Building our artist's toolkit.

In Autahi, Creativity is a Character Strength that we see on a daily basis. Our children are never short of ideas for things they would like to make, build and draw. Our role is often to provide opportunities for all our students to develop specific art skills that they will be able to use to enhance their creations. We are also keen to make sure that everybody, wherever they are in their development as an artist, has a chance to create art that is fun to make and satisfying to look at.

Our latest project in Autahi takes inspiration from Kandinsky's Circles. Our artists' first challenge was to draw the concentric circles that form the basis of their art piece. Drawing large circles is tricky! We practised on our whiteboards and then, when we felt ready, used our soft sketching pencils to draw the circles on paper.

Once we had our circles, it was time to consider our colour choices. For this, we needed to use our artist's skill of observation. We looked at some photos of the bush and noticed the colours that were there - and those that were not. We created a colour pallet for our work by marking these on a colour chart.

Now, time to make our colours. We practised making the greens, browns and oranges that we needed by mixing together the primary colours of red, yellow and blue. Colour mixing takes practice, especially to achieve very specific shades.

Now time to paint! We had to be careful to keep inside the circle lines that we had drawn so that the layer by layer colour rings could be seen. We also had to make careful choices about colour combinations. 

We are pretty excited by how our art looks so far.

The next step will be to create a background for our circles and combine the individual panels.

Watch out for our finished art piece in Autahi soon!

Whānau Day - Tāne and the Baskets of Knowledge

On Friday, we had our first whānau day of the year. This is an opportunity for mixed groups working together across the school and fostering Tuakana-teina Positive Relationships. Tuakana-teina is a concept from te ao Māori. It refers to the relationship between an older (tuakana) person and a younger (teina) person. It is when an older or more expert tuakana (brother, sister or cousin) helps and guides a younger or less expert teina. These roles can be reversed at any time as we see some of our younger students as leaders.

In our groups, we learnt the story of Tāne and the Baskets of Knowledge. We expressed our learning in lots of different ways. Ask us what we learnt...

Here is the story of Tāne

Crafting an Albatross

To tie in with our inquiry into Water this term we wanted to explore some of the creatures that live in and around the water.

We settled on an Albatross to explore for our art as it provided lots of different aspects we could bring together.

We started by sketching an Albatross 4 times to practise our technique. We used a 4 part sketch where each sketch is made with different information.

The 1st sketch is what you think an Albatross looks like

The 2nd sketch we looked at pictures of an Albatross 

The 3rd sketch we took feedback from a buddy. We shared something we liked and something we though they could try on their next sketch

The 4th sketch was made bringing all the elements together for an ultimate Albatross

       


Next we traced around an Albatross to use for our final art piece. Then we carefully cut around it and finally added detail like the shading on it's wings and the nostril hole, eye and beak.


               

The last stage was to make our background. We first experimented with colour mixing by adding white paint to blue to gradually make it lighter. We used sponges to dab our paint and added many layers to give our ocean a sense of movement and texture.

After folding a spring by weaving to pieces of paper, our Albatross were ready to take flight. Here they are soaring above our heads in the classroom.
The whole process came together over many days and I think you will agree when I say they look                                                            amazing.

Kindness Cards

It is very strange at the moment being away from all of our friends at school. 

I really miss seeing all your friendly faces and hearing your funny stories.

So this is a good time to think about someone who you could give a kindness card or drawing to. 

It might be someone in your bubble, or you could go for a walk and put it in the letterbox of a friend...? 

Here are a few ideas to get you started...

Draw a picture, write a letter, include some jokes, anything you like!

Then roll it up and tie it with a ribbon and place somewhere for them to find.

 Make an envelope, decorate it and put your letter inside. 

Put it in a friends letter box or somewhere for your family to find (like under a pillow!).

Don't forget to put their name on it!

Make some little cards with notes attached to a string and hang it somewhere for them to discover...

Or try making them a Warm Fuzzy Friend like this...it can have all of the things you like and miss about them written either on the front or back of it. 

Such a nice thing to receive.

Have a go at one of these...or try your own idea.

(Don't forget to put a photo of it on Seesaw so I can see what you create!)

Hayley xxx

Art Recreations

Even though we can't visit Museums and Art Galleries at the moment, we can still enjoy the art in other ways. People across the world have been recreating famous paintings. If you would like to add to our Art Gallery, please post your recreations to the Padlet below.

Make a quacky duck.

Try this craft and make a quacky duck card.

You will need a sheet of paper or thin card, pens and scissors.

First, fold the paper in half and in half again.

Now, open the paper out so that it is folded lengthways only with a fold in the middle. With your scissors, make a small cut around halfway between one edge and the middle fold.

Push the two sides of the cut back to make two little folds. This is your duck beak.

Next, open the paper out and refold it like a greetings card so that the duck beak is in the middle.

Gently push and pull the duck beak so that it folds out from the flat card. Now, when you open and close your card, the beak will move up and down.

Finally, it's time to decorate your card. Draw your duck's face and body around the beak. Add eyes and feathers. Now your duck is ready to get quacking!

Home Haircuts

Here's a home haircut to sharpen up your scissor skills.

Has someone in your family given you a haircut recently? Have you ever cut someone's hair?

Here's a chance to create a silly haircut and also practise cutting with scissors.

You will need:

• A pair of scissors
• Some pens
• The cardboard tube from inside kitchen roll or wrapping paper OR a paper bag

⚠ And remember to be safe:

• Cut with your scissors pointing away from your body.
• Hold things that you are cutting with 'thumbs up' to keep your thumbs safe.
• Carry scissors with the blades closed and pointing down to the ground (and always walk).

Tube Haircuts

Start by making lots of long, straight cuts along the length of your tube, stopping about 20 cm. before the end. You might want to ask for some help with this bit.

Next, turn your tube around so that the cut strips are at the top and the uncut part is at the bottom. Don't forget to draw a silly face on your tube.

Now your customer is ready for their haircut!

Use your scissors to trim your customer's 'hair' into a style that you like. Take your time over this. You can also blend and curl the cardboard to add extra shape. You are the stylist: have fun with it!



These guys ended up with quite short hair and they look pretty sharp with their new dos!

Paper Bag Haircuts

You can also give a paper bag a haircut.

Start with the open part of the bag at the top. If your bag has handles, cut them off.

Draw a funny face towards the bottom of the bag. Take care to leave a wide gap at the top.

Now, turn the bag around so that the open part is facing towards you. Chop lots of thin strips into the top of the bag. This is your customer's hair.

Time to open your salon and style some hair. Trip the paper strips and don't forget to fold and curl them to add some extra style. 

Now the make-over is finished. They look pretty pleased with their new haircuts!