Bugs & Insects

During our bugs and insects topic we had lots of opportunities to explore and learn what different bugs live in our green spaces and where they like to live. After researching different bugs and insects we chose the best bug and gave reasons why we would prefer to be that bug/insect. 

Check out our writing and some bug art that we did with them. 

For the art, we first had to carefully trace the bug/insect we chose. Then we used a vivid over the top of our pencil lines. We then used jumbo art crayons to colour our bug/insect. We tried to keep the colours similar to the real bug/insect. Once we finished colouring our bug/insect we then had 2 different shades of green dye which we used to dye the background. Finally, we glued a picture of our face in the correct spot. 

If you got to choose to be a bug/insect for a day, what would you choose to be? Share your answer in the comments below. 

2022 - Wallace Class

Kia Ora and welcome back,  

Wallace Class 

This year our class has been named after the amazing mosaic artisit Sue Wallace. 

A little bit about our class artist:

Where: Sue lives rurally in Okaihau 

Inspiration: She gets her inspiration from the farmland, coastline, animals, birds, plants and her garden

Material/medium: She likes to work with old china and recycled products, ceramic, glass, stained glass and glass beads

Where can you find her work: She sells at local markets and last year she started selling at the Cruise Ship Markets in Paihia over the summer season. When time permits she also sells in Whangarei and Auckland markets

Some of her work:

  

We look forward to being inspired to create art pieces from her work. 

If you wish to learn more about here or see more of her work check out her website: www.piecebypiecemosaics.nz

Be sure to check back to see what we have been learning throughout the year. 

Nature art take 2

After popular demand we bought back the nature art task for a previous lockdown. 

Check out the original post here. 

Here are the instructions for the activity.

Reasons why we enjoy this activity: 
We get to go outside

It's like a scavenger hunt

We get to make patterns

It linked to our class artist's style (Fiona Kerr Gedson) using mandalas

It's free, we don't have to buy anything

We get to be creative with different colours and shapes 

We can get our family involved

Before going out Mrs Patel had a session with us about how to find things in nature. 

We had to remember: 
- not to pick off trees/plants

- return everything back to nature

- create the piece of art out in nature

- not destroying homes of animals/birds (nest, bug hotels ect) 

Check out our nature art creations from this year: 

Why don't you give it a go? Share your creations with us. We would love to see what you come up with. 

Roll a Picasso drawing

Following on from our Roll-a-monster we decided to have another go, this time we tried out Roll-a-Picasso. We all put our artistic hats on and got going. 

We had some cool funky creations. Check them out: 

If you would like to have a go check out our class site for the instructions. 

Roll-a-monster

We have really been enjoying the Roll a.... activity during distance learning. There are so many possibilities and we end up with such creative funky pieces of art. 

Check out our class site with more Roll a.... activities 

Here are the funky monsters we created. Some of our monsters even have a story to go with. 

Why don't you have a go? Check our class site for the instructions.

Gedson Mandal art

Our class is named after an amazing New Zealand artist by the name of Fiona Kerr Gedson.

To learn more about her or see some of her work check out our class site: Gedson Class Site

After being inspired by her we decided to learn more about Mandal's and how to create them. We watched some videos, read some websites and practiced a lot of colouring in. 

Check out our Mandal pieces of art we created. We used Crayon and dye. And we worked with warm and cool colours. 

      

Can you spot the warm and cool colours? 

Stick insects

Once we got back to school after the April Lockdown we did a mini-unit on stick insects. 

First, we read a big book called Stick Insects by Dawn McMillan. 

You can find the story and our learning activities here. 

After reading the book we complete lots of different activities. 

For 1 activity we did our own drawing of a stick insect and labeled all the different parts. 

Here are the keywords we used:

• antennae (feelers)
• thorax
• abdomen
• legs
• head

We then looked at the life cycle of a stick insect. We learnt some big words such as 

• antennae

• camouflage

• nymph

• moulting

Using all our learning we then made stick insects using real sticks. We had to think about all the different parts of a stick insect and how stick insects camouflage. 

Check out our camouflaged stick insects:

Nature Art

Challenge # 19

Our challenge was inspired by:

Andy Goldsworthy

We watched a few videos and analysed some photos of his work. During our Google Meet video call we brainstormed what we noticed about his artwork. Here are a few points we made:

Here is a link to our challenge.

Check out our cool creations: 

During lockdown this has probably been one of our most exciting challenges. We enjoyed it because we could get the whole family involved and go outside on the bright sunny days we had. 

It's easy, why don't you give it a go? 

Ponder this: 

Do you think the different seasons affect the types of artwork you can make? 

Discovery Box

Challenge # 18

What is a discovery box: A discovery box is made up of things that represent something or someone.

What do you put in a discovery box: Anything that you think represents you or the topic. This could include flowers, pictures, accessories, photos, drawings, clothing items, flag, ornaments.

Create task:
Find things around the house to make a discovery box about our culture or where our family is from.

