It’s hard to know where to begin! This week the marvellous 3/4 students installed most of the bamboo structure, with a little help from our friends and champions, groundsman, Kulwinder and parent helper, Antonia Peric, Munir and Mittul, our artists in residents and Deb, our music resident. Thank you to all these wonderful people!
This is the story of how the day unfolded:
When Munir arrived he painted the plan for the structure on the ground.
The process of digging the trench began and students used trowels to ensure the trench was deep enough to secure the bamboo poles.
We measured the depth of the trench to make sure it was deep enough to support the bamboo.
We carried the prepared poles, for the spiral part of the installation, from the visual art room to the site on the West side of the school playground.
We arranged the prepared bamboo for the spiral in size from smallest to biggest.
Some students began the measuring and cutting for the square section of the structure.
These pieces also had to be prepared and painted ready to be installed later in the day and cemented in place.
The next step was to arrange the bamboo structure in the trench. There was a lot of discussion about how to arrange the sizes of the bamboo poles. Each student had to hold the bamboo straight while other students filled in the trench. Some poles were secured with an iron bar to give the structure strength.
The bamboo poles were measured carefully so they were equal distance apart, except at the end of the spiral when the poles drifted away from the spiral.
The next stage was to insert the poles for the square part of the structure.
Finally split bamboo was attached around the spiral and knotted in place to secure the structure.
Antonia worked quietly and carefully on the refinement of the split bamboo…
While all of this stage of the building was occurring with some students, other students worked with Deb to create some musical instruments.
Experimenting with sound was important.
Visualising how the instruments would be attached to the structure was also important.
The structure will be completed next week and we are all excited about the opportunity to complete the square section of the installation and also to paint the tops of the bamboo to protect them from the elements. The musical instruments are well under way and they will be connected to the structure during the course of the day next week.
It has been a wonderful experience to realise our collective design ideas into a structure and the students are keen to complete their installation next week and to present it to the students of PHPS and community.