Inspired by NZ Artist – Valerie Beale

This term we studied the artwork of the talented Valerie Beale.

This is our response to Mrs Beale’s artwork:

With this in mind, we set out to create our own VB inspired art using pastel and dye. We focused on space, balance and colour choices.

Under the Mango Tree – By Serenity

Sea Turtle – By Tayla

The Tourist – By Fogavai

The Church - By Grace

Your turn to study our artwork. What can you see? What do you think of our artwork? How does our artwork make you feel?

We would love to hear your feedback.

Water Safety

In term 3 last year, our seniors from Room 18 and 19 were learning the value of swimming safely in the water and on a boat.  The opportunity made possible by Kiwisport funding and the Otara Leisure Centre staff.  The programme was on Mondays and each week the children, parents and teachers were excited about the new learning children gained from the experience.

Room 19 boys learnt a lot and wanted to share this learning with you.

 

I have learnt that it is important to wear a life jacket on a boat every time.  By Latrell

We learnt that you need to take warm clothing and signalling devices on a boat trip so you can stay warm and can get rescue teams attention. By Asera

If you are in the water you need to make a huddle to stay warm from each other’s body heat and keep injured friends alert and protected. By Sila

And do you know where the REFLECTORS are located on a life jacket?

While we can’t wait to share with you more learning in the weeks ahead, until then stay safe and ALWAYS WHERE YOUR LIFE JACKET… IT COULD SAVE YOUR LIFE!

Click on these links to see the learning in action!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nfnbG4yUSbw

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uv7FUZbsy6Y

Kids Drama Show at Yendarra

The STORMWATER game show visits Yendarra School!

Last week Friday (7th May) we watched a Stormwater game show. My favourite part was when the presenter said ‘pause’ and the family froze. This made me laugh because the actors were awesome with their funny faces.

We were all cheering on our friends Jasmine, Tiare and Tukia who were the lucky children that got picked to participate in the show. They had to answer some hard questions about our water system. But they did well.

I felt so happy when Hannah said “Remember that…outside drains should only drain rain” because that’s what we learnt in our class.

 

It is important to learn about our storm water drains so we know how to look after our water system and ocean. For example: If my mum and dad wants to wash our car on the driveway at home, I’m going to tell them to wash our car on the grass or at a car wash because we wouldn’t want the soapy dirty water to go down the driveway into the outside drain and then flow into our ocean.
By Valentine (Year 6)

 

My reading group read an article about Wellington’s underground water network. This article helped me understand the importance of stormwater and what I can do to help our environment. Like when I see rubbish around our outside drains, or even around school, I will pick it up because I don’t want rubbish going down our stormwater drains because outside drains SHOULD ONLY DRAIN RAIN. By Jasmine (Year 5)

“Stormwater is rainfall that flows down gutters and into our drains. This water then goes through pipes that leads into our ocean. I’ve learnt that after heavy rain wait at least 48 hours (2 days) before you go for a swim because our ocean may have pollutants”

By Joseph (Year 6)

Thank you Kids4Drama Stormwater show for visiting Yendarra School and helping us to be the solution and not the pollution to our stormwater system.

Room 19 is on the Jam Bus

This year some boys were selected from Room 19 to take part in making this year’s new volume 2 music CD.  The mobile recording company called Jam Bus arrived at our school to record our live vocals from the choir, stringed sound from our guitar club and pacific flavour from our ukulele group.  All groups practised for three and half weeks before live recording and the expertise of our music teachers Miss Tipelu, Ms Cook, Ms Sewell, Miss Tuli 1 & 2, Mrs Greig and Mr Greig ensured everyone learnt their songs and chords before the big day.

 Everyone involved can’t wait for the CD to return to school in Term 4 so this can be shared with everyone in the Yendarra whanau.  The guitar and ukulele group were an addition to what was performed in the previous year when only teachers played instruments to accompany the student choir.  Learning the guitar and ukulele has been challenging but inspiring for the boys involved (Thyrel, Bayley, Latrell, Marcus and Makatama) and it will be great when the boys can teach others in Room 19 for next year.

We say a HUGE thank you to the Jam Bus team from the

 for bringing to life our musical gifts and talents. Being a part of the programme has inspired many of our musicians to continue the music journey as they get older.

Room 18's Author Study

This term our class accepted a library challenge to study a NZ Author and Artist.  Lucky us to pick out....

GAVIN BISHOP 

Here’s what we found out about our talented author…

Gavin Bishop is a children’s author and illustrator. He was born in Invercargill, a city right down the bottom of New Zealand. Can you believe that he use to go to a school where there were only eleven students and he was the only one in his class?

Gavin Bishop loves reading. When he was nine years old, he couldn’t stop reading ‘The Hobbit’ he found in a school journal. Gavin Bishop read this novel about twelve times and never got bored of it. He found it exciting every time he read it.

Mr. Bishop taught art at Secondary school for 30 years as an art teacher. I can tell he was a fantastic art teacher because we enjoyed reading some of his books and studying his illustrations. Thank you for inspiring us to be great readers, writers and illustrators Mr Bishop.

-      Written by Anna Iakopo (Year 6)

Check out our library display inspired by Gavin Bishop’s story “The Legend of Kahu and the Taniwha” Can you recognise any characters from other stories he’s written?

Be careful, we’re zooming in on some of the fire-breathing taniwha’s….here we go….

 

This taniwha is fast and furious and he likes to battle with other taniwha’s. He is a Maori sea creature who lives in the deep, deep sea. This taniwha is brave and would risk tearing his scales to defeat anyone or anything that intrudes his waters. He only comes out at night so his shiny scales glow in the water when he comes to the surface.

Written & Illustrated by Josephine

This taniwha is known for breathing fire when he is angry. He is so powerful that when he breathes fire volcanoes nearby erupt in fury to reflect his anger. He is a Maori creature that can live on both water and the land. Some people think he’s only angry because he is lonely, so they have tried to befriend this taniwha to avoid random explosions near their village.

Written & Illustrated by Nora 

This taniwha is really selfish and easily annoyed. He lives in the short side of the mountain where people usually walk through. This taniwha is not just an ordinary creature, he is fierce and creepy and always up to mischief. He is known as a ‘trouble maker taniwha’ among people of the nearby village. This giant creature is in search of someone to scratch his scaly, fiery back. Only then, will he be able to leave the village people in peace!

Written by Galuso’o

Illustrated by Keithaline

 

Hope you’ve enjoyed reading our author study on the talented and inspirational Mr. Gavin Bishop. Do  check-in again to make sure these Taniwha’s do not come to life!