Rips

Rips are very powerful in fact they cause the most drownings in New Zealand. Most of these are caused because people panic and do not stay calm. Also when they get caught in a rip and they don’t know how to get out. But it is really easy to get out of a rip you just have to stay calm and swim to the any side where the rip ends.

Rips are just very powerful waves. But the thing some people don’t know is that rips don’t go on for ever they only stop where they start. And if you just let the rip take you out and swim back you would still be alive instead of drowning.

Most people get too freaked out about rips and end up drowning. One of the lifeguards on our trip told us that if you are drowning try and touch the ground before putting your hands up. Also to help them watch over the whole beach you should always have a adult with no matter if you’re responsible or not.

Rips

Rips are very powerful in fact they cause the most drownings in New Zealand. Most of these are caused because people panic and do not stay calm. Also when they get caught in a rip and they don’t know how to get out. But it is really easy to get out of a rip you just have to stay calm and swim to the any side where the rip ends.

Rips are just very powerful waves. But the thing some people don’t know is that rips don’t go on for ever they only stop where they start. And if you just let the rip take you out and swim back you would still be alive instead of drowning.

Most people get too freaked out about rips and end up drowning. One of the lifeguards on our trip told us that if you are drowning try and touch the ground before putting your hands up. Also to help them watch over the whole beach you should always have a adult with no matter if you’re responsible or not.

Perspective Drawing

We watched multiple videos of how to draw a perspective drawing. Our job was to create a digital perspective drawing. When did this on an animating app called Hyper Studio Witch you can purchase in the app store.

Here's mine. It wasn't just any perspective drawing I did buildings and a street as you can see. It may look colourful but that might be because I like neon colours or just really bright colours.

Jo May

Te Tuhi

                                      Te Tuhi

The intermediate block got to go to Te Tuhi to learn about cultural arts. Being a big bunch we went in classes on different days and sessions. If you don’t know where or what Te Tuhi is, well don’t stress I will tell you as I am nice.

Te tuhi is a place Pakuranga across from the back of the warehouse. It is a place with art exhibitions and other art programs. The art program we went to was called “ Stories from the Pacific our instructor for the day was Jeremy. So take a read on what we got up to that session.

After introducing himself we went into the art room where there was pieces of paper with four squares on the paper. Handing around two pieces of tapa cloth he explained what we were going to do. It turns out that we were going to make paper tapa cloths we did this by scrunching the paper. We then rubbed pastel in the boxes and then dyed the whole paper. If you are wondering what colours we used the answer would be earthy colours.

The next step was to dry them but to save time we used the ones that the previous class had made. On the paper we drew four designs to do with our home, culture, interests and family. These designs had to be BASIC.

I drew a turtle to represent my culture a volleyball to symbolise my interest. Also a sky tower to because every time I see it I know i’m nearly home. For my family I drawed a door with four heads coming out of the side.

To make these stand-out we coloured the background with pastel and dye. Jeremy said it would add a lot of attention if it 2 was pastel and the other 2 was dye. To make it look more awesomer we did them diagonally.

Moving on we went to the exhibition called The Manukau Water we looked at the different artworks created by artist. Most of them was based around water and sound. Watching the animations, movies and canvases I was so inspired as I knew that art isn’t just painting it was also other ways like sketching and all sorts of things.

Finishing our session Ana ( a girl from our class) stood up and said a huge thank-you on behalf of  the whole class. At the end of the day we each went home with a imitation tapa cloth and a little knowledge about art.

Friends Writing Sample

Friends are like family, but they all have different personalities. You have some caring, humorous, nuts and most of all your besties. It doesn’t matter who your friends are or what their personalities are. You just have to accept them for who they are.

In my eyes everyone needs a friend whether its to pick you back up or to encourage you but most of all to have a laugh with. A good friend will always be there for you when you are feeling low.

