Connecting to our Who We Are and Where We Are In Place And Time units, the students worked together to create a shared piece of collaborative art.

Our artwork is based on a Māori pā site which is a fortified village, usually on a hillside, which Māori lived on many years ago. The pā was a place where people lived and worked together, and were kept safe. Students made the connection that like Māori people working together as a team on the pā, the students in Room 11 are also a team working together and supporting one another.

Firstly each student created a building to represent themselves. Then they worked together using collage to create vegetation, rocks, and clouds, as well as drawing their own flowers and trees. Next they were tasked with creating the protective fencing around the pā site, writing positive words and phrases on the fence posts. These three fences act as a symbol for our shared classroom values, and will help to keep our classroom a safe, positive and happy place to be over the year. Lastly students carefully considered how they wanted to represent themselves and struck a pose! Their picture was then inserted into the artwork.

We included a whakataukī in our artwork which says:

Tuia i runga, Tuia i raroTuia te herenga tangata

Bind it above, bind it below, bind it in the middle

Where the people go

Once completed, we put on out art critic glasses and shared our responses to our amazing artwork. Here's what some of the students had to say:

"Everyone has different houses and poses...we're all different and unique...we all have different perspectives" - Maddy, Ben, Phoebe

"I like the positive words on the fence...it encourages people to do the right thing"- Jerry, Sophia

"Max and Nicholas both have camper vans but they're different, just like all of us in the classroom are similar but also different"- Ged

"Our artwork makes me feel excited because you can run up and down the hill...it makes me want to jump from house to house"- Ged, Oscar

"The artwork showed everyone that we can work hard together"- Max"I think the artwork is about all of us in class helping each other"- Phoebe

The last step was to work as a team to put our artwork up on the wall. We are also so proud of what we did together!