Gallery Seven Journal - Term 1, Week 8 and 9

Katelyn was our Kowhai Express Star this week

She got her award for being an engaged learner who is working hard to improve her writing.

We continued our discussions about space and we talked about New Zealand and Earth. We have lots of ideas about New Zealand and lots of questions too!

Over the last two weeks we completed some paintings, this time it was a painting that used lots of water. When we used the water with the paint the colours mixed together. We had to let the paint dry once we had painted our background before we could finish our painting. We think they look awesome.

Te Atahaia was our Artisan of the week, she got her award for being a super EXPRESS learner.

Zac was our Kowhai Express Star for week 9, he got his award for effort, persistence and improvement in reading and writing.

It was Jump Jam Mufti Day on Friday we dressed up as our favourite Jump Jam characters. We drew portraits of ourselves.

 

 

Gallery Seven Journal - Term 1, Week 7

Amber was our Kowhai Express Star this week, she got her award for effort and persistence with a smile in all areas of class learning.

This week we practiced our brush control during exploration , trying hard to paint inside the lines, it took a lot of patience and concentration.

 This week we read a big book called ‘Going to the Moon’, it is about a mouse that packs his bags and goes off on his bike to see the moon. It made us think about space and all the things we know and all the things we would like to know. We drew pictures, wrote and talked about space.

William was our Artisan of the week this week, he got his award for being engaged in classroom learning and sharing his ideas about space and New Zealand.

 

 

Gallery Seven Journal - Term 1, Week 6

Joe was our Kowhai Express Star this week, he received the award for being an engaged student who can share and justify his ideas. 

This week we did an art activity which involved tinting using white in order to get different shades of the same colour. We also experimented with tinting to work out what colours primary colours make when mixed together.

We continued to work on observational drawing and this week we drew our own hand which was quite difficult.

Joe found an egg outside his house underneath a tree. It was blue and broken.

Some of us have been playing with the multilink a lot in class seeing how far they will reach when they are all connected. It stretched halfway around the room. WOW!

We also had our Kowhai fun afternoon, there were challenges, races, bubbles and a fire engine. The fire fighters sprayed us with the big hoses, it was fun!

Daniel was our Artisan of the week, he got his award for sharing his thoughts and ideas with the class.

 

Gallery Seven Journal - Term 1, Week 5

Mollie was our Kowhai Express Star this week, she received the award for being an engaged student who always tries her best.

Gallery Seven won the Kowhai shield this week at assembly for showing good manners and singing beautifully.

This week Michael Holland came and visited us he is a full time artist, who creates huge amazing artworks with lots of detail in them. One of his paintings were full of boats and we had to try and count how many their were, there were a lot. Sam won a small painting by Michael because he counted the closest.

We really liked the bubbles in Michaels paintings, so we experimented with how you get the different shades, we tried using different pressures on our brushes, adding water and adding white paint.

Tiger-Lilly  was our Artisan of the week, she got her award for being and engaged student who always tries hard to improve and achieve.

 

Gallery Seven Journal -Term1, Week4

Tyler received our Kowhai Express Star award this week for being a self managing student who always makes good choices.

We learnt that our pencil can make lots of different marks depending on how we use it.

We used the marks we learnt about to do observational  drawings of a shell.

Emily was our Artisan of the week, she got her award for being observant and drawing what she can see.

 

Gallery Seven Journal - Term 1, Week 3

 

Miss Bell was sick this week and she was away for the first three days, so we had three different teachers, we had Mrs Gill, Mrs Chambers and Mrs Neal. We did all sorts of things with these teachers including make clocks with little mice for the nursery rhyme Hickory dickory dock, we made pasta stars and created graphs about our birthdays and our favourite ice creams. On Wednesday we went outside and drew pictures of trees and wrote stories about what we could see. In the afternoon Mrs Neal asked us to make trees using classroom equipment, it was quite tricky but these are our trees.

 

Gallery Seven Journal - Term1, Week2

Phoebe was our Kowhai Express Star this week, she received her award for being an engaged learner, especially during writing activities.

