A Letter of Appreciation from Kingstord Primary School

When two teachers, from Kingsford Primary School in Mangere East, visited Fo Guang Shan Monastery in Flat Bush one Saturday and saw the marvellous Bamboo Craft exhibition by Ms Li-Jung Tseng, an idea came to mind. They took the idea back to school and discussed it with the Principal, Mr Rex Buckley. Initially the idea wasn’t considered to be viable until it was then realised that it is closely linked to something similar that many of our students do at home with their families, weaving mats and other items using pandanus and flax.
A decision was made to trial a two week Bamboo Craft enhancement class for a few selected students from Year 4 to Year 6.
Using bamboo, the Year 6 children wove baskets with a handle; 4 students also wove a patterned mat. The year 5 children wove small hanging baskets and the year 4’s, a windmill. They also used flax to weave fish and birds as an added activity.

The staff and students were amazed and proud of the end product that they had produced. The talented Ms Tseng used her own time, before the lessons, to create a sample of a patterned mat, using a photocopied Pacifica pattern. She drew diagrams of three different Pacifica patterns to help the children weave their patterned mat in school colours using bamboo.

We, at Kingsford, would like to thank Fo Guang Shan Monastery and Ms Tseng for providing us with this opportunity to experience the wonderful art of Bamboo Craft.
Mr Buckley commented, “Craftwork, such as patchwork quilting and knitting, traditional crafts, are being forgotten. It’s the same with this traditional Chinese craft.”
This programme brought out the potential our students have with the craft of weaving. A picture is worth a thousand words; they clearly showed that the students enjoyed and were proud of what they had achieved.