A hands on kind of class:
As part of our study into Maori technology in Term 2 I decided we would hand craft our own "Pounamu" that would be at the centre of a writing piece about finding such treasure. The children researched shapes and sizes of Pounamu, formed a piece out of clay, painted and varnished it. Although we didn't partake in the carving and finding of the greenstone we explored what types of objects ancient Maori made from the greenstone. This led to one chap choosing to make an Adze which he was desperate to take home before the term was out! This gave great focus to their writing pieces as they could look to their clay object to aid their writing description. They were really impressed with their display also when we hung their treasures on the wall like real artefacts.
As part of our study into Maori technology in Term 2 I decided we would hand craft our own "Pounamu" that would be at the centre of a writing piece about finding such treasure. The children researched shapes and sizes of Pounamu, formed a piece out of clay, painted and varnished it. Although we didn't partake in the carving and finding of the greenstone we explored what types of objects ancient Maori made from the greenstone. This led to one chap choosing to make an Adze which he was desperate to take home before the term was out! This gave great focus to their writing pieces as they could look to their clay object to aid their writing description. They were really impressed with their display also when we hung their treasures on the wall like real artefacts.