Pt England Reflection~

 As you know, this is my last year at Pt England School. It wasn't a normal year, but then again it never is. It had it's ups and downs. But I'm glad we can end on a positive note!

I think one of the biggest things that happened in 2020 was Covid-19. It was very alarming and we had to go into lock-down not once, but 2 times. It affected our learning and the way we communicate . However in a we did our best to make the most of it, and made it impact us in nothing less than a positive way, I met some new friends. And it this time away from school let us become closer together as a community.

Being a Prefect. This year I was a prefect this meant I had lots of different responsibilities around the school. I got to help with different school wide events such as, picnics, assemblies and recently I got to MC an event. I very much enjoyed this and got to do some great things. I also learnt a whole lot more about working together as a team, and looking at tasks realistically. 

Extension, I've been in extension since yr 5. It was a great learning opportunity and the teacher was great too. We learnt a lot about different subjects and it helped me grow as a person. I learnt movie making skills and my English skills improved a lot more. Overall Extension was a good memory.

Even though there is a lot more I could reflect on I would just like to say a few Thank yous. Thank you to Mr Burt for being a great Principal. Thank you to all the Team 5 teachers for teaching me for the past 2 years. Thank you to Mrs Lagitupu for having me in Extension for the past 4 years. Thank you to Pt England for having me for the last 8 years.

Term 4 'Art Alive' Art Exhibition

This term the theme was Art Alive. This meant that the whole school, would focus on art as an area of learning. As it's the end of the term and year our whole school put up an art exhibition to share the art

portraying the theme.

Room 4 focused on the artist Vincent Van Gogh. His art style was post-impressionism. His technique included small short brush strokes, different from pointillism. So we re-created his famous starry night painting. It was different from how he did it, but still used the same technique. I found it really tricky, but I think it really, enjoyed it. I also painted 'The Great Wave off Kanagawa' in Vincent Van Gogh's style, and I was really proud of it. Overall I think Vincent Van Gogh is a genius and very patient for having his art style.

My favourite Art was from Team 4. They focused, on doing different kinds of Cultural Patterns. There were Niuean, Fijian, Tongan, Cook-Island and Maori patterns. Each on was different and unique. I enjoyed their descriptions and I learnt that even the colours they used mattered!

I'd like to point out that, Ngatokoa's art in Team 3 had different colours and a silhouette. They created a silhouette art, with blending colours in the background. It was an art interesting art style and the silhouette was very nicely cut out. I loved how he blended the neon colours in the background despite the fact that they were so different and he still managed to blend them together. 

I also vividly remember seeing some beautiful Rangoli Elephants. They were beautifully coloured with patterns. I learnt that these were elephants that Hindu's used, to decorate their home during Diwali. It was very interesting to see how fancy and unique each on was.

Overall, each and every piece art was amazing. The school did a great job. And I for one know that I could definitely improve. I also love how so many of the art styles were inspired by famous artist!

Term 4 DLO, Extension :)

The theme for Term 4 was Art Alive. So as usual in extension we focused on a certain area of Art. Our task was to create, a digital art work that reflects aspects of Kiwiana. Which is iconic New Zealand item, such as Pohutakawa, Harakeke and L&P. We also had to add, items that reflect our culture, and our family heritage,

My artwork is something that reflects me and my lifestyle. Because, I decided to put to beaches and kind of create a harbor like effects. But 1 side of the beach is, covered with things from fiji. We’ve got palm trees and turtles and a rocky tropical landscape in the background. If you look closely enough you can see that the turtles shell on the beach has Fijian patterns on it. 

Next time I would like to think about, changing the layout and making the page landscape. I would also like to,  have placed everything a bit better. I am quite proud of the shading on the harakeke though. Overall I think that this piece of art was done well. And I enjoyed making it!

Kiwi Kids Article~ Read Off

This week in literacy we had to read a kiwi kids new article and answer some questions we also had a small task to complete about vocabulary. These tasks were fairly easy and we completed it within an hour. This presentation is about a elephant rescue.

Poetry Cinquains ~literacy~

This week in literacy we looked at cinquains. Cinquains are poems that are 5 lines long, they don't have to rhyme and the number of syllables per line changes, and goes in the order of 2,4,6,8,2. I had quite a bit of fun, but I lacked creativity and basically wrote a cinquain about the first thing that came to mind.

Piet Mondrian - Abstract Artist

This week in literacy we learnt about Piet Mondrian who is a dutch artist. We learnt about his interesting style of art and how his art changed over time. It's a lot more complicated than I thought and learning the history behind it really makes it easier to appreciate the thought process and work it took to create it. I enjoyed this task and look forward to doing more.

~Euphoria~

It was a typical November evening, the sun was setting. It was utterly beautiful ‘ARGH THIS IS SO HARD’ Jack sighed in frustration. He had spent hours, days and possibly weeks trying to get the same book written. But this is the worst case of writer's block Jack had ever gotten.

He’d been struggling to get a single idea written on his blank page. It was as if his mind was either blank, wondering about something else or dealing with the issues that come with life. His wife had left him, 2 weeks ago. Now that can leave a man with mixed feelings.

After a few moments of staring at the blank page. He thought about how much easier it would be if he’d kept his mouth shut. Jack sighed in frustration ‘I keep messing up, messing up my marriage, messing up this stupid piece of writing’ he looked out side at the shining sun. ‘I’m miserable and I feel like giving up’ Jack spoke to his dog.

Bella was Jack’s golden retriever. She was always energetic and even on the darkest days she made Jack smile. Bella came to live with Jack after he moved out of college and got his own place. His parents had gone into retirement and they were probably sick of having ‘ a mangy old mutt prancing around in their castle of gold’.