This week we had a look at some paintings by Cezanne, he liked to paint fruit and jugs and wrinkly table cloths that we think  would be hard to draw and paint. Miss Bell brought some fruit to school and we had a go at drawing some of them, We had to work hard to draw what we could see and not what we thought things looked like. 

Sam brought a Crab to school that he found while he was on holiday. It was great you could see the nippers, legs and tail. It was a purple colour.

Jaxson’s Aunty B came to visit us on Thursday, she is an artist and is studying art. She brought photo of lots of different types of artworks she has completed. She draws, paints, collages and work in fabric and sculpture as well.  Her art work was incredible and we got to ask her some questions. We thought the collage she had done was really funny, so we had a go as well.

We also had a go at doing an observational  drawing of an alstroemeria bloom, we are still working hard to draw what we can see.

Mrs Brickwood also sent us some photos of artworks that her second cousin, Rebekah Codlin,  created, they are amazing.

Our Artisan of the week this week was Emily, she got her certificate for  being observant and drawing what she can see.

 

 

Gallery Seven Journal - Term 1, Week 1

There are 20 children in Room 7 and our classroom is called Gallery Seven.

 

On Monday we made our classroom logo by using lots of different equipment to make the letters for gallery seven.

 

We talked about what things we needed to do in Gallery Seven to make Gallery Seven a safe and happy place for everyone to be. We came up with some guidelines which Miss Bell put on  a canvas and then we all did a handprint around the outside to show they were ours.

 

We have decided that we would like to learn about artists and how to paint properly. Jaxson and Joe found some art books on the library shelf and tried drawing some pictures out of it, we also drew our self portraits for our CD frames and created an unusual pet using vivid and dye after reading Heironymous Betts and his unusual pets.

 

Jacob was our Artisan this week he got his award for being a self managing and engaged student who always tries his best.

 

Gallery Seven Journal - Term 2, Week 9

This week we explored Rangoli patterns, they are patterns from India . We saw some similarities with Kowhaiwhai patterns and somethings that made them different. We attempted to create Rangoli patterns with  crayon and chalk pastels, we are looking forward to trying to create them using coloured salt.

We  also spent time creating Jo’s , heart and lungs. Along the way we discovered things about the tongue, brain and  the skin as well.

Gallery Seven Journal - Week 7 & 8, Term2

Week seven turned out to be a very short week, Monday was Queens birthday and then we had a snow day. During week seven some of us started looking at the skeleton we, drew and wrote about all the things we knew and then we looked through books. Did you know that the human body has 206 bones in it. We made some of the bones in the body, named them and stuck them inside Jo’s outline.

Some people made cardboard prints using cut outs of Kowhaiwhai patterns. We put a piece of paper on top of them and then rubbed them with crayon.

On Wednesday it snowed and on Thursday it froze. This is what school looked like at 8 am on Wednesday morning! Brrrrrrr!!!!!!

We read the big book Pirate Polly. It is about Pirate Polly who sails the seas and isn’t afraid of anything. We had to create a creature that we thought  might be scarier enough to scare Pirate Polly. Kyla drew a kowhaiwhai creature and some other people thought this was a great idea and added kowhaiwhai patterns to their creatures to.

Keira and Sean were our Kowhai Express Stars this week, they both got their awards for being persistent and experimental in their creation of kowhaiwhai patterns. We behaved very well in assembly and won the Kowhai shield, Yay!

Shawn’s mum made this really cool Papier-mache Triceratops, Shawn helped his mum with some of it.

We had a go at doing ink prints using the cardboard blocks that we made last week, it took a wee while to get them right, but they do look great.

Miss Bell told us a story about Tuterakihaunoa, a kaitiaki(guardian) Taniwha that lives in Te Waihora and the Rakaia river. We used the internet to find out about Taniwha’s and then we had a go at creating our own. We tried to use Kowhaiwhai patterns to make them and the environment around them.

Quinn and Shawn were our artisans of the week. They got their awards for being persistent and experimental in their creation of Taniwha’s, utilising kowhaiwhai patterns.

