Art+Extravaganza!

**Te Manawa** On Wednesday 12 August we went to Te Manawa to view the Len Castle exhibition. Len Castle takes his inspiration from the volcanic activity of the central North Island - the volcanoes, craters, lava and hot pools. We looked at his ceramic sculptures and sketched our favourite one. Mary Sheridan, the Te Manawa educator, taught us some techniques for working with clay and then we modelled our favourite Len Castle piece. We would like to thank the many parents who accompanied us, without you our trip wouldn't have been possible! media type="custom" key="4312143"

**As part of our Arts Extravaganza unit, art advisor Rei Hendry recently visited to work with each team. Ruahine had three sessions working with clay. During our first session we created tiles which depicted our families, interests and passions. In our last session Mr Knyn motivated the team by reading the book The Patchwork Cat and then we all created our own artworks.** media type="custom" key="4312175" ** We read //The Kuia and the Spider//, which is about an old lady and a spider who lives in her kitchen. All day long they argue over who is the best weaver. They decide to have a competition, but can't agree on the winner! ** media type="custom" key="4312217"
 * Rei Hendry **
 * The Kuia and the Spider** by Patricia Grace, illustrated by Robyn Kahukiwa

**The Guardian of the Bridge** **by Diana Harris, illustrated by Russell Ness** **The taniwha is the kaitiaki (guardian) of the deep lake close to Awataha. He enjoys watching the tamariki play in the mangrove swamps. One day the tamariki stop coming so, feeling very sad and lonely, the taniwha dives down to the deepest part of the lake and goes to sleep for a very long time. When he wakes up he discovers that there have been huge changes to the land around him. We worked in pairs to illustrate what life was like before and after the taniwha's big sleep.** media type="custom" key="4313149"

** Batik Art We made batik art with Mrs Mullinger. First we drew our picture, using thick crayons. Next we screwed up the page to give a crinkly effect. Then we added Indian ink, Finally, Mrs Mullinger took all of our art home and ironed out the excess crayon wax. Mrs Blithe thinks they look fantastic - what do you think? ** media type="custom" key="4412951"