Karaka Newsletter

We have had a fantastic first day back getting to know each other and enjoying the glorious Wellington weather.

Here is the link to our first newsletter for 2016.

If you need a new copy of the Single Sign On Agreement here it is.


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Learning about our team mates

Learning about our team mates

We have been learning about our table group and what they like. We had to write this down on a sheet and then memorise that for a quiz. A table group is a group of 4/5 kids working together to help each other.-Jack, Tim, Payton and Charlotte.

Welcome back to 2016

We hope you have all had a relaxing and enjoyable break. 

Keith, Leon and Micheline are looking forward to embracing Modern Learning Practice in Karaka!

We will be teaching and learning together, providing an engaging and challenging learning environment for all learners. We plan to teach students strategies to become more active and focused in their learning.

Each student has a home group, made up of students from Year 5-6. Please contact your child’s home group teacher in the first instance if you have any queries.

Students and teachers will work together to identify next learning steps using assessment and reflections. It is likely that your child/children will have learning experiences with all three teachers during the year.  

We will be planning and teaching collaboratively to access the strengths of our team, ensuring we provide rich learning experiences for everyone!

Nga mihi

Keith, Leon and Micheline 

Our Passion project week

This week we made many fun projects. We have choices like making Tapa, felt soft toys, make music, Ukelele and passion writing.

We can choose maximum of two tasks, and share our project at the end of the week.

Here are some photos

Chuanyan's swords and shields.

Isla's cardboard snowman

Polina's HP characters and house

Holly's Cardboard mic

Amy's felt snowman

Siena is scrunching up tapa (50 times!) to make the wrinkle lines 

Rosi and Lola's car

Fleur's Christmas tree and snowman

Our collections of Tapa

The tapa workshop with Kura

Cara and Lexi's house with Rosi's help

Sarah's two felt elephants 

Sean's Tapa in progress 

Livia :

It's been fun making so many projects

I made a 3D cardboard thing of a name and a painter castle

Cara

So I made a house with Lexi,  and it was big.    we did 11 coats of paint.

Ella

I started making a felt snowman and then I started making a lot of AFL things.

Then I will and looked around and saw that people were making TAPA

And then started making mirrors and it was fun

Siena

I started of making an iPhone

And I make all the pieces sadly they didn't fit. Then I started to make a chest of drawers.  

Batik in the classroom

Yesterday we were lucky enough to have a group of Indonesian batik artists come and visit us. Everyone got to try their own piece of batik using melted wax and a dropper pen. Sadly we ran out of time to dye the cloth so they took them away to get that step completed for us.

We made a paper sketch, traced this onto cloth and then dripped wax onto the design. It was tricky to drip the hot wax onto the cloth without spilling it or controlling the flow.
When they demonstrated batik to us it looked super easy.... but it wasn't.

Here is a video of the technique used:

Flag Statistic Investigation

Click on this link to see instructions and all the information you need to complete the task

Link 

Imitating Eric Carle

We watched the video links to Eric Carle and focused on the techniques he used when creating an artwork. We identified a range of ways that he added texture and pattern to his work.

Once we had worked out how he did it then it was time...
Sketch an image
Trace it with tissue paper
Paint the different parts (with a focus on patterns, texture and mixing colours)
Pasting the different elements onto a new piece if paper.


This was a challenging task. Not only did we have to try and imitate Eric's techniques but there was also lots of problem solving.

What objects can we use to create texture to our artwork?
How can we manage all the pieces of our artwork?
How can we handle tissue paper when painting and drying it without any ripping?
What order do they need to be pasted onto the paper?
What is the best brush for painting and pasting?
How do we do whole class art (54 students) in an MLE space?


Here are our final artworks.....