Daffodil Day.

Here we all are pictured with our Daffodils. We purchased these in support of the Cancer Society. It has been such a beautiful day and we have been making the most of the sunshine by spending lots of time outside. 

Bring on Spring! 

Our visit to the Art Gallery & Cornwall Park.

Wow, yesterday was such an adventure! We all had a wonderful time visiting both the Art Gallery and Cornwall Park. There was so much to see at the Art Gallery, we probably could have spent many days there! Highlights were definitely the 'Flower Chandelier' sculpture hanging from the ceiling, which opened and closed, as well as the many beautiful portraits that we saw. 

At Cornwall Park we enjoyed our lunch in the sun. We did lots of running and climbing and went for a walk to see the tiny wee lambs. The daffodils looked lovely too. 

Here are some photos of our big day:

(Captions by Sophia & Mrs Smith)

We are running at the park.

We are looking at the pretty flowers.

It was a very nice garden.

This was a special sculpture of flowers.

Looking up at the 'Flower Chandelier'

There were so many big open spaces to move through at the gallery.

Inside the crazy mirror room.

We could see hundreds of each other!

This picture was moving!

Here we are doing sketches of the Maori people in Goldie's paintings.

Isobella gave some of the girls a lesson in how to draw Koru patterns.

Taking in the paintings.

Busy sketching more portraits. These ones were by both Goldie and Lindauer.

There was so much to see!

 Thank you to Stephanie for coming along with us!

Exploring emotions through portraiture.

Ria, Jenesis, Anika, McKenna and Zoe were set the challenge of trying to depict the emotion of sadness in their drawing. We began by discussing the way in which our facial features change when we are feeling sad, and also reflected on some photographs that we had taken of each other with sad faces. 

The girls worked very hard on their pictures and were so impressed with the final outcome. They discovered that if they angled their eye brows down, as well as their lips, then the face began to look very sad. Some of the girls experimented with adding tears to their picture, and enjoyed the fact that "even if you cover up the tears, it still looks sad!" (Anika)

Take a look at their pictures below:

Artist: Ria

Artist: McKenna

Artist: Zoe

Artist: Anika

Artist: Jenesis

"Your nose always stays the same...

...no matter how you feel." - McKenna

A conversation about how our facial expressions change with our emotions:

Sad

“Zoe, in your picture you look like you’re sad or something. Because, that’s what happens to your eyebrows when you’re sad, and well...your eyes change, they’re not the same anymore.” - Isobella

“Your mouth faces down when you’re sad and your eyebrows go down.” - McKenna

“And, and your eyes drop something down out of them. You know, like water.” - Jenesis

“It looks like rain drops and it tastes salty.” - McKenna

“They’re called tears. That’s what happens when you cry.” - Ria

“Your eyes will sometimes go pink and white too.” - Ria

Happy

“When you’re happy your face smiles. Your teeth show too.” - McKenna

“Yes, your cheeks lift up and your mouth looks like a half circle.” - Jenesis

“Your eyes close a little bit. Kind of like when you’re blinking.” - McKenna

Excited

“When you get excited your whole body shakes!” - Ria
“And...sometimes you show your teeth.” - Ria

Angry

“When you are angry your eyes scrunch up!” - Ria

“And when you get REALLY angry sometimes your whole face goes bright red.” - McKenna

“Your eyebrows make a ‘v’ shape.” - Jenesis

“Your mouth makes an oval shape.” - Ria

“You know, when i’m angry my eyes go like this (Looks down with a serious expression), I always look down.” - Jenesis

Art Exhibition

Some of the girls work will be on show at the exhibition. The exhibition opens on Wednesday evening from 5.30 - 7.30pm. Also open for viewing on Thursday and Friday.

Spring has nearly sprung!

We were delighted that it was such beautiful weather today for our walk up Mt St John. It was so sunny in fact that we thought we better wear our sunhats. It is becoming very clear that it is almost spring, as blossoms begin to appear and the weather warms up. We even spotted a couple of daffodils this morning.

Here are some photos from our adventure:

Some of us got to feed and stroke the friendly cows.

We shared in a lovely exchange with Tahi the dog and his owner Don. They go walking up Mt St John every week at the same time as us!

We did lots of running...

...and also bird watching. This week we spotted one Kereru and one Tui.

We found some great new climbing trees.

Emma thought the bark of the tree was really bumpy.

Sophia loves climbing trees!

On the way back to school we discovered some daffodils!

There are lots of buds forming. We can't wait to see them all in full bloom.

Our buddy morning tea.

Today we had a lovely time sharing in morning tea with our buddies. We worked hard to prepare and bake some love heart cookies with pink icing and sprinkles! These went down a treat. 

We enjoyed chatting to our buddies and working on different experiences with them here in our classroom. 

 

We hope you enjoy the photos of the girls pictured with their buddies. Unfortunately McKenna's buddy Vien was away today, so she partnered up with Jenesis' buddy as she was away today too.

 We have some questions for our buddies:

Did you enjoy the cookies that we made for you?

What do you enjoy most about being a buddy?

"Friends are the most important ingredient in this recipe of life."
- Author Unknown

How to paint a Kereru.

Seeing Kereru on Mt St John last week has become an inspiration for our paintings. Sophia helped Mrs Bayes this morning to mix the paints and get different shades of colours to match the feathers of the bird. The girls have once again been paying such careful attention to detail. Some of the girls have also been writing stories in response to their painting. Take a look at their beautiful art works.

 

Welcome baby Lucy a sister for Isobella.

Welcoming Song

Dance upon silver, dance upon gold

We have a baby one day old.

Dance on a peacock, dance on a pearl,

The baby's a sister, because it's a girl.

Dance upon velvet, dance upon silk,

It sleeps in its cradle and dreams about milk.

Dance upon butterflies, dance upon bells.

Its little curled hands are like little pink shells. 

It's name? the wind asks in a whispery tongue.

But it's name is a secret too dear to be sung.

Margot the Mascot visits the Foundation Class.

What excitement when Margot the Mascot turned up for a visit to the Foundation Class. It was like magic, one minute we were wanting to know where to find her, and the next minute she is down visiting us. She said she lives on Mt St John in a cave and she swims in the pond that forms 

in the crater. We will try and find her next time we are up on the mountain.
 

All dressed up.

Take a look at the different costumes we all wore today:

   

 

  

 

 Don't we look great!