Is Art Just For Arts Sake?

Over the past two weeks we have been learning what art is and that it is created to get a response. During the finding out sorting phrase of our inquiry, we have been to the art gallery where we learnt about parihaka and how artists such as painters , dancers and singers have shared their thoughts about it . We are now exploring  current issues. e will choosing an issue that is important to each of us and presenting our ideas using all of the arts. we used to think art was just on the wall now art is different things  such  as dancers,painters,sculptors,singers,taggers,carvers,actors,models, writers,hairdressers,architects,Gardner's,tattooists,movie makers and animation. 

Kahurangi-Maori peforming arts group!!!

On Tuesday morning the 28^th of July Room 12 went to watch Kahurangi performing arts group. The whole school went to see it because it fits into their inquiry about the arts. The group done a series of Maori dances. They came from Hastings, everyone enjoyed it.

The performers were all wearing flax piu piu (skirts) and the boys had bare chests.  The girls had singlets with patterns on them most of the performers had moku (tattoos) either on their arms or legs.

The men performed using Ti Rakau. They were originally used for hand eye coordination practice and hunting. They danced with the sticks and the sticks were quite colourful with red and white. They are long but thin.

Ti Titorea are short sticks they were used to help eye coordination of warriors. They were exercise sticks for the upper and lower body. At the show, Kahurangi with them.

Kahurangi used two types of poi, the long poi and the short poi. The short poi represented heart beat and life. The long poi represented the native birds of New Zealand. It is difficult to do two poi at a time, let alone four! 

Kahurangi dance company gave 100% to the performance when mistakes were made the audience hardly even noticed. It they used lots of dramatic facial expressions. they did lots of coordinating tricks with their sticks. As one of them said "practice makes perfect!"

Kahurangi Dance Group comes once a year. The boys really like tirakau and most of the girls enjoyed the poi's. They did some ricks with the titiorea and the audience thought it was great. the hope to see them again and they will be looking forward to it.

CHECK OUT THE NEW PLAY EQUIPMENT!

In the first week of the holidays Mr Buist and his workers bought 

some wood, nails and cement and built some new play equipment

for St Clair School. The cost of  the equipment was about $5000

and the money was raised by the PTA from the  2009 St Clair School school fair. The new play equipment is great for climbing

on and practicing your balancing. The children and Teachers would

like to thank Mr Buist,his team and the PTA.

By Alex and Autumn. 

Mr Newton

Today Mr Newton our principal celebrated  his 10^th year at St Clair School as our principal!

We had a celebration for Mr Newton. 10 years at St Clair School is a long time. It wasn’t just 10 years at St Clair School -  it was also a special birthday for him. Mrs Newton came and shared the celebration with us all. It was her birthday as well! We tricked Mr Newton because he thought it was an end of term assembly for Mrs Tapp (she is leaving us for a while) but we gave him a surprise with a song called Mr Newton! It was re-written lyrics to the tune of "Here's to you Mrs Robinson!" Every class gave him a special certificate about what they liked the best about Mr Newton. Some were serious and some were funny.  We said how we like the way he is often seen leaping tall fences in the name of rescuing our sports gear!

Mr Newton is the best pricipal in the world!!!

Mr. Hall the Story-Teller

Today Gordon Hall joined us in the hall for some crazy stories. The stories were called Skunks, The Taniwha, The Rubber Bands and Warmonger The Dragon.

Gordon hall had three rules to join in, to laugh and to listen. Gordon had three types of stories, such as the rubber band story

Witch was a circle story and the warmonger the dragon story

Witch was a story in a story story and a skunk story that was really

just mayhem.

 He also gave us helpful hints for writing.

Music's in the Air...

Over the past couple of weeks, Room12 has been learning three pieces of music with Mrs Caldwell. The songs that we learnt included Mascarade Ball, Cabbage Cafe and Click Sticks. The instuments we used were the marimbas, xylophones, glockenspiels and the chime bells. These were our first few songs that we managed to have the bass, soprano and Alto sections playing all at the same time. We need to give Mrs Caldwell, our specialist music teacher, a huge thank you for her patience and skill!

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Room 14 Science Fair

Today Room 14 set up a science fair. Some Room 14  kids found out that Jazz music is a GET OUT OF BED kind of music. Pink Batts is best for sound proofing because it has more holes for the molecules to travel through. They had fair tests and lots of fun !