Awesome Art

Watch out baddies, if you come into Rua be nice, because our class is protected by a posse of Super Heros. At the moment there are fourteen brave defenders, but I've heard their numbers could swell to as many as 27!

At the end of last year I asked the students what they liked to do at school. Art was one of their favourites. So this term I've planned some fun whole class lessons. First, making our superhero characters gave us an opportunity to learn about proportions.

We started by folding our paper in quarters and joining the lines to make a nice big oval. Then I explained that the bottom of our eyes sit just above the halfway mark. Some students weren't sure - they wanted their eyes higher - but once we added noses, mouths, eyebrows and hair they were convinced.

As well as painting our superheroes and adding masks, we wrote about them. We described their looks, their powers and their qualities.

On Friday some of the students presented their finished pictures and stories at Tui Hui. The remainder will be finished over the next week, and added to our walls to watch over, and protect us.

I think you'll agree these superheroes have some awesome powers.

Reading the Rainbow Fish inspired another art project. For this, the students learnt to draw cartoon fish using links to Youtube clips that I sent them. As we only have 13 ChromeBooks students had to share. This gave a great opportunity to practise their skills of Relating to Others. The students had to negotiate which clip they wanted to watch first, decide when to stop the video for a closer look, when to rewind, when to rewatch etc. This process wasn't always smooth, but of course, that's part of the learning.

The background for the fish mural was also made by a group of students. I gave them four pieces of paper, sellotape, paint and sponge rollers and left the process of creation up to them. So if you come into Rua and notice any small imperfections, you can appreciate the hard work and learning that went into this creation.

Check out your child's Seasaw page for more great examples of students practising Relating to Others.


And I think you'll agree, the results are a wonderfully diverse range of fish, that perfectly reflects our wonderfully diverse range of students.