "I am Powerful." We have been demonstrating this at home with all of the creative and wonderful things that we have been doing in our "bubbles". We are overcoming challenges, persevering, taking action and making the most of the situation. 

For our Arts Inquiry, we have been thinking about things that inspire us. Maybe some of these will inspire you... 

How to make a Spiderweb

A ping pong challenge!

Being creative with graphing about Covid-19 data by Emelie

"If you google 'giraffe' you can choose to see it in 3D then put it anywhere you like! It is heaps of fun and you can try all sorts of animals."

"We have started to stitch plants out of felt. Yesterday I finished my Venus Flytrap. Now I am working on a spider."

"We have been really inspired by all the memetic and compositional art... thanks for the wonderful ideas."

"You mix 2 cups of cornflour with 1 cup of water, and you can put 3 drops of any food colouring in. Very simple. Mix it up"

Ajooni: When I visited Weta cave last year, there was an artist who made sculptures out of tinfoil. I decided to do the same. Here is my cactus.

Petra: We did a taste test. I got everything correct. I loved the marshmallows and candy floss but the blue cheese was yucky!

What a great way to focus on our Positive Health and practice Maths at the same time!

Teacher Art Exhibition

Teachers have been getting creative for our Teacher Art Exhibition last week. You may have seen some odd look creatures in last weeks newsletter and around the playground. 

On Monday, the students took a tour of these pieces as we explained the inspiration behind them. It was really cool to see this and we also saw some work in the office inspired by stories we know well like Maui and Mahuika and the Māori creation myth. 

In the afternoon on Monday following our tour we returned to the idea of the 'inspiration book'. We started some big brainstorms with big picture thinking, what learning did we want to share about? What is possible? We will be exploring these in our Art Celebration.

Home learning:

• Arts Celebration planning has begun.  On Monday we began with our Inspiration Book.

This includes Who inspires me, (artists, writers, musicians, thinkers, politicians, mums, dads, etc. What inspires me, ideas, issues, concerns, amusements ( Our history, family, gender roles, racism etc.) and How I could use these inspirations to make artworks. (materials, methods, styles etc.)  The next step is to do a series of sketches of the ideas.  Don’t settle on the first idea or on just one idea but let your mind wander and explore a range of options.  This will be a kind of visual brainstorm, building on the Inspiration Book.

Cleo's Art- inspired by Cloe's Art!

Squareness- Problem Solving

On Friday we worked with the Year 3 students in Tautoru. We were demonstrating leadership. 

We are learning about the properties of a square and problem solving together. We explored the concept of “squareness.” We know that a square has 4 equal sides and 4 right angles. 

We asked: How many squares can you find that have dots from this array as their corners?

Our brains are growing!

Motukairangi Kapa Haka Festival 2021

The Kapa Haka festival was really fun. Wellington East Girl's College and Rongotai College (Ngā Taiohi o Te Rāwhiti) started it with an opening ceremony, then after the presenter's speech they shared their item. After that, Kahurangi school came up and shared an awesome item, and since they were the only other full school, there were so many of them! We were on third, and it felt really good to get it done so soon. It felt like just one minute, but our item was supposed to be five! There were a ton of other schools after that, including Miramar North School, Miramar Central School, Lyall Bay School, Evans Bay Intermediate School and Hataitai School. Once all the schools had shared, Everyone sung Matariki and Toia Mai on the seats they were on, and the thudding of feet on the floor and 1800 voices all across the room all singing was awesome. It felt so good to hear and see everyone singing and doing one song altogether in unison. I especially liked when we did the haka part, because different people were doing different parts of the song, and the fact that everyone knew their part in the song was great. It felt so good about doing something with different people who we might never have met, without clarifying that everyone knew what to do, but everyone did know what to do.
- Will J

We have worked so hard on our performance over the past few months. The mana and ihi in Te Whānau o Whetūkairangi's performance was palpable! Here's an explanation of the meaning behind each part of our item:

• 'Noho ake au' (Mōteatea/Chant) - This chant speaks of tangata whenua, the tribes of Ngāi Tara and Ngāti Ira. The founding ancestors of these tribes and our treasured Pā site, Whatonga and his son, Taranihoniho are acknowledged. Tara's mother, Hotuwaipara is also mentioned.
• 'Utaina' (Waita-a-ringa/Action song) - This song is about paddling a waka in unison. We uplift the canoe, the canoe uplifts us. I a, ha, ha!
• 'Ko Te Upoko o Te Ika' - (Haka) - Our school haka, speaking of Whetūkairangi's position atop Motukairangi (Miramar) at the "head of the fish of Māui" (Wellington). Kupe's pursuit of the wheke (octopus) and our maunga, Tangi Te Keo (Mt Vic) are mentioned too. We look to the stars, Autahi, Tautoru, Māhutonga, Mataraiki, the family of Worser Bay School.
• 'Hutia te Rito' - (Waiata) - Our finale is a metaphor, it speaks of how pulling the centre shoot from the harakeke (flax plant) will stunt the growth of the species. He aha te mea nui o te ao? What is the most important thing in the world? Māku e ki atu ki a koe, He tangata, he tangata, he tangata. I say to you, it is people, it is people, it is people.

Wellington is a...

 We've been playing with metaphor! Inspired by Denis Glover's Wellington Harbour is a Laundry, we've re-imagined our city in all different ways. We discussed the difference between simile and metaphor. We wondered how we could extend the metaphor, taking it even further to help describe the unique qualities of Wellington. 

By Billy & Fynn

By Will J

By Cleo

By Sabine

By Anneke

By Addison

By Olive

Kei te aha tōku whakapapa? Our Family Museum

On Friday, we shared artefacts from our family history. We asked what brought your family here? Were they ‘pulled’ to New Zealand by opportunities? or were they ‘pushed’ by something happening in their homeland? What events in New Zealand History was your ancestor around for? Did they contribute or participate in some way? Would their life have been affected or changed by war, natural disasters, or something else?

What a great hook to begin the next part of our History Inquiry. 

Lillian: I loved interacting with people and telling them about my artifact and its story. I loved seeing them interact with the artifact and hold it. I also loved looking at other people’s things and asking questions about them. Seeing where things come from gives me ideas of how things looked in the past.

Ella: Everyone loved my trunk. There was a lot of conversation about it. I learned a lot about my family when I did the research by asking dad. The museum exhibition was really cool. It was displayed well and so you could see everything. It was well organised with Matariki people going through to see the other classes work first and they came to us.

Some of our students shared their artefacts with students from across the school in their whānau groups. 

Matariki

 

Matariki signals the Māori New Year. It happens when the Matariki star cluster rises. In the past, Matariki was celebrated, following a harvest when the pātaka (storehouses) were full. This is a time to farewell the dead, honour ancestors and celebrate life. 

Matariki is a time for feasting. We celebrated this year by cooking a hāngī (a traditional Māori method of cooking). 

We helped to prepare the food:

Thank you to everyone for making this happen. It was great to see our whānau at our Matariki celebration!

We learnt more about Matariki in our Whānau groups.