Celebrating our unique identities.

This term the notion 'We are all unique' has formed the central idea for our PYP inquiry into 'How we express ourselves.'  As part of this inquiry, we are engaging in a project with our newest girls around portraiture, which we believe will support them to form a unique identity within our classroom. We have been working with these girls to really ‘see’ themselves again.

Something that we keenly foster in our classroom is a ‘celebration of difference’ and the girls seem to have really been enjoying examining themselves as well as their friends, contrasting and comparing in a really positive manner. To begin we have invited the girls to draw their eyes, noses and mouths multiple times, with the use of mirrors. As you can see in the images which are displayed here, the girls have been enabled to achieve great detail with their drawings:

 "Knowing yourself is the beginning of all wisdom."
- Aristotle

Visiting Mrs McRae for Morning Tea.

Mrs McRae was very lucky today when ten little girls visited her for morning tea. As she was running a little late the girls got time to play some games before meeting her. 

Mrs McRae read them a story and they in turn told her about chapter 4 of the 

'Mrs Smith Bayes Bottomley' story.

 They visited her office and were intrigued by a little glass world globe that sits on her desk.

 

 We visited the top floor of School House and showed them where the girls bedrooms were in 1903. We explained that the staircase was the one that the girls sneak down at night and has squeaking floor boards that Mrs Smith Bayes Bottomley hears. 

The girls also viewed the rooms that we said were the girls bedrooms in our story.

 

 The school looks a little different from up high in School House!

 Mrs Smith, Joyce and Anika shared their musical talents in the old hall
to the delight of the dancers up on stage.

Resting under the trees.

Today the girls enjoyed their rest time under the trees. At first they were reluctant to put their blankets down on the ground as they were worried they would get them dirty. Isobella has decided that we should have rest time out there everyday until it's winter. Sounds like an interesting idea!

Mrs Patterson, who teaches upstairs spotted the girls and took a photo that gave an elevated view!

Happy New Year.

新年好
Happy   New   Year
(sin niyan how - phonetic pronounciation)

Thank you Corrine for helping us celebrate Chinese New Year.
Corrine brought us morning tea; mandarins, delicious biscuits, cranberries and apricots AND a special treat of a snake as 2013 is the year of the Snake!
The girls were very spoilt when Corrine gave each girl a beautiful red envelope with real gold coins in it. Also chocolate money! Lucky, lucky girls.
The red envelopes are given to children and young adults who are not married.
The Lantern Festival is being held in Auckland on the weekend of 22 - 24th of February at Albert Park. An event not to be missed!

Mt St John.

Yesterday we had our first walk to Mt St John. Our old girls were very eager to return to the mountain, and our new girls were very curious about what exactly a trip to Mt St John entailed. It wasn't long before we had reached the top, and the girls were able to busily explore all that Mt St John has to offer. 

We often reflect on just how beautiful Mt St John is, as well as how lucky we are to be able to visit this place each week. Mt St John is such a rich natural resource, and it is lovely to see the deep connection that the girls each develop with this place over time.

Here are some photos from our walk:

“Let Nature be your teacher.” 

– William Wordsworth

Our first swim of the term.

Today we had our first swim of the term! The girls have been looking forward to this from day one and so there was lots of excitement present as we made our way across to the pool.

Here are some photos from our session in the water:

Beautiful sunflowers.

Have you noticed the beautiful sunflowers that are growing in our garden? These have really captured the girls interest. The girls have been discussing ideas such as how some of the sunflowers are really tall, while others a much shorter.

On Monday we invited the girls to draw their own sunflowers using sketching pencils followed by black marker pens. To finish, the girls added dye and water colours.

We had several sunflowers for the girls to handle and look closely at, prior to drawing them and it was fascinating to listen to the way in which the children noticed the intricate details of the flowers. "The leaves are spiky on the edges!" shared Jenesis, and "they have lots and lots of petals" offered Eloise.

Several of the girls wondered if they would even be able to draw a sunflower at all, and it seemed that having the sunflowers in front of them to engage with supported them through the experience.

When it came time to draw the flowers, the girls worked exceptionally hard, really taking their time. All of the girls were able to achieve great detail, and it was beautiful to observe the way in which several of our new girls really celebrated the work that they had done.

Photo taken by Sophie

Artist: Anika

Artist: Eloise

Artist: Emma

Artist: Isobella

Artist: Jenesis

Artist: Joyce

Artist: Luca

Artist: Karsimar

Artist: Kate

Artist: Sophie

Artist: Lutie

Artist: Zoe