Friends are like family members that you can always talk too. You spend time with them, make jokes or laugh with them. Once you find a good friend they turn into your family with out any of your ancestors dna though.

Do you know what 3 things it takes to form a good friendship? Well a good friendship would be based on trust which means that they can tell you their deepest secrets. Another key is on caring where when they get pushed down you pick them back up. The lucky last is respect make sure that they have respect for you and you have respect for them.

“A friend to me is someone to share the last cookie with” quoted by cookie monster

Future Aspirations

The year 7 and 8 intermediate classes were blessed when we had 3 talented speakers arrive at our school. They were here because they came to talk to us about their aspirations and hopefully inspire us to think about what we want to do when we get older. As they were part of the future aspirations this was hosted by Andrew Patterson.

Giving it over to Andrew he talked to us a little bit before he showed us a video. The video was about a boy who was year 8, when he first found out that he was a confident speaker. This year he is year 9 and is a confident speaker who gets paid to speak at conferences and all sorts of meetings. The video was full of laughter coming from both us and the audience in the video.

“Can we please say a huge hello to Mr Samuels” He said. When he came up to the front to talk to us we already knew him as he was the dad of three boys that attend our school. He talked to us about the time he had spent on the No 1 kids show What now. Also there was 1 key and 1 phrase. The phrase was To Miharo Hoki which means You are Amazing. Where the key to unlock this phrase was “ Your past doesn’t have to determine your future”. Before giving the mic back to Andrew we watched a little movie. It was about famous people who got told they could never make it but ended up stars. The purpose of this was to teach us that what other people say doesn’t mean they're right.

Receiving the mic Andrew then announced the next person who was Paula. He told us a story about how he nearly died. It may sound scary but its actually quite funny. The events leading up to the story started at his school when he first started swimming. He won all the awards as he had a secret weapon. He said it really came in handy when he got tired as he just put his legs down and walked. But one time when he went  to a swimming competition he realised that he couldn’t touch the ground and ended up drowning. The moral of his story was that he’s not scared we won’t succeed he’s scared we won’t try.

The last speaker was a lady named Amelia who is finishing her 2nd year of a 3 year degree. Her message was don’t let other peoples opinions and choices influence your decisions. She had said this message because in her life everybody thought she would grow up and be like her brothers instead of having hope and faith in her.

We are so grateful to have the opportunity to have people like them in our world. who give up their time to help inspire kids and young youth. Thank-you for inspiring us on this day and through the rest of the day.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                     

Marsden Bay

Tattoo Design

Symbol, Symbolic and Symbolism 

Symbol, Symbolic and Symbolism may sound the same but they aren't all the same. As symbol means something that represents a day, a person or a object even letters.  Symbolic is something that has been illustrated, representative and emblematic. Symbolism pretty much sums the other 2 up as is the use of symbols to represent the ideas or qualities.

Sentences using these words.

"You could all tell that the shops were getting ready for christmas, they all showed this by adding the symbols which represent christmas."
" When shopping I could see jack lanterns and pumpkins which are symbolic for Halloween"
" Every time an event comes mum always believes in the importance of symbolism in Decorations"

Sulu'ape Video Recount

After looking at these words and what they meant we learnt about a samoan family who are all tattooist. The family was Sulu'ape, we watched a video of one of the family members who took on residency at the Auckland University The video showed another man who was called Faliniko Tominiko.

The video showed us the process and what it takes to get a Pe'a. Watching the video I curled up and had moments were I just closed my eyes. Because it looked so painful and scary that I couldn't take it all in. We watched more of the parts to this and in each of them we found out more.

To learn more about the Pe'a click here.

Mini Project

We got assigned a mini project for extension the project was to design a tattoo that represented our culture and another one representing us. Asking around my family about whats something that is symbolic in our family I got all sorts of answers. Turtle, Centipede, Flowers, Birds, Dolphins and many more patterns.

For my cultural tattoo I decided to combine both my Nuiean and Cook Island side. I interpreted some creatures that meant something to the island or our tribe. Also things that mean something to our family.     

