Archive for the 'Ngaio – rm 8 – Peter Holmstead' Category

Ngaio – Room 8 – Term 4

Published on November 23, 2012 in Ngaio - rm 8 - Peter Holmstead and Uncategorized. 0 Comments

This term we are focused on preparing for the Year 6 camp in the first week of December.

There is a high level of excitement amongst the students as they prepare for one of the highlights of their time at HVS.

We are lucky to have a very experienced tramper as a parent this year – Shaun Barnett - who has visited the class and imparted some of his knowledge. Shaun shared some wonderful photos of his experiences and answered questions.

We are spending the nights at Holdsworth Lodge on the edge of the Tararuas and will be completing a day tramp and also a full day visit to Pukaha Mt Bruce Bird Sanctuary. In preparation Ngaio are studying a range of native birds.

 

 

 

 

 

 

On Fridays Jos Abernethy is in Ngaio. The students are all enjoying doing an author study and presenting their research in a variety of ways. She is also leading the students in creating a collage, which should be completed shortly. Here are a couple of nearly completed collages…

 

 

 

 

I will blog later with some completed collages and some pics from the camp.

Ka kite ano

Peter Holmstead

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Kinetic Art – DEconSTruction to ConSTructioN

Published on May 7, 2012 in Ngaio - rm 8 - Peter Holmstead and Uncategorized. 4 Comments

Early in Term Two Ngaio spent two Monday mornings making ‘Kinetic Art’. This was facilitated by Caroline McGlinchy, who ran our photo/collage exploration last year.

Kinetic Art was defined as sculptural art which had to move for its effect, with the movement induced either by human, motor or wind power. We also added the requirement that the pieces make some kind of noise.

We viewed a range of kinetic art, from Len Lye’s motorised and noisy pieces, Theo Jansen’s wind-powered beasts, to those along Cobham Drive which make up the capital’s wind sculpture walkway.

Len Lye               http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KE1CRjJxakQ

Theo Jansen      http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HSKyHmjyrkA&feature=related

Wind Walkway http://vimeo.com/11830567

Then we set to work, in groups of four, dismantling a range of defunct video players, CD players and other electronic items picked up from the Happy Valley dump shop. The students found this incredibly satisfying…

The following Monday we had to construct the pieces, six in all.

They say pictures are more powerful than words.

DECONSTRUCTION DAY:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

THE COMPLETED SCULPTURES:

 

 

 

 

Video Movie_0002

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Video  Movie_0001

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Video  Movie_0003

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Video Movie_0004

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Video Movie

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Big THANKS to Tanya, Tania, Faith, Jo and Caroline, and those who lent tools!

That’s all folks!!!

Ngaio Happenings – EMR 2012

Published on March 19, 2012 in Ngaio - rm 8 - Peter Holmstead and Uncategorized. 3 Comments

Kia ora and welcome to the first blog of the year. Please feel free to leave a comment or a question and I will try and answer it asap.

We have had a busy term, getting straight into Experiencing Marine Reserves (EMR) in the first week. After the classroom session, where Zoe Studd from EMR introduced the programme, we were straight to the Kilbirnie Pool for snorkel training. This involved learning the safety signals, being fitted for the 7mm wetsuits and practicing swimming around using boogie boards and identifying sea creatures. Big thanks go to the parents for transport and assistance.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Then the next week  it was off to Island Bay to study the rocky shore creatures such as the crested blenny…

 

 

 

 

 

 

 plus do a beach tidy up and survey the bay for specific sea creatures. The weather was a cracker!…

 

 

 

 

 

 

We were counting the numbers of blue moki, spotties, banded wrasse and paua…

 

 

 

 

 

 

Some students were so happy to be there, but the water temperature soon sorted that…

 

We also visited the Marine Education Centre (Bait Shed) and enjoyed holding many creatures in the touch pool. We also saw some amazing things such as the Cook Strait spider crabs, which had their own extra cold (7 degree) tank. These were awaiting research as some fishers were beginning to target them for export…

 

 

 

 

 

 

 Now we are following up the research with Action Projects. We need to share our knowledge with the wider community by creating posters, brochures, websites and PowerPoints. Some groups are also fundraising money for the Marine Education Centre and Hector’s Dolphin Trust, and another group created a marine reserves board game.

We hope to share our Action Projects at an EMR Celebration Day, March 30, 1.30 – 2.30 at the Island Bay Surf Club rooms. This is the day of our Noho Marae at Taputeranga Marae. I hope a few students can stay awake enough to share their projects. There were 200 students from Wellington taking part in EMR this year – amazing!

Please leave a comment, and have a great Easter holiday

Peter

Ngaio – Mask Making

Published on August 26, 2011 in Ngaio - rm 8 - Peter Holmstead and Uncategorized. 0 Comments

This term Caroline came in to assist us with producing masks as part of our production preparation.

Our ‘guinea pig’ for the first mask was Will Park. Will is always on for these type of things – he loves giving everything a go.

The rest of the class watched and listened carefully as they were all going to have to help so we could get 26 masks done in the morning.

First up Will coated his face with bee-balm (vaseline would do too)-

                                                                                                                                                                     Then Caroline wrapped some Gladwrap around his hair so the plaster wouldn’t stick to it and rip out later – Ouch!

                                                                                                                                                                        Next we prepared the plaster strips. These are the plaster bandages used to make plaster arm casts when you fall off your scooter…

                                                                                                                                                                    Next step – applying the plaster bandages in stages. We used small paper ovals to cover the eyes. The class loved this stage as Will was finally unable to speak in the class for a few minutes!

                                                                                                                                                       After a couple more minutes to allow the plaster to set, we got our Will back and he was allowed to see his pale double.

                                                                                                                                                              We had created a ‘negative’ of Will’s face. Then everyone in the class got busy and we all made a mask. Once they were all completed we coated the inside of each mask with vaseline.

                                                                                                                                                           The final stage was to cast a ‘positive’ by pouring casting plaster into the negatives. We sat the negatives in small nests of paper so the noses wouldn’t get squashed. They were hard in an hour. Cool!