Lavender paintings.

Aren't these lavender paintings that the girls have been working on beautiful? It has been fascinating to observe as the girls have been drawing inspiration from the provocations which we have been presenting them with. They have been carefully examining the pictures which we put alongside the painting easel, and remembering to look and look again, to truly capture the detail of the subject.

Artist: Vanessa

Artist: Zoe

Artist: Kaitlyn

Artist: McKenna

Artist: Zara

"Painting is the most magical of mediums!"

- Chuck Close

"A neighbourhood is made of..."

"A neighbourhood is made of houses and trees!" - Zara

"It's full of people...of...well, it's full of friends!" - Kaitlyn

"...And old people too!" - Paige

"A neighbourhood is full of animals." - Sophie

"You find cars in neighbourhoods too." - Paige

"In my neighbourhood there's a park with monkey bars and I'm really good at climbing them all by myself!" - Zara

"Well, in my neighbourhood there's a shop and sometimes I get ice creams from there. I ride there on my scooter." - Anika

"I've got two neighbours. A man...and a lady. They're grown ups, but I don't know their names. I'll ask them their names next time I see them." - Paige

"In my neighbourhood I had a stall with my sister. We wrote letters and decorated them and put them in all the mailboxes. We sold cupcakes with white icing and shiny silver balls. And...WE MADE PAST 100 DOLLARS!" - Sophie

"In my neighbourhood I have a neighbour who is bigger than me. Her name is Courtney and she is ten. We play tag and hide'n'seek! We ride on our bikes and we go to each others houses."

 - Kaitlyn

"In my neighbourhood is a mountain...Mount Eden. I've been up there at night time and seen all of the city lights and the sky tower flashing!" - Zoe

A different perspective.

Chloé, McKenna, Emma, Vanessa, Alice and Emily's adventure took them along Margot St and up Mt St John Road. 

The first discovery that they made was when the numbers on the letterboxes didn't go up from one number to the next! It wasn't long before they spotted that the next number was across the street. The conversation developed from there, to odd and even numbers and counting in two's. Although, the highlight of the walk may have been the cats that were befriended on the way and the swing hanging from the tree on the grass verge!

This walk has inspired lots of the girls work in class. This plan of our Diocesan neighbourhood was hard work!

 "Design is not the narrow application of formal skills, it is a way of thinking."
-  Chris Pullman

Our 'neighbourhood'.

As an extension of our walk around our local community in search of letterbox numbers, some of the girls worked to create drawings of our school 'neighbourhood'. 

Here are some of their pictures:

Artist: Kaitlyn

Artist: Paige

Artist: Sophie

Artist: Zara

Artist: Anika

Following on from this the girls worked to create a three dimensional representation of our school neighbourhood. It was a pleasure to observe the collaboration which took place and the beautiful way in which the girls put forward their ideas and listened to one another. When it came time to suspend Sophie's plane, "high above the buildings" lots of thinking and problem solving was required. After suggestions of using string and cardboard, and realizing these would not work, Sophie came up with the idea of using wire. This did just the trick! 

Our Mad Hatter's Tea Party.

Today we celebrated our Mad Hatter's Morning Tea Party with the rest of the Junior School. At 10am we made our way to Old School House Lawn, where we enjoyed a picnic morning tea. We also had the pleasure of participating in and observing the Mad Hat parade. This enabled us to show off our hats, and also enjoy looking at all of the other hats too. They were all incredible! 

We hope that you enjoy these pictures. It was a very colourful occasion!

"If I had a world of my own, everything would be nonsense. Nothing would be what it is because everything would be what it isn't. And contrary-wise; what it is it wouldn't be, and what it wouldn't be, it would. You see?"

- Alice (From Alice In Wonderland)

Do Re Mi...

Alice and Emma are both learning piano, and today we decided to visit the hall so that they could share some of what they are learning with us all. This was a very joyful occasion, where we sang 'Mary Had a Little Lamb' and 'Do Re Mi' together as Alice played.

We love to celebrate the skills and talents that each of us have. It was beautiful to see how the girls erupted in applause when Alice and Emma had finished sharing with us.

Morning tea with Ms McRae - Thursday 10th of May 2012