We have begun to get ready for our Art Celebration by exploring how to use paint and brushing techniques. We have been learning how to mix colours and add contrast to make shapes stand out. Painting is different to other drawings that we are used to as we need to plan the background and foreground first instead of colouring it in after.
We started by thinking about what colours we could use for the background and used big brushes. Then we added the details with smaller brushes. We have been experimenting with how to add colour to highlight shapes in the small detail. As well as using creativity we need to really plan our ideas. Next we will begin to create our art works for the Arts Celebration.
While we've been at home doing Home Learning, students have been busy getting stuck into their learning and so have the teachers! We did extra reading all around Positive Education. Specifically, the flourish model and it's domains; Positive Emotions, Positive Purpose, Positive Health, Positive Relationships, Positive Accomplishment and Positive Engagement.
Some key learning from this has been around the wellbeing strategies of Savouring and Gratitude.
Fredrickson's broaden and build theory explains the importance of positive emotions on our mental, physical and social wellbeing. There are two components to this theory.
Broaden: Positive emotions broaden our attention.
Build: This broadened attention on positivity leads to increased engagement with our environment around us and increase in positive resources.
If we look for the positive, we can find the positive.
From here, the teachers at Worser Bay School put their heads together to come up with a plan of reintegrating the Worser Bay community back into 'face-to-face' teaching and learning with a focus on Positive Engagement, Positive Relationships and Positive Emotions.
On Thursday, Tautoru focused on Gratitude. We started by watching a video about the science behind Gratitude and a short animated clip about how Gratitude effects us emotionally.
Then, we made our own Gratitude letters to practise showing gratefulness. Check some of them out here.
One of the tasks on the Home Learning plan this week was around a Positive Education challenge. We challenged you to try new things by dialling up Love of Learning.
Paper and glue or sellotape are materials that can help stretch our creativity in wonderful ways. This week we had a paper playground challenge using some ideas from this link.
These are some of the creations we've seen so far!
Part of our Positive Education curriculum is Positive Purpose: taking meaningful actions to help our community. Doing good to feel good also helps us to feel more positive as well.
This week we've been connecting with our community by making positive messages we can leave on our windows or gates. We know that by working together we can help others around us have moments of positive feeling. This character strength is called Social Intelligence: thinking about what others need and finding ways to support them. We hope you some on your walks!
Well... this week has looked a bit different to normal! We've made the switch to Home Learning and zoom lessons. It has been so awesome to see many of your faces on the zoom calls. It's great to have that somewhat face-to-face interaction, even if it is through a screen!
Seesaw has been flooded with Creativity, Love of Learning and of course a whole lot of zest with those Wake Up Your Brain activities!
Check out some of the things that Tautoru have been doing this week:
Ximena and I would like to take this opportunity to thank the parents and whānau once again in supporting your child with Home Learning. We know this can be challenging in a busy time when working from home. So thank you, thank you, thank you!
Remember, keep the Home Learning sessions short and sweet and remember those brain breaks to keep our brains and body fresh!
