On Wednesday 18th May Explore PS & BH walked to the Ashley Gorge Waterfall to get inspiration for our art unit.

This term we are learning about a New Zealand Artist called Dean Buchanan who paints landscape paintings of his local environment. Dean goes on adventures to find motivation and inspiration for his work.

We are so lucky to live in such a beautiful part of the world, it wasn't hard to get some fabulous photos.   We stopped at the lookout point and took a range of landscape photos using the ipads.  

Once we reached the waterfall, everyone went exploring and took more photos.  Over the next few weeks we will use these photos to create our own landscape paintings.

A big thank you to Kelly, Rebecca and Suzie for being fabulous parent helpers and to our fantastic bus driver Lee.

Here are a few extracts from some our writing we have done about our trip.  We have been trying to use a range of sentence styles in our writing. 

Surprisingly, it wasn’t that hard to get to the waterfall and back. Lukas & Fletcher 

Later in the day, when we reached the waterfall, it was nice and cool. You could feel water drops sprinkling around through the air. It was a nice place to be.  Theya

The second I reached the cool tree canopy, the green faint light seemed to cover the bright sun and darken the world around us leaving a dim forest. Isabel

Slipping down the hill and holding onto the tree branches, we all continued to walk.  Ruby & Luca

When we were walking we saw some beautiful birds like fantails and wood pigeons. Ethan and Riley

Swiftly, we ran through the forest and the squishing mud rubbed against our shoes.  Christopher & Archer

The ferny, slippery, and freezing cold waterfall was fresh after the long sweltering hot walk to get there. Personally, I think it was definitely worth it. Mika

My favourite part was going downhill because it was slippery and easier. I loved the walk overall. I was proud of myself for making it all the way. Izzy