Diverse cultures in our class: Afganistan, New Zealand, Indian, Muslim, Hindu, Tongan, Samoan, Fijian, Filipino, Bengali, Somalian, Persian, Rohingya.

Get creative to make your discovery box. If you can't find things around your house, you could: 

- Draw some things on paper.

- Find photos online and make a collage. 

- Take photos around your house.

Check out our discovery boxes. We had a lot of fun scavenging around the house and the internet.

What would you include in your discovery box?

Te Reo Lesson 1 - My home

Kaupapa - ‘Tōku Kainga’ - My home

Whainga paetae - The student will learn the kupu used for the outside/exterior of their home/house.

Have a look at drawings of our houses with labels:

Diversity Celebrations

Challenge # 11

As part of our diversity unit, we had a look at all the different celebrations our class members have. 

Our task was to draw a picture of our favourite celebration and label it.

Take a look at our creations: 

In our class we have children that belong to the following cultural groups:

Samoan

New Zealander

Philippino

Tongan 

Indian 

Afghanistan 

Fijian 

Ethiopian 

Russian 

Rohingya

What cultural group do you belong to?

What is your favourite celebration in your culture? 

Favourite toy explanation

Challenge #12

Following on from our Funday Friday crazy hair day we had a bring along your favourite toy day. 

Everyone brought their favourite toy to our Google Meet video call. We all had the opportunity to share something about our favourite toy. Then we had some questions Miss Mangabhai gave us to guide our writing. 

The questions here:
Where did you get it from? Who gave it to you? What is the name of your toy? Why is this your favourite toy?

We had to make sure we used full sentences when answering the questions.

Check out our responses:

Have you got a favourite toy? Share in the comments telling us about your favourite toy. You can use the questions to help you.

Crazy hair/hat day!

On Thursday 26th March New Zealand went into lockdown. It had been 4 weeks and we still weren't allowed to go to school and play with our friends. We all missed having fun with our classmates. 

So Miss Mangabhai decided for our first Funday Friday during lockdown we would do a crazy hair/hat day via our Google Meet video calls. 

It was super fun. Our only criteria was to get creative with the things we could find around our house. 

Check out our crazy creations! 

“If it’s not fun, you’re not doing it right.” – Bob Basso

Step by step animal drawings

Challenge # 2

Drawing animals can be tricky at times. 

Miss Mangabhai found a range of step by step instructions on how to draw different animals. 

We followed the step by step instructions to draw an animal of our choice and then wrote a story about our animals. 

Check them out: 




You can find the step by step drawings here on our Class Site.

Why don't you give it a go? We would love to see what you come up with. 

Our class artist

Danny Rae

Our class artist Danny Rae is a self-taught artist who grew up in Whangarei Heads, New Zealand. She is currently living in London, UK. 

We found her on the Whangarei Heads arts trail.

Rae creates her art pieces using polymer clay, which is an unusual medium. She creates entirely unique and detailed pieces that are textured and have a subtle 3D effect.

Here are the steps Danny Rae takes to create her design pieces: 

Rae finds inspiration in native flora and fauna, with most of her pieces featuring New Zealand birds. Now that she is living in the UK she expects to create work inspired locally as well as from her travels in Central and South America. Her pieces are held in private collections around New Zealand, Australia and the UK.

You can find more of her work on her Whangarei Heads page. 

We chose Danny Rae as our class artist as she uses bright colours, New Zealand birds as her inspiration and clay which is an unusual medium. We look forward to being inspired by her work and creating great pieces of art. 

Watch this space to see our creations! 

Recycling station

This term our concept focus has been sustainability. We have chosen to focus on environmental sustainability, in particular to ensure that:

'We're tidy kiwis and we promise to put litter in its place!'

We learnt about where our rubbish (which we throw in the general rubbish bin) ends up.

Once the rubbish truck picks up our rubbish they take it to the landfill. Here rubbish can take 1000's of years to decompose (break down). 

Illustration by Jason

So we decided we needed to do something to make sure we send as little rubbish to the landfill as possible. We created a rubbish station in our class to sort our rubbish into the correct bins. 

Our 5 bins are: 

• Organic (goes to our school worm farm) 
• Plastic (Some goes to Countdown for soft plastic recycling) 
• Aluminum 
• Paper & cardboard (goes to the recycling center) 
• General rubbish (goes to the landfill) 

As you can see the General rubbish bin now has less rubbish, and our rubbish is being redirected to be reused and recycled.

We hope more people realise how important our environment is, and try to do their bit to reduce, reuse and recycle. 

Winter writing and art

Brrr it's cold!!!
It sure is cold out there. So we decided to write about our favorite thing to do in winter.
Some of us used our 5 senses (feel, taste, hear, look and smell) to describe winter.

We used crayon and dye to create our art pieces.

We hope you enjoy reading our winter writing pieces.

Matariki Art

Happy Matariki! 

As part of our Matariki celebration we designed and created holographic stars to show the arrival of Matariki. 

Holographic: when something looks 3D. 

We hope you enjoy our creations. They have lit up our classroom. 

How many stars are in the Matariki cluster?