The creatures I used were Onu and the Unga. A Onu is a turtle in Cook Island and a Unga is a coconut crab in Nuiean. I also combined some other creatures like the dolphin and the kakaia bird.
                                              
Along with those I decided to add a vaka which is a canoe in Cook Island. I chose this because back in the island my great grandfather was a legendary fisherman. On the Vaka you will see flowers which represent the beautiful Tiare maori and Jasmines that live back on the Island. To fill in the gaps I put some patterns that both of my cultures put on Tapa cloths.

To represent myself I decided to do things that I find interesting. Of course I only did the important things, not that i'm not important. But I did the things that didn't only represent me but was meaningful to others around me, for example my parents.             

I included some spears which is symbolic for protection and strength. In the middle I added a heart with two Korus in the centre. This shows the symbol of love and the Korus represent my country Aotearoa.
                   
The shape of it may look a little quirky but it's actually the shape of a dogs paw. I added a little dab of creativity by adding the shape of a turtle to both the palm and the paws. In each paw it either shows by passion and something I find beautiful. In the middle paw is my birthday because i've always wanted an established tattoo. Also it marks the day when I came into this world which is full of opportunities.

I've realised that the inside of the body of the turtle or the palm of the paw actually represents my personality. As I am protective on the outside but nice on the inside.

I've really took this opportunity to take a deeper look in to the art of both tattoos and my culture. I've learnt more about my culture and my family also I had the time to take a look into what I like and the things that surround me.

So heres my tattoos of both my culture and me. Ashlee

Cultural ( Left )  

This is my tattoo that represents my culture.

                                                          


Conclusion                      

Elections

ELECTIONS

The 2014 New Zealand Elections had come and gone. The numbers of people that had placed their votes was colossal. This had taken place on the 20th of September. Driving anywhere around New Zealand you could tell that elections were coming up, due to billboards and people waving signs around.

On the day you would see orange signs with bold writing spelling Vote with a black arrow pointing at places. One of the paces were you saw the signs would be at my school Point England. It was available for the community to come together and place their votes.

Rules

Election is a very serious time for New Zealand and many more countries. One of the rules are so serious that you could get fined up to 20,000 dollars.  In the weekends our very own Rugby Player Jonah Lamu was fined 20,000 dollars for posting who he voted for. In between the hours of 9am - 4pm you are not aloud to post or say who you voted for.

Policies

Labour
One of the policies including Education and Kids are that there will be the best start for all kiwi kids. The policies means that they will give parents more time to be parents also that kiwi kids will succeed in school and through out the community.

National
Did you know that National is investing 1.1 million dollars on building schools in Christchurch. The money will be going towards constructing 13 new schools on new sites. Rebuilding 10 schools on their existing sites and redeveloping 92 schools.

Quotes

"Did you know that Labour hasn't won this bad since 1920" Quoted by Isara Nua

Humour

Story line's Festival

Over 600 kids from schools all over Auckland went to the Manukau events Center on Thursday to see some of their favorite authors, also to listen to some other amazing New Zealand authors to. Why you ask because they are apart of the Story line's Festival.

There were only 4 speakers with all inspiring books and tales. They showed the books that they did and how they came to be the person that they are. All 4 of them were girls and there names were Juliette Mclver, Cath Mayo, Jill MacGregor and Paula Green. You might remember them or may there your favorite authors.

My 2 favorite authors from that day was Juliette Mclver and Jill MacGregor. Because they kept me entertain and I wasn't bored when they were speaking about their books. Another reason was because they were both wacky and lit up the room with laughs.

If I had the opportunity to speak at the Story line's festival I would, something I would have liked to ask them was how old were they when they decided they wanted to be an author. Was it on purpose or accident.

