A visit to Pah Homestead

For those of you who haven't been yet, Pah Homestead is a wonderful place to visit and view art 

... and the cafe looks particularly stunning! The children were very engaged in the experience and showed great interest in the different sculptures on display.

When we first arrived the children were spoilt for choice and they ran from one to another, 

marveling at different aspects of each sculpture.

The sculptures were quite different so it was good to see a variety of sculptures in such a small space. 

The girls took particular attention of certain body parts they noticed!

The girls were very interested in what the sculptures were made of. They tapped them to listen to the sounds they made and then they would say 'this is tin, or wood or plastic'. They also showed this interest when we visited Filipe's sculptures at the beginning of our inquiry.

 

We wondered what these sculptures were looking at? 

"Look the eggs are sitting on bikes... why did they want to go there?"

 

Féline was very taken with her reflection that she could see in one of the sculptures.

Olivia noticed the height of this sculpture and she tried to work out

how tall it was. She thought it was about as tall as her dad.

Our viewing was followed by some serious sketching...

We then ventured inside the gallery to have a look around...

 What a wonderful experience we had together at Pah Homestead. The girls were so engaged in the experience and were a credit to you all. We believe this opportunity has provided more depth to our inquiry and we know we will enjoy revisiting these experiences over the next few days.

 

The Statue of Liberty ... as inspiration for thinking and creating

As we continue to get inspiration from famous sculptures and we
look at landmarks around the world,
the girls have been trying their hand at drawing them.

The girls found it interesting to look at pictures on the internet of the Statue of Liberty on
Liberty Island in New York Harbour.

We talked about the sculptor being French - Frederic Bartholdi - and that it was a gift from the people of France to the people of America.

Both Dakota and Jacqui made connections with the Statue straight away.
“My mum lived there”, said Dakota
“...and my mum went to visit it when she was on her holiday without me” said Jacqui

Getting the girls to think about how the Statue has one arm up holding a torch, and one arm down holding a book, was a very difficult idea for them to grasp. They had to work very hard and have several attempts until they were satisfied with their work. We believe that supporting children to work outside their comfort zone, and stretch their thinking, helps build resilience and perseverance.
Both great attributes to have in life!

Serendipity!

Today when we were getting ready for our walk to Mt St John, the girls realised that their gumboots were wet inside. At the risk of getting their flash tights dirty that they had worn for 

mufti day, we opted to go for a walk over to Dilworth School.

Some girls were excited, others were apprehensive. 

"But there will be boys there and I don't like boys" said Jacqui 

(her parents will be pleased to hear that).

What a wonderful adventure we had!

First we stopped at the office to ask permission before venturing up the pathway. 

Anna called out in an excited voice "look, there's a sculpture",

and she pointed out a cross she could see.

Examining the cross; it's shape, the designs and pictures on it, engaged the girls for a long time.

Then one of the teachers who was walking past (perhaps he was the Principal?), stopped to talk to the girls and he was able to tell us about the cross. He explained that it is a replica of a cross that is from 

Donaghmore, near Ulster in Ireland. 

The founder of the school, James Dilworth, used to walk past this cross 

every morning on his way to school.

He told us that one side of the cross showed stories from the Old Testament, and the other side showed stories from the New Testament. Although this explanation was a 

little beyond the girls understanding

we hoped that it lent to their overall knowledge building, that sculptures often have 

stories and explanations about them.

 

We were then invited to go further up the driveway to look at the gateway into the quad area - a Maori waharoa. The girls were able to make a connection from the carving in the middle - hei tiki (a carving of a human form), to the ones that they had been looking at and sketching at school.

 

And we met Mr James Dilworth!

 ...and we met a dog!

We visited their chapel...

Oh... and there was a lovely tree for climbing!

... and bugs to find

We had a wonderful walk and it has provided us with some interesting ideas to follow up.

We will take the girls back again over the next few weeks to do some sketching 

of these interesting sculptures and landmarks.