Kia Ora e te Whānau

This week we had part 3 of our Clay Creations with Pīwakawaka. We baked them in the oven and then proceeded to paint them as different types of pounamu!
For this, I brought in many different types and sizes for the tamariki to use as inspiration. They spent some time looking at all of the different details in each piece and then got to work replicating this on their clay creations.

It has been fantastic combining our Fridays with Pīwakawaka and having heaps of fun. This is going to become a weekly event as its great to see the classes merge.

Ngā Mihi Nui
Miss Lang

Kia Ora e te Whānau

Today we had a senior school collaboration once again and opened up the doors between the Pīwakawaka and Kererū ākomanga.
The tamariki were using clay to design their Hei Tiki and Koru that will be featured in the Hokitika museum during the school holidays. We were very lucky to have Sue joining us who is a local artist in the area and guided us with our clay creations.
We learnt new skills and were able to try different techniques to see what worked best for us.

Our next step is to paint our creations to show the colour of Pounamu that we researched and chose last Friday.
After that, they will be safely transported to the museum to be put on display for the public!

Have a great weekend!
Ngā Mihi
Miss Lang

This week we went to the Hokitika Museum to view an exhibition on special taonga that is local to Te Tai o Poutini(The West Coast) – Pounamu(Greenstone)

We were fortunate to have people talking to us about the toanga and guiding us during our visit. We viewed the many types of Pounamu dating back to 1400 and learned about the traditional ways it was carved and its whakapapa. The central focus of the exhibition was the Hei Tiki. We have seen over 250 different types of Hei Tiki, created from many types of Pounamu.

For the next 3 weeks, we will be working on our own ‘carving’, where we will use clay and mold it into a Hei Tiki. The tamariki each have a planning sheet that they have used to design the Hei Tiki and choose the Pounamu they will paint it like. They have researched the types of Pounamu and what they represent and will have the chance to look at these and hold them next week, feeling to stones mana.
How Awesome!

Once we have created these, the museum will collect them and they will be displayed in the Hokitika Museum for the School Holidays.
It will be so awesome for the tamariki to see their Hei Tiki hung up in our local museum!

Ngā Mihi Nui
Miss Lang