Tragic House Fire

Last week a horrible house fire happened in Hamilton. It was a terrible tragedy that took the life of three young people aged 17, 19 and 23. The fire broke out after a party that was held in Collingwood street. There was four that escaped the blaze they were Bayley Reid, 17, of Hamilton, Raine Tarawa, of Tauranga, Joseph Soutar, of Tauranga and Michael Heyes, of New Plymouth. They escaped by jumping out of windows with just minor injuries.

With every one else the four survivors payed their respects to those who were killed in the blaze. Not only did they have funerals for the families to remember them by they also had a lantern commemoration. The Police arrested three people on that night for being disrespectful and also four teenagers for drinking vigil outside the house.

Police are still investigating the house fire and who might have caused the tragedy. They were looking for video footage of the party. What they already know is that earlier on in the night a fight broke out that night over someone taking a beer.

Mr Tele'a/ Pe'a

As part of Art Attack the extension group took a deeper look at symbolism. We looked at the different cultures and the symbols tat represent them. They got inspired by the things that use to help them when times were rough like objects, animals, creatures and plants.

To give us some more information Mrs Tele'a brought in her husband to show us his Pe'a. We got to ask some questions about the process, his feelings, and more and more about the tattoo. One of us asked about the design and if he got to pick the design or if the tattooist designed it himself. The answer was the tattooist had studied his tribe and family and had a picture in his head that he had free styled on to his skin.

Since we had already been studying the subject we got a few minutes to work as a group and come up with some questions that we could ask him when he arrived here they are.

Questions and Answers:

1. Josephine - Would you mind if your sons got a tatau too?
2. Josephine - Which family did your tattoo?
3. Ashlee - Did you ever have a moment where you didn't want to complete the process
4. Ashlee - Was it a choice or a must.
5. What did you want to do when you were getting your tattoo done?
6. How long did it take to get it done?

     7.

1. He would be proud of his son if he got a Pe'a but it wouldn't be something he would force him to do as it's his choice. Another worry would be if he could handle the long process and the pain.

2. As their are two very famous families in Samoa that are known very well for doing tattoos we decided to ask who done his Pe'a. We found out that it was a guy named Tuifa'asisina Su'a. Which was part of the Su'a family.

3. Sometimes but he kept going because and unfinished Pe'a is called a Pe'a muku which is embarrassing to walk around with an unfinished Pe'a.

4. To find out if it was more a must by his parents and family or if he had chose to get his Pe'a done. Finding out our answer we discovered that he had chosen to get his Pe'a done.

5. Someone from our group had asked what he wanted to do when getting his tattoo done. He said that he just wanted it to be finished and over.

6. The process is quite long and one of their superstitions is that when getting a Pe'a done you must have a Partner, which is called a Soa to get the tattoo done with. Which made the process longer but the days it took to get his and his Soa Pe'a done was 17 days.

Here are some of the photos that we captured.

Back

 
Where the tattoo starts is called a canoe
Below is some patterns and designs.
Some represent things that helped them survive when times were tough also some sea creatures and other types of creatures. Also things that mean something to either them or their tribe.

                                                                                   Inside Thigh

For those who don't know what a Pe'a is it is a Samoan tattoo that goes from the belly button down to about their knees. The tattoo isn't just for Samoan men but also women can get them. 

Front Legs

The tattoos are like a bat wrapped around you with patterns cause if you were to unwrap it of your body and place it on a paper it would look like a big picture.

Immersion Assembly Term 4

“ Give it up for Team 4 “ Mr Burt announced with a tinge of excitement in his voice. The teachers from team 4 stood up, while wearing their disguises and walked upto the stage getting ready to wow us with their topic. Which they were going to be looking into during this term.

Standing in a formatted line the 5 famous artists held up their most valuable paintings. That they had brought to see which the audience preferred, this was held in our very own school hall ! They were a variety of different artists from different places in the world.

To help us pick which artist the audience preferred, they all had a speech prepared.