Gallery Seven Journal- Week 6, Term2

This week we continued to explore kowhaiwhai patterns in art. We continued to paint, use pastels and mould clay. Some of us also had a go at weaving kowhaiwhai patterns using gutter guard and fabric off cuts. It was quite tricky but we kept trying. Some of us joined large pieces of paper together and worked as a group to create large kowhaiwhai patterns.

We also started learning a bit more about what is inside the human body. We put together the digestive system on Jo, using things from our classroom equipment. We also started finding out about the skeleton.

We went into Rata’s sensory room and got to interact with lots of material it was heaps of fun and very noisy. We jumped on bubble wrap, bashed and crashed and cracked things and played games together.

Keira and Thomas performed in a  concert at school playing their recorders. They played two songs and they did a very good job.

Quinn was chosen to join some other children from Kowhai to put some leaf prints under our railway spike.

Alicya and Sean were our artisans of the week. Sean got his for taking interesting photos to document

our Reggio Exploration time and Alicya  got her for being persistent in her attempts to weave kowhaiwhai patterns.

Noah got a special award from Ms Swanson for his efforts during reading.

Gallery Seven News - Term 2, week5

Bradley and Molly were our Kowhai Express stars this week. Bradley got his for working well with others and showing persistence  during dinosaur art time and Molly got hers for being experimental and  persistent in her exploration  of Kowhaiwhai patterns.

This week Harold giraffe and Bex visited us at school. We got to go into their big trailer and learn about the fact that we are all special. Harold sang us some funny songs and we saw a movie of him playing with his friends. We got to play with puppets and role played helping someone who was sad.

We have continued to explore kowhaiwhai patterns this week and we  been spotting them everywhere. Alicya found this picture in a dictionary, she thought they looked like korus, but they are actually part of a Rangoli pattern which are from India.

Thomas found Koru’s on his biscuit at read and feed time.

This week we added new materials to how we explored the Kowhaiwhai patterns, some of us used tablet paints which we mixed with water, this allowed us to blend and mix the colours like we were doing with the chalk pastels. Some children have created plans to make a sculpture using clay and have started work on these. On Thursday we read some Maori myths and legends, Gavin Bishop a NewZealand artist had done the illustrations. It looked like he had used, crayon and dye, the pictures were awesome so some of us are experimenting with that and using dye over the pastels.

We were on assembly with our buddy class, this week. We took our completed sculptures to the assembly, we were excited to hare them with everyone.

Emelia and Jasmine were our Artisans of the week. They both got their awards for Being experimental and resourceful in their exploration of  Kowhaiwhai patterns.

Some of their artwork on black paper is shown above.

Gallery Seven News - Term2, Week 4

This week Shaun and Kyla were our Kowhai Express Stars. Shaun was a star for being an experimental learner who is developing good self management skills and Kyla got hers for being an engaged and persistent learner in all areas of class learning.  We also won the Kowhai shield at assembly, YAY!

This week we painted our Ankylosaurus sculpture the colours we chose last week . On Tuesday afternoon Mr and Mrs Cooks came in with some

e-monitors and took some film of us painting and doing other activities in the classroom. On Friday we finished painting him except for his eyes. We think he looks cool and we are looking forward to sharing him at next weeks assembly.

We  continued to explore kowhaiwhai patterns this week. We had a go at using chalk pastels and blending them, adding black outlines and adding white over the tops of other colours. We have been enjoying  working together on one artwork  and working on an artwork over a number of days. Some of us are wanting to explore these patterns using paint and some of us are wanting to make 3D kowhai.

Crystal did some great chalk art outside the other day, she drew a picture of the Earth and then on one side she drew the moon and on the other the sun, it was very well done.

During reading this week Quinn read a book about electricity this is, is a power station that he created after reading it, it had wind turbines and he could show how the power travelled around.

Noah and Zoe were our Artisans of the week. Noah got his for developing self-management skills and be an engaged and persistent reader, and Zoe got hers for being engaged and showing persistence in all areas of learning.

