The Suter Art Gallery Trip

The REACH group have been going to The Suter Art Gallery every Tuesday since week one of term 3. We're learning about building communities through art. During the first session we looked at some artwork associated with the word "infill." Ester (our art teacher) showed us all the paintings and sculptures. There was a suitcase with clothing and sunglasses on the outside of it. There was also some white tomato plants that looked like they were mirrored. We guessed what the word "infill" meant. Infill means to fill a space. near the end we got into groups of three and made some stuff with copper. It was really tricky! On the second session we looked at sculptures in the Nelson community. We looked at the big hand next to the stoke library. We talked about what it symbolizes and what we'd change if it were our sculpture. Our task for next week will be to design and create a mini sculptor based on our learning so far.

By Samantha

Funky Fashion In Progress

We've all been inspired by our research into the Wearable Arts, we visited the WOW museum for the real experience and now are busy creating our own garments for the Eco Fest Funky Fashion Show!
On a Tuesday Room 13 has been transformed into a designers workroom with hot glue guns, scissors, needle and thread,and tape along with all kinds of reuseable items. We have set criteria we must keep to, one of these being that our garments must be made out of reuseable or recycled materials!
We have learnt about Claire Prebble and how WOW inspired her from the age of 8, she now works for Weta Workshop on movies such as Avatar.
There are definate future designers working in Room 13 on a Tuesday, we have dresses created out of reciepts, armour made from tin cans, a huge collection of used CD's transformed into never before seen fashion - and that is to name just a few!
The Funky Fashion Show is held during Eco Fest in August - we now just need to finish our designs and have them accepted, so it's all hands on deck!

Through Their Eyes!

Wow, our REACH photography group have been so busy taking great photos we haven't posted anything on our blog!!! Here's a quick update:
We have been learning about the elements of Photography that help us to capture that fantastic shot! Some of these elements we have been learning about are: texture, light/dark, perspective, colour and focus. By keeping these in mind we have managed to capture some great shots! We have had two trips - one to Isel Park and one to
Queens Gardens and the Beach to put all of our learning into practice.
We are now working flat out to edit, print, mount and name our images ready for an exhibition - so watch this space for further details.

New Name For CWSA

Finally a new name for CWSA! After much discussion with the children, we have a new name for our programme - REACH! We felt this sums up what we are trying to achieve, to rise to the challenge and REACH our potential!

Year 4 Photography Group

We are the Year 4 group that will be learning about digital photography. We will learn to use our class cameras for different purposes. Our goal is to work together to share a photography exhibition. For our first session we will start to become familiar with the cameras using the key competencies for inspiration.

Year 4 enrichment group.

2010 enrichment group

This year a new group has been put together of Year 5 and 6 students that in the past has been called C.W.S.A. (children with special abilities) but that name will be changed, so keep an eye out. In our first session we talked about "The Key Competencies" and what they mean to us in school and in life. We also talked about which topic we wanted to do for the next two terms, the choices were "eco fest" and that meant we could learn about the Wearable Art Awards which began in Nelson and then design our own costume for an entry at the Eco Fest. The other choice was Participating and Contributing, this will mean brainstorming ideas for how we can use our skills to help others around us. One idea we would like to put in place is a peer tutoring reading system where seniors will peer tutor juniors.
We will be updating our blog most weeks so watch this space.

By Indigo and Mrs Cranefield

Games! Games! Games!

The c.w.s.a group have been researching games from different cultures and generations .We have been learning exiting and challenging new games. We are also learning to complete a PMI to show plus, minus and interesting points. This helps us to analyse and to make criteria for what makes a great game. We have been using TOMTOP to help us look at all viewpoints. TOMTOP is short for Think of money, Think of people. Our next challenge is to either adapt an existing game or create our own new one!

By Daniel Bosman, Xan Twissell and Mrs Cranefield