It helped us know a little bit about  where they were from and the techniques they liked to use also the inspiration they got while in the process of these paintings. Some of the techniques they used while painting was a steady stroke, dabbing the brush and doing blobs.

All describing where they were from and the different techniques they used. Majority of them had carried an accent from the previous countries, they were in. Even though some of them weren’t accurate they still made people laugh.

Here are the artist that were re enacted and cloned.

Fatu Fe’uu (Samoan)

Vincent Van Gogh   ( bandaged ear)

Pablo Picasso  (cubism) angular

Monet (French accent)

George Seurat  pointillism dots

Empathy. What it means to be Empathetic.

Putting yourself in other peoples shoes is practically explaining empathy. Because the definition of empathy is not only caring but also understanding about what they are going through which is the same as sympathy without the understanding part.

Visualise yourself in a world where everyone put themselves in others shoes. You could feel what they feel do what they do and live their life. Now imagine everybody not caring about what people around them are going through.

Empathy and sympathy are not completely similar but do have some similarities because they both include caring. The difference is that when you feel sympathetic you feel sorry for someone crying but you don’t understand why they are doing what they are doing. Empathy on the other hand is when you feel sorry for someone crying and understand why they are crying.

Now get out of thinking about what you can do to be empathetic and put those words and thoughts into action about motivating others to choose to be empathetic. Take your choice and make a change which one would you like to live in.

Translation, Rotation, Reflection and Enlargement

Here is a presentation about Translation, Rotation, Reflection and Enlargement. This was put together by my friends and I. Hope you enjoy.

Ashlee and Lizaras Netball project

The sport Netball was first invented in 1895. If you wondered why the sport is so similar to Basketball? The answer would have to be before the first game of netball was played, a few people were playing the sport basketball when they accidentally created a new game called “Netball”.

There is no explanation for why this game was created. It was just like a few other popular sports that was created by accident. Did you know the first game of netball was played at Madame Ostenburg's College, England.

Apparently a variety of boys and girls created the sport one lunch time when playing Basketball and then it turned into Netball. Through to inclusion the game is one of the must have sports in the commonwealth games.

If you have never played the game netball then don’t fear because we are hear to tell you. You must have 2 teams with at least 7 players on each side. You play on a rectangular court with raised hoops on each side.

The objective of the game is to see which team has the most goals at the end of the game. They do this by passing the ball down the court to their team members without breaking the rules. To see the rules of netball then keep tuned for a movie explainging the rules of Netball.

Lifeguards Perspective

Here is my paragraph from a life guards perspective from a boy going for a last swim and getting into trouble with the water.


The Last Swim

The end of the day had come and the last few surfers were carving up the little ripples in the water. Spotting a blue rash shirt and yellow shorts on a little figure I watched the boy walk in to the ocean with a positive attitude. I turned away to check on the rest of the beach and a few seconds had passed. When I turned to my right the boy was getting beaten up by the water and sooner than later he got spat out on the cold sand.

Acrostic Poem about Lesieli

Lesieli is one of my Best Friends this year. She is a Year 7 that attends Point England school the same as me. She is very Jumpy, Hypo, Beautiful, Positive and can be a little annoying sometimes but she is still a cool and trustworthy person and I cherish her as if we were related.  That's why I have chosen to write an acrostic poem about her to let you know her and her characteristics.

Laughter. One of the things about Lesieli is that she is always fulled with Laughter

Energy. Every time I see her whether it's in the morning or after she just finished playing a netball game she always has energy.

Sympathy. One of the many reasons she is one of my Best friends is because she shows sympathy for anybody she sees or knows

Independent she can be very Independent with her work but outside of work she likes to spend it with her friends.

Eligible. She has the potential to be a great future pupil and could be the next Female Prime Minister 

Lifesaver. Lesieli has many cool things about her but the one particular thing about her is she will save peoples whether it a saying or it's real

Intelligent. Lesieli is very bright and smart.

Algebra- Cup capers

Here is my solving of the problems above.