Jack came from a wealthy family, his dad was a lawyer, and his mother practiced in medicine. Jack grew up in a busy household, even though he was an only child. His parents were always popping in and out as their occupations required lots of time. But it’s what made them happy, and who was Jack to question that.

After leaving college Jack decided to travel the world. He has a strange ambition that drove him to see the many wonders the world had to offer. He spent 10 years traveling. He went to Hawaii and surfed the tropical waves, he studied music in Tokyo and met the love of his life in Paris.

She was a lovely woman. Jack knew the minute he laid eyes on her that he’d marry her one day. From that day on, they were like 2 peas in a pod. A loving, happy couple that moved to North Carolina where she'd continue to record music and he’d write.

Jack stood up from his desk. He walked over to the window. He looked at the moon, the wonderful crescent moon it seemed so peaceful. He walked outside, the moonlit path and the cold air on his face. He was flooded with euphoria as he slowly strolled through the darkness of the night.

In The Bag

Today we had maths and in maths we looked at probability yet again. This lesson was pretty chill and easy and we got to play a game and go out and play with a parachute afterwards. This task required us to go around and randomly draw out some cubes and guess the different coloured ratio. E.g 1:5 (1 pink 5 whites).

The Great Ordinary ~Literacy~

This week in literacy we looked at photography. We learnt about a New Zealand Photographer, who has an exceptionally unique way of photographing things. Her work is quite popular and we even had a go at making a photo essay as the create task. This was all apart of this weeks reading.

Tips for Blog Commenting

This week we are going to have our annual Manaiakalani Film Festival. This event usually is followed by people watching movies from different school and classes and leaving comments on each others blogs. However there are protocols to follow when leaving comments on people's blogs. Here are some tips we use when commenting on blogs, why not try it out! ;D  

 

Statistics and Probability

Today we had a maths lesson it was a lot of fun and it was a topic we had already been looking at. Look forward to doing more!

Conserve and Protect

This week in literacy we looked at biodiversity loss. Last week we got our slides and our task was to basically complete the tasks and create task. After completing that we got the task of writing a info graph about conserving and protecting our biodiversity. All of these tips came from an article from David Attenborough.

Climate Change and A Loss of Biodiversity

Today we had a literacy class in which we discussed the many causes of Biodiversity Loss. As this was a large topic we broke up into groups and had turns presenting in class. Me and Pisirina worked together to create this presentation. It shows what Climate Change is and how it affects a Loss of Biodiversity. :))

Edvard Munch ~Art Alive~

 

This term we are learning about different artists. Today we learnt about. An artist called Edvard Munch. He was born in Norway a long time ago and became famous for a piece called 'The Scream'. We had to create a poster about him and his artwork. I found this artist very interesting because he his mood was incorporated into his art which made it fun to try and figure out what he was trying to portray in his different paintings.

Alberto Giacometti ~Art Alive~

This term we are doing art rotations. In room 2 we learnt about Alberto Giacometti, his nationality is Swiss and he lived for 65 years. We looked at his biography and tried to interpret what he was portraying in his sculptures. We then got the task of choosing 2 art pieces of our choice and writing our initial reaction to it.

Loss of Biodiversity

This week we learnt about the biodiversity and what a loss of biodiversity is. It was quite interesting but even so, we were only briefly able to touch on this topic as 3 of our literacy sessions have been tests in the past 2 weeks. Here is my poster explaining what a loss of biodiversity is and the main causes of it. I found this text interesting however, it was something that I've already heard a lot about so my attitude towards it may be a bit underwhelmed.

 

Loss of Biodiversity

This week in literacy we looked at a loss of biodiversity. This is something our earth has been faced with and our biodiversity has be decreasing at a concerning pace. A lot of this is caused by natural disasters but as humans we haven't been doing our bit to help. It's quite clear that many of us are unable to identify this problem as well.

Georges Seurat

Today we learnt about the French Artist Georges Seurat. He lived a 'comfortable life' in France in 1859-1891. We learnt about the technique he used to create the many wonderful pieces of art. I found it most interesting that he never mixed paints but instead chose to let out eyes mix the paints, when he painted his paintings with small dots and dashes super close together.

Plastic Pollution ~Explanation Writing~

Did you know that over 8 million metric tons of plastic is dumped in the ocean yearly? This is very harmful to our marine life; as they consume it unable to recognise that it is plastic. As you can imagine it doesn’t end well and sometimes it even ends up in us!

One way you could save the environment is by refusing products that contain microbeads. Microbeads are tiny bits of plastic that are detrimental to sea life. By refusing to buy the products manufacturers will be pressured into making their products plastic free.

And if you’re not ready to take that big of a step you could always start by reducing. Reducing the use of plastics. Biodegradable bags are a great alternative instead Single use plastic bags. These environmentally friendly bags are basically everywhere now, so it shouldn’t be too hard for you guys to get one!

Another way to help with the plastic pollution problem is by repurposing. There is so much in your home that you could be repurposing. Repurposing the plastic would mean changing it to do another job. For example, an empty milk carton can be  turned into a flower pot. The plastic containers use it to store things, there are endless possibilities.

Plastic is all of our problems as we are all responsible for the care of our environment and we should definitely work together to solve it. Remember to  Refuse, Reduce and Repurpose. Next time you go to use plastic think about the marine animals you could save without it.

Niuean Language Week

Fakalofa lahi atu This week is Niuean Language Week. The theme for this year is Lay the foundations - give rise to Vagahau Niue for generations. We had to share 10 interesting facts about Niue. I found the one about political parties most interesting.