My Attempt To Be Vincent Van Gogh

 Today for Cybersmart, we were having a bit of a taster for the summer learning journey. The summer learning journey is basically a programme over the summer for blogging where they give you a cool task each day and you blog about it. Today we got to pick a picture on https://artsandculture.google.com/experiment/art-coloring-book/1QGsh6vSfAQBgQ?hl=en , I picked Roses by Vincent van Gogh. We then changed up the colours to make the image our own. I decided to make my roses yellow instead of the pale whitish colour because it's known as a happy colour, and has been scientifically proven to make people happier by looking at it. Although I would have preferred a slightly more washed-out and less intense yellow. 

Here is my work...

Roses by Vincent van Gogh

Roses by Liana

Today for Cybersmart we were using Lunapic to create pop art. First we took a picture of ourselves, making sure to have a pretty blank background so that Lunapic wouldn't put too much detail behind us, taking away from us in the foreground. Next we uploaded them to Lunapic and added filters. I think the first 2 are Sadness (which I can only explain as a filter that makes you look like a fish) and Flames (which makes me look like Katniss Everdeen in The Hunger Games), but I'm not sure what the bottom 2 are. Finally, using google drawings we put them into a 2x2 array and voila!

Here is my work 

After we finished this we used a website called Artnet. Here is my other work... 

Creating A Jingle Using WeVideo

This week for cybersmart Room 4 were creating jingles or a sort of short video promoting a brand or something. First we came up with brand ideas, I came up with Gumboot Industries which was a sort of inside joke between some of my friends a while ago. Next, using google drawings, we created text boxes with writing in it to show off our company. After downloading them as PNGs we imported them to we video and started animating them to move in as when wanted them to appear. I'm pretty happy with my finished product, but there is still room for improvement.
Here is my work...

Making Music Using Soundtrap

Lately for cybersmart we have been working on making our own music. This time we used Soundtrap. But first we chose an image to try and make our music match e.g if it was a cheetah it would be fast music, if it was a book it might be calming music. I chose a picture of a playful puppy. My aim was to make the music kind of fun and playful at the start then at the end to kind of slow it down a bit to replicate the puppy starting to get tired. That was my aim at least. It was very hard for a start to get my head around soundtrap because there was just so much going on everywhere and I had no idea where to start. So in the end I basically used at least 75% of my time trying desperately to figure out how to use the website. I've discovered that it's not very likely I'll get a job in the music industry because I'm not particularly good at it. I don't think I ended up fully achieving my goal. But after downloading it and adding it to my slide with the photo on it I was happy enough with my results. To play and stop my music click on the speaker symbol on the slides and click the pause/play button.

Here is my music...

Terrific Track-Pants And Blazing Beanies

This Term, us year 8's are in sewing tech. We've been making track-pants, and today Sophia and I finished ours. To start off we sewed around the patterns, leaving a gap for putting in our pockets. After a couple of weeks and a lot of hard work, we finished off by threading the elastic through the waist band and at the ankles. I've learnt how to use a sewing machine better through the whole experience, as well as hand sewing, and am pretty happy with how it's come along. Once we completed those we went on to start making fluro beanies for our coming ski camp. We had to use really bright colours so we won't lose each other on the mount. So far it's been pretty simple because we're just cutting out the fabrics needed (a combination of fluro green, orange and some pink so bright it kind of hurts your eyes to look at). But I've always enjoyed sewing tech because it's so chill, instead of the quite quick paced cooking and woodwork. 

Make Your Own Music!

Today with Mrs Torrie we learnt how to make our own music. We used three apps: Incredibox, Digital Rythm Maker and Turn Art Into Music. For my finished result below I used incredibox.
It was really fun playing around with all the different settings and creating our own pieces of music which were all different to each others.
I think this tool could be really helpful for future animations.
I would definitely recommend giving this a go.

To listen to my music, click Here

Writing- List Of 10

Today during writing with Mrs Allan we were given a photo of people cheering.

We then had to make a list of 10 places where that could be. I had things like at a rugby match, school cross-country etc. But in the end I decided that my writing would be based around a crowd welcoming soldiers back from war. We could either make a list of phrases about what they people would be doing and saying or could make a piece of writing. I ended up choosing the writing.

Here it is... 

A deafening roar reverberates through the large crowd. Beaming faces, thank and congratulate leering ones. Grimy men traipse down the street, looking utterly defeated. Some give weak smiles in response to the shouts, others stare fixedly at their mud caked boots. Various wounds and illnesses reach most men, making them stagger and splutter. Grey clouds roll over the surrounding mountain ranges. The sea thunders against the cliffs. Gradually the vessel empties. But it still haunts the crestfallen soldiers. Perilous seas and the conditions of war aren’t readily forgotten. Bitter air slices into numb cheeks like knives. The last slouching soldiers make their way off the boat, bundled in their thick, stained coats. A boy pushes through the hundreds of people and extends his arm to the last soldier. Bloodstained bandages wrap his head and he hobbles along, shrapnel dug too deeply into his leg to be removed safely. 

