Art in the holidays

 As we wrap up another term at school, we are already looking ahead to the next big things. When we come back to school we will be diving deeper into creating pieces of visual art that we will share with our whanau and community later in the year at our annual arts celebration.

We already had a head start this week when Suz joined us to explore a piece of art linked to Papatuanuku. We went and explored our school gardens and brought back some fallen leaves to help us draw our gardens. Check us out as we made our first sketches:

But the fun doesn't just stop because we are on school holidays. It's the perfect time to dust off the pencils and start practising at home. Here are a few ideas for some art over the holidays.

Using an artists model:

The local library is full of great picture books to inspire us to our own art.

Here is one of my favourites - The Pigeon finds a Hot Dog! 

Here is a great step by step that you can follow along with.

Remember that making mistakes are OK and it doesn't have to be perfect:

The Dot is a great story about an artist who isn't happy with her work but with the right encouragement, learns to embrace her creativity.

We can't wait to see what we create in the days ahead!

Teacher writing inspires kids writing

 Teacher writing inspires kids writing

When we teach writing in Autahi there are a few ways we approach getting everyone ready to write.

One of the ways is with teacher modelling where the teacher does a bit of writing to show us what to do. This can be just the teacher writing with lots of think-a-louds that encourage learners to think of what skills they might use if they were the writer.
This modelled writing establishes what good writers do as well as how we manage making mistakes in writing. 
Here is an example of modelled writing:

They other way we get started is through a shared write where the teacher facilitates writing a story together with the class. They choose the words that go into the story and get to come and write part of it themselves. The fun of this is seeing their words come to life before they have a go at writing their own story.
Here is an example of a shared write:

And here is some of the writing that flowed on from this session:

For more information you might want to check out this link to see more about these approaches

  

Our Atua Inquiry: Papatūānuku

Getting to know Papatūānuku

Our new inquiry cycle explores Māori atua. We will be learning their stories, family connections and roles in Te Ao Māori. Tales of atua are used to explain aspects of the natural world. Viewing nature and our familiar places through the lens of atua can help to bring us closer to the natural world. Atua can also provide a way to understand and express our moods and emotions.

We are beginning our learning with Papatūānuku because she is the beginning of everything in the natural world. Here is what Te Ara has to say about her:

'In Māori tradition and history, Papatūānuku is profoundly important. Papatūānuku is the land, a mother earth figure who gives birth to all things of the world and imparts many blessings to her children. '

We often find that our Autahi students come to school with lots of knowledge about Te Ao Māori. We asked them what they knew already about Papatūānuku (Papa).

Many students know that Papa is the Earth. They are also familiar with the story of Rangi and Papa. This student has drawn Tāne separating his parents, and has even included a blue, tearful Tāwhirimātea in the picture (who would rather the separation did not happen).

Our aim is to expand our students' knowledge of Papa beyond this story. We hope to deepen their understanding of who she is and what she represents. Our Autahi students have also told us that they are interested in exploring how we can care for her, introducing the theme of environmental responsibility. 

This week, we took our place as a starting point and went for a walk together to see where we could find Papatūānuku in our school grounds.

We quickly realised that Papa can be found in features all over the place: the garden, the sandpit, the beach, the mountains (we could see the Tararuas from the Outdoor Classroom), the grassy areas and even the compost.

We captured our ideas in our writing.

Already, we have begun to think more deeply Papatūānuku and where she can be found and experienced. Our explorations will continue next week!

Whanau Day

 Lots of the learners in Autahi were so excited to experience Whanau day at Worser Bay School yesterday. So in this Blog post I will explore what Whanau day is, how it works and the benefits we get from having them.

What is Whanau day?

Whanau day is an opportunity for us to work in a different way across the school. While we usually are split into our year groups, on Whanau day we mix things up and work in mixed groups with children from all classrooms. This mix of older and younger provides lots of opportunity for learning. If a child has whanau at the school, then they will be in the same group and be able to work together for the day.

During Whanau day we explore bigger concepts to do with Te Ao Maori, learning about the language, stories and culture of Aotearoa. Having a language rich environment with our skilled seniors helps our younger learners be exposed to new concepts and language. It provides an atmosphere where we can learn alongside our peers.

How does it work?

The school is mixed up into Whanau groups where they work in different spaces and with different teacher pairings. For teachers, it gives us the chance to work our colleagues in exciting ways. For learners, it helps to meet other teachers and students that they might not normally work with. In Autahi it is always exciting to hear back from learners who have had a great experience with new people.

Within these whanau groups we often work on projects across the day where we match up our older and younger learners to help support each other. Here are some examples of a three part art project we used to show the story of Ranginui and Papatuanuku

The benefits

Teamwork and Leadership stand out during Whanau day as we work vertically through the school. All students have the chance to share their learning and explore in different ways. Arts and music take centre stage as we explore new ways of sharing our learning.

We encourage you to talk to your child about their experience and to share some stories with you!