Watercolours and charcoal Art

We have been practising how to sketch birds that interest us since we are learning about native birds for our Inquiry, as well as reading "Charlie, Champion of the World", which is all about pheasant poaching!
Since we have a couple of quiet afternoons, we thought we'd try our hands and experiment with water colours, the students have absolutely enjoyed the creative nature of watercolours. 

As a final touch to the piece, we used charcoal to give our bird a soft outline, smudged and just looking beautiful.  We have been doing lots of talk in class about what makes an artist; that is is a skill like any other subject.  People aren't born good or bad at things, we just practise and take pleasure in learning and experimenting.  I even took some of the student's art to a meeting today to show it off!

  

The sketching... learning some techniques online...

             

Blending...

 

   

Creating, not colouring in the lines!

    

Safe Kids - First Aid with St John

We had an awesome day today with Kathryn coming in from St John's to teach us all about what we can do to keep ourselves and our friends safe.  Take a look through the photos and see what we've been up to...

  

Here's Kathryn!

  

Showing us how to apply a bandage to Bella's arm, keeping it nice and tight.  Remember to pass the cloth to the patient so you don't have to touch their wound or blood.  Don't forget to make sure your snail is alive!  (Your child can tell you what that means!).

 

Kathryn showing us the oxygen and nebuliser for if someone is having trouble breathing.

  

Checking the airways of someone who is unconscious.  After we have made sure we are not in danger; look first before we dive into action.  Then we can call out to the patient to see if they respond before getting the attention from someone to ask them to go for help (but ask them to return).

     

Check airways to see if they are breathing, and put them into a safe position.  Kathryn suggested that we let the children practise on adults... so please give you child an opportunity if you can.

 

Alex and Oscar showing us the correct position to be in if we have a bleeding nose.

Thanks St John's, we all learned a lot, and it was perfect timing before we all head away on trips next week!

Mrs Muir

New Zealand's Native Fish

We have been so lucky to have had Fresh Water Scientist Anna Crowe come to visit us today to share her knowledge of our amazing fresh water fish.  We learned about our 5 species of whitebait (Galaxis), four of which are threatened species, one of which can climb 50 m waterfalls!
Find out more information here: Doc Galaxis Website
   

 

We learned about cockabullys, some of the most colourful and pretty fish in our streams.  Find out more here:  Te Ara

As well as our amazing native eels, the long and short fins.  Did you know the Long Fin eel can grow up to about 2 mtrs long!  Did you know that all of our eels swim more than 2000 km to breed!  All to the same mysterious place in the Pacific Ocean. Find out more here: DOC Eels website

Please ask your child what they learned, we were wowed by what we discovered today.

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Athletics Day

What a fantastic day we had on Friday for the Senior Athletics Day.  Congratulations to everyone for being involved and trying your best.  Well done to the students who made the sprint finals!

Art Exhibition!

Here are some picture of our incredible sculptures for the Witherlea Art Exhibition.  What a standout performance from the students, well done!