We have been doing a communications and art project with Haast School in New Zealand for the last few months (see more here). Kate Buckley, the artist, will be exhibiting our art work alongside the art work of the students in Haast from 13 December.
We made a special ‘Hello from Inver’ video for the people in Haast. Here it is:
We have been having lots of fun with our visiting artist Kate. Here we are working on our personal art pieces using oil pastels. We cannot wait to share them with our new friends in Haast! Thanks Kate!
We voted yesterday on Edmodo about our preferred sweets: Iced Caramels from Ireland or Pineapple Lumps from New Zealand.
(Tógtha ó blog Shauna).
Inniu tháinig bean (Kate Buckley) go dtí mo scoil. Is ealaíontóir í. Tháinig sí ón Nua Shéaláin. Bhí muid ag caint faoin scoil i Haast. Beidh sí ag teacht go dtí ár scoil ar feadh cúpla seachtaine.
Ní féidir liom fanacht go dtí Dé Máirt mar beidh sí ar ais agus beidh sí ag déanamh ealaíne linn.
The End
Le Shauna. 🙂 🙂 🙂
Some weeks ago we received a mysterious package in the post. We blogged about it to see if we could unravel our mystery.
Now we have solved it! It was an intriguing introduction to an art project we are hoping to do with Haast Primary School in New Zealand.
Artist Kate Buckley, is inviting us to work alongside a school in New Zealand as art investigators. She says:
‘Special Art Investigators work to find out as much as they can about both their place and their partner place. This means you and the students from Hannah’s clearing (Haast) will have to be in touch with each other- sending things back and forth between the two places.
Special Art Investigators use the arts when they do their work- drawing, writing, finding out, acting, painting , dancing, using technology and making things- whatever kind of art you like .
When I’m in Ireland we can work together make artwork about our own place and about our partner place. But you don’t need me to start making things- you can begin whenever you like.’
Our exciting project is just beginning. We sent some clues to Haast School, New Zealand to introduce ourselves, and to see if they could discover who we were and where we were from. We sent some maps, some Irish sweets and biscuits, some tourist information, flags and shamrocks, a copy of Primary Planet and a QR code for our blog.
Our new friends are clever investigators and they cracked the clues! They have asked us the following questions written in bold type and these are our replies from Ailish, Orla, Sophie, Niall, Amy and Lisa.
1. How many children are there at the school? A. There are 29 children in our school: 14 in the Junior room and 15 in here, in the Senior room.
2. What are their names?
We have two classrooms in our School. In our classroom there is Niall, Shannon, Orla, Ava, Ailish, Lisa, Seamus, Grace, Shauna, Sophie, Rosaleen, Kian, Rosín, Liam and me, Amy. In the junior class room there is Siobhán, John, Hannah, Eve, Aofie, Danny, Patrick, Mikey, Kyle, Kirsty, Laoise, Ava, Freddie and Lucy. (Amy)
3. How old are the children at your school?
They are aged from 4 to 12. In the Junior Room we have ages 4-7 and in and in our classroom we have ages 8-12. (Ailish)
4. Are there people at your school who come from other cultures or countries?
Yes there are students born in other countries. We have three students from England.
5. What are the names of your teachers?
The names of our teachers are Muínteoir Máirín and Muinteoir Deborah and our support teacher Muinteoir Lorraine.
6. Do you have computers?
Yes, we have computers. We have just 1 PC and 1 Mac desktop computers, some laptops (PC) and lots of iPads. We also have interactive whiteboards and Apple TV.
7. What wildlife is there in your area?
Here the wildlife is mainly foxes and hares as well as birds. But some farmers have to kill the foxes at this time of year, because sheep have their lambs, and the foxes would kill the newly born lambs. (Niall)
8. What sorts of learning do you do?
The learning we do here is: our national language, Gaeilge or Irish, we also do mathematics, which are sums, we do history and geography, in history we learn about things that happened years ago, and today we learned about Maoris. English, we learn about lots of things. Religion, we about all the Saints, God and all the great stories Jesus Christ. We also do Science, Art, Music, PE and SPHE.
9.What books does you have at your school?
We have lots of books at our school like books about sport, animals, art and lots more. We have a good mixture of fact and fiction books. We have just finished ‘The Suitcase Kid’ by Jacqueline Wilson. We all love to read! (Sophie)
10. How many classrooms are there?
There are 3 classrooms in our school. There are the senior class, joiner class and there is our middle room that we just call that the storage room. We wanted to turn the middle room into a canteen so that we could get warm food and cold foods and that is all about our school. But the canteen didn’t work (Ok so the canteen is in my imagination but I (Orla) really wanted it :0
11. What is in your classrooms? Seats? Desks?
There are lots and lots of lovely posters in our classrooms and yes we have tables and chairs too.
12. Do you like living in your area?
I love living in our area. I have many friends. I don’t think I would be able to manage without them in a different country. (Lisa)
13: Would you like to be pen pals or e-pals with us?
Yes we would love to be either penpals or epals with you.
