Old Blue Story

After thinking about saving Rowi Room 13 started to think about other endangered birds- our teacher read us the story of saving the black robins of the Chatham Islands. Room 13 thought this was a great book to read. Old Blue was the rarest bird in the world. This book is one of the best children's books and it is a true story.  If the rarest bird in the world can be rescued from extinction, then given human determination and effort, no species need to become extinct . From 5 black robins to 130 black robins how did it happen? This book was written by Mary Taylor. Dr Don Merton helped save the rarest bird.

We recommend that every New Zealander should read this amazing book!

Flags Project with Artist Tiffany Singh

 The Year 4-6 classes have been involved in an art project with performance artist Tiffany Singh for the Auckland Arts Festival in 2013

We looked at Tibetan prayer flags and designed personal flags which captured the most important ideas in our lives. We looked to the future and the dreams and hopes which are important to us.

Prayer Flags (image from Creative Commons)

We found that strong themes were peace, friendship, accepting others' beliefs and customs, human rights and helping refugees all round the world. These ideas were developed by Room 13 as we explored the concept of Globalisation and looked at all the ways we are connected to each other locally, in our school and wider community, nationally, and globally.

We discovered that we are a nation of immigrants: we all come from elsewhere even the first Pacific Voyagers who came to Aotearoa one thousand years ago.

We also now appreciate that the world is a shrinking place in terms of travel and people moving from country to country.

Many people are also forced to become refugees because of war in their country.

NZ has had a history of accepting refugees from many countries around the world. Learning about their plight has made a big impact on us.






We designed symbols that were
 personally meaningful. 
We changed some very famous symbols.

We explained our designs to Tiffany and her mother...

Tiffany's mother...

 

It was hard to transfer the pencil designs to the fabric!

A film-maker filmed the process as a documentary record of the project with school children

This message is very clear...

It was good to do our pencil sketches first so we knew the
message we wanted to give to the audience


We can't wait to see all our flags at the exhibition Tiffany Singh will assemble at the Auckland Arts Festival in March 2013!

The exhibition is called Fly Me Up to Where You Are.

Thank you so much to Tiffany and her awesome team of helpers!

CH's save the penguins

Even the cuties puppies can kill penguins.

GM's Little Blue Penguin Poster

SN's kiwi poster

TD's Poster

BWH's kiwi poster :)

Posters can be powerful!

JS poster

CC's saving rowi

 

I am proud and I think I did really well on my saving rowi poster because the message is clear.  i am really proud that i tried really hard and i persevered on this cause it's really important to me and our class.

Ukelele Heaven! Kiwileles Festival 1 Dec 2012

First job: Putting up the school pop top

Imagine a 3,000 strong ukelele orchestra of children! This was the magic of the Kiwileles Festival in Henderson, Auckland, on Saturday 1 December this year. 

14 Room 13 children elected to go to the festival and experience playing in  a huge group.

More photos will be added to the blog in the next week.

Passing the time before the parade of schools

Balloons, free face-painting, ukelele entertainment groups, food, fun and laughter ...

The captivating clowns on pogo stilts were a big hit

Ukes tuned and ready to go...

Music stands, pegged and ready...

(Kiwileles Festival website photo of the crowd)

Our view from the Yellow Group
 looking at the audience

                                                      All smiles...

 Playing with Dave Dobbyn!

20 songs..... yes we are ready! 

Youtube link to opening song – Kiwi Ukulele

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U5X6QcUaX3Y&feature=em-share_video_user

Youtube link to UkeJam's photos of the Kiwileles Grand Parade

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=84vawJCoV-Y

NZ Ukulele on Facebook (great photos from Trevor Villers)

http://www.facebook.com/pages/NZ-Ukulele/141626879191529

And here is a link to the rehearsal we did at East Tamaki School:
http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=472846452736235&set=vb.141626879191529&type=2&theater

This was our school's first outing to the festival, with just 14 children, but the teachers there all agreed it will be a regular calendar event for children keen on playing the ukelele at EPS.

Roll on 2013!