Gallery Seven News - Term 2, Week 3

Eve and Gabriella were our Kowhai Express Stars this week. Eve got her award for being an engaged and self-managing learner and Gabriella got hers for being an engaged and persistent learner who strives for excellence.

This week we decided what colour we are going to paint Ankylosaurus. We all got to colour in an outline to show what colour we would like to see him painted. When they were finished we all got one sticker and placed it on the colour combination we liked best. We have decided that Ankylosaurus will be browns and black.

This week Shawn’s reading group read a book about pedals. In it was a picture of a very cool pedal car. When Shawn got home he made a model of the pedal car using Clikko. It looked very much like the one in the book.

 Room 11 has been learning about flight and Mrs Hill brought some big lanterns that looked like little hot air balloons to fly. Mr Hill  helped light them and we watched them fill with hot air and rise.

We found this really cool leaf bug on someone as we came into class the other day. It kept hopping onto different people. It was quite small and bright green, we put it on a plant outside where it could camouflage itself.

We have been reading some Myth and Legends about where the Earth and people came from.  We read the story about Rangi and Papa and how Tane pushed them apart.  Thomas noticed that there were some cool Maori patterns in some of the pictures, these are called kowhaiwhai. Miss Bell drew some of them out for us and we practiced copying them on different shaped pieces of paper.  Later in the week we drew some patterns with chalk outside on the concrete we worked together adding shapes onto each others to make a big art work..

Harriet and Matt were our Artisans of the weeks. Matt got his for being an engaged and enthusiastic learner who gives everything a go and Harriet got hers for being an experimental learner who works well and enjoys working with others.

Gallery Seven News -Term 2, Week 2

Crystal and Ashton were our Kowhai Express Star winner this week. Crystal got her award for being an engaged learner who always tries her best  and Ashton got his for developing good self-management skills.

A lot of progress is being made on our school playground at the moment. The other day we went outside to see them install and large concrete rail road spike with Kowhai written on it. There is one for each of the teams at our school. We can also see that our playground has a tunnel and a hill. We can’t wait to play on it.

Our Artisans of the week were Jasmine and Shawn. Jasmine got hers for being and experimental and excellent learner in all areas of class learning and Shawn got his for being engaged in all class learning and sharing his amazing ideas with the class.

Gallery Seven News -Term 2, Week1

We had a very busy first week back and it was short because we remembered the ANZAC’s on Wednesday. It was book week this week and we had teachers from other classrooms come and visit us  and read stories it was really cool. On Friday we got to dress up as our favourite book characters we came as lots of different things.

We also started thinking about what makes someone beautiful.

Mr Morrall announced the winners for the
Express Train Ride and Jasmine has been picked to go on this adventure, we are proud of her.

Gallery Seven News - Term 1, Week 10, 2012

Alicya and Jewels were our Kowhai Express Stars this week. Alicya got her award for being an engaged learner who always strives for excellence and Jewels got his for being a thoughtful student who welcomes visitors and thanks those who help him without prompting.

This week has been all about dinosaurs, we made dinosaurs,  wrote about dinosaurs, read dinosaurs and had fun with dinosaurs. Some of the things we did this week were, bake dinosaur cakes, make a dinosaur cove with an erupting volcano, made fossils of shells, became palaeontologist smashing stone to find dinosaurs, taught some children from Bright Beginnings Montessori Preschool about some things we had learnt about dinosaurs, worked on our papier mache Ankylosaurus and ate a giant chocolate

T-Rex dinosaur egg.

This week the Artisan award went to all of the students of Gallery Seven for being engaged, persistent and resourceful  students who are beginning to independently acknowledge and thank those who help them on their learning journey.

Gallery Seven News - Term1, Week 9

Rolleston School Wheels Week!

This week everything was about wheels, check out the photos and see all the wheels that visited our school!

We also had our photo taken the Rugby World Cup!!

 

Lucia and Quinn were our Artisans of the week. Lucia got her for being persistent and striving for excellence in all areas of class learning and Quinn got his for being engaged in all class learning and confidently sharing his mihi with the class.