The Whale Tail

Written by: Devon and Eileen

At the beginning of the year we were gifted an opportunity to participate in the World Wildlife Fund’s Whale Tales exhibition at the Auckland Museum. Millie Prior and her family had kindly donated a ‘Whale Tail’ to Preschool for us to decorate with our very own artistic design. The children were captivated by this new beautiful sculpture. The whale tail was a white, lightweight, fibreglass sculpture– a blank canvas full of possibility.

At our group hui times, we spoke about our goal of creating a design before painting our tail and how we would collaboratively bring all our ideas together to come up with a final design. We were eager to see what the Kauri children would be interested in decorating the whale tail with and hear their initial thoughts. The children came up with many different design ideas, from patterns to rainbow coloured and unicorns to spider man skin, very confidently sharing them with the group.

It was clear that excitement and imagination was at an all-time high as they shared their ideas with such enthusiasm. We loved the idea of a patterned and abstract whale tail and as teachers we looked forward to nurturing and inspiring the children’s thinking.

Our next step was to begin the design process and select our colours. Collaborative discussions were had with a general consensus that the Saint Kentigern house colours would be a pertinent tribute to our place in the wider Saint Kentigern family. The children shared collective knowledge of these colours with some already aware of their house affiliations.

With our design and colour of paint agreed upon, it was time to start practicing the concentric circles, inspired by the artist Kadinsky, using each house colour. The children were provided with the time and space to perfect the art of painting concentric circles. They had to be very careful, mustering all of heir fine motor control to achieve the aim of layering the circles . This became a daily task to empower the children to develop confidence with this artistic design, acknowledging the importance of fostering their competence and self-belief.

When it was time to begin painting our designs onto the Whale Tail itself, each child had an important role to play. For some it was painting the foundation layer of pale blue pant, for others it was the all important Saint Kentigern blue dot in the middle of each set of concentric circles. As we were using Resene Paint for the final stages, the children realised the importance of precision and patience as we waited for each circle to dry before adding the next ones. This became a painstaking labour of commitment and perseverance as together we watched our design come to life. As a Preschool community, we were so proud of the children’s dedication and fantastic art skills.

To celebrate the children’s work, and to give the Whale Tail a fitting send off to the Museum, the Preschool community came together for a special unveiling ceremony. The children proudly sat beside the Whale Tail, as they shared their learning journey with their younger peers. Whilst the Exhibition ran at the Museum, the children proudly shared their numerous weekend visits to find their ’Whale Tail.’ The Whale Tail has been returned to Preschool and is in safe keeping until it takes up permanent residence in our new building on Shore Road. We look forward to revisiting this fantastic experience for years to come.