Room 7's Painting Techniques Movie!

Padlet - NZ Calls Homework Activity

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Padlet - NZ Calls

Portraits

We have been learning how to draw portraits. We have explored famous portraits painted by artists such as Goldie, Frances Hodgkins and Rita Angus. We talked about what we noticed and what we liked or didn't like about the paintings. Then we watched a Youtube clip that explained the dimensions of the face. We found that there is a lot of maths connected with our faces - our eyes are halfway down our head, our nose is 1/3 down our head, our mouth is halfway between our nose and chin. Also - the pupils of our eyes line up with the corners of our mouths. This information helped us to think about where to position our features on our drawing. Mrs Jackson also took photos of us individually that we were to draw from.
Our first drawing task focused just on our eyes - we had to use our observational drawing skills to carefully draw our eyes. We had to remember to draw what we saw and not what we thought - this proved to be quite tricky at times.
Then we moved onto drawing our faces. Here are some examples of our amazing portraits.

Our next step is to paint!

Problem Solving

Today we started looking at maths problem solving. We talked about the four stages of problem solving - understand and explore the problem, find a strategy, use the strategy and finally reflect back on the strategy and solution.
We can use a number of different strategies to help us - these are our 'Problem Solving Toolkit'!
We can use:

• guess and check
• draw a diagram
• act it out
• use equipment
• make a list or table

Today we worked on two different problems working through the four stages. We will continue to work on this over the next few weeks.

Angus, Caleb, Ava & Anita working together to solve the problem.

Isaac, Liam Br, Lara & Rhiarna focused on their problem solving.

Super Sentences!

This week we have continued on our diary writing theme, linking it again with our drama unit about the Early Settlers voyage to New Zealand. Mrs Jackson has chosen the sentences this week that really capture the feelings and emotions on board.

Molly is crying up a sea of her own – Isaac

I feel sorry for the families, the babies are crying, the mums are trying to calm them down and the dads are yelling. It looks like a hard life to live. – Mya

One family brought a book and I listen to them while their mother reads it to her children. – William

I can taste the salty water that comes from the smashing waves. – Tessa

Process Drama - Being an Early Settler

We have been exploring the voyage of the Early European settlers this week. To do this we have been using process drama. We were given the task of developing 'family groups' - including deciding on a family name, family make up (mum, dad, uncle?) and our ages. 
Being in role was one of the drama conventions that we were working on - this meant staying in character and 'walking a mile in their shoes'. In our family groups we decided what belongings we would pack into our suitcase - what would we take or leave behind? What might we need once we got to the new land? We thought about how the Early Settlers would have felt leaving their homelands and discussed their reasons for leaving. Then we had our final family photo on British soil.
As family groups we lined up for the doctors final inspection - we learnt how dangerous any illness would be on a confined space like a boat, but we also thought about how desperate some of these families would have been to get on board. Some would have saved up for a long time or sold all their belongings to get money for the passage. 
The Captain lead us onto the ship and showed us our cabin. We were surprised at the confined space and how crowded it was. We settled down for our first night. We used another drama convention - spoken thoughts aloud - to think about how the passengers might be feeling at this early stage. Some people were worried about the crowded conditions and how they would cope, some people were excited and ready for the journey ahead.
We used our drama experiences to write diary entries in role. Writing in role is another drama convention. Our Super Sentences this week are from this diary writing. Working through these experiences in drama really helped us to think about the settlers experience and their feelings and emotions.

The Brown Family

The Thompson Family

The Brown Family

The Simpson Family

Our Captain, First Mate, Doctor & Cabin Boy

The MacDonald Family

Art - Playing with Paint!

Today we have been exploring using different painting techniques. First we looked at the artworks of Claude Monet and Vincent Van Gogh. We noticed their brushstrokes and how they created different effects.
Then we headed over to the workshop to have a go ourselves!
We tried four different techniques today - scraffito, blending, stippling, movement. We used 'sunset' colours today - these colours are compatible on the colour wheel.

Next week we will add another layer of paint to our circles- building our colour. When they are finished we are going to carefully cut them out and decorate our classroom with them!

Super Sentences this week

Here are our Super Sentences this week - these are from our diary entries based on our Drama experience:

Molly is very pale, she dropped her teddy and it got sucked up by the wind and taken into the sea - Reef

There has been frightful storms and waves. I have been low and not like myself. – Ava

Day 40 on the John Wickliffe yet I’m still handling the wheel. - Caleb