“Welcome back Sir,” he breathes softly, shaking the soldiers rough hands vigorously. The corners of the soldiers' worn mouth tug feebly.

“I don’t believe I’ll ever be welcome after what I’ve seen” he replies sorrowfully. 

He limps along the winding street and vanishes. But the boy was sure he saw a thick tear winding its way down his bristly cheeks before he was swallowed by the darkness.

 -Liana

Fungi Slow Writing

To incorporate our study on fungi, lately we did some slow writing on fungi. We chose one photo that had been taken from around the school of our abundance of fungi. Then using our creative juices we constructed a piece of writing. There was a structure we all followed to help enrichen our writing using  thing like similes, metaphors, questions etc.
Here is my writing...

The Science Of Yeast

A recent focus for Room 4 has been fungi. A form of fungi is yeast. So on Wednesday we did a science experiment on which temperature of water works best to activate yeast. We discovered that around 39 degrees Celsius is optimal. So today with Mrs Torrie we learnt how to make GIF's to show our learning on how yeast is activated. Using slides we made a short presentation based on our experiment. We then used TallTweets to turn it into a GIF.
Here is my work...

Genius Hour- Roman Mythology

Over the past 2 weeks for Genius Hour I have been focusing on Roman mythology to follow up my study on Greek mythology. I have found this very fascinating. I have learnt the 12 Olympians (the 12 main gods) names, powers and how they all link in as a family. When I did Greek mythology I learnt a lot more as it turned into a form of passion project for me. For example I learnt about many of the minor gods and some of the monsters. But I still find Roman mythology very interesting.
Here is the poster I created on the 12 Olympians...

Venn Diagram- Changing Times

Lately for Room 4's focus on  'the changing times' we made venn diagrams based on the way we are growing up contrasting to how our parents or grandparents grew up. For example I've grown up on a farm and my mother grew up in the city. I think this was a very effective way of showing the differences and similarities between the starts of our lives.
Here is my venn diagram comparing some aspects of my life to my mothers...

My Animation- Car Crash In Cartoonsville

Here is my animation that I finished today.
I really enjoyed coming up with the idea for the animation and creating it,
although it took quite a bit of patience with all the slides.

My Animation: The Crash Of Cartoonsville

Today with Mrs Torrie we made animations. We had free rein to make it about whatever we wanted. I made mine about a car crash, bombing aeroplane and a crazy alligator. Right now it is a work in progress and I will be updating it to include my animation soon.
Have a great day,
...
-Liana

My Favourite Bubble Moments

Today to reflect on our recent lockdown, we did a quick activity on google drawings for 'Our Favourite Bubble Moments'. We all tried to make them effective, using boarders, nice fonts, backgrounds etc.  I enjoyed remembering all the way back to the start of lockdown and to some of my favourite moments.
Here is my work...

 

Usain Bolt

Today for writing Mrs Allan we were focusing on Usain Bolt or Yohan Blake. We could write either an interview, commentate over a video of them running in the Olympics, a newspaper article about them, or a creative writing piece. I chose to write a creative writing piece because obviously I'm boring. Here is my writing...

I take a deep breath. The crowd is a blur. A deafening roar erupts around me. Cameras blink in bright flashes. A shake out my arms and legs. All my training leading to this one race, which will last for less than 20 seconds. I picture my family and friends at home. This is for them. The night air is still warm and humid. The camera man comes over and takes a close up of my face. Everyone shouts unheard encouragement. I wave a couple of times to thank the people. My head is in the game.

Crouching I position my hands behind the line and await the start. “Set” the voice echoes around the stadium. Instant silence.  I concentrate on my arching back. “CRACK” the starting blocks smack together. Quick as a strike of lightning I launch myself forwards. Legs like a windmill. I breath in rattling breaths as I bolt along the track. I extend my legs and raise my head. Arms pumping madly. Blake stretches ahead of me and I grit my teeth as I push myself. I no longer feel my legs, I only see the line. I gain on Blake and am just in front of him. The line nears and I struggle to maintain my pace. But I do. I pass the line and sprint a couple more metres before slowing. I had won. I become aware of the racket of the crowd. A smile stretches across my face as I sit, breathing hard. “Gold Medal To Usain Bolt!!”

-Liana

What Is In My Room-Writing Poem

Today Mrs Bennett gave us some ideas for what to write about. I chose the 'What's In My Room' idea, and because I seem to be addicted to writing in poems these days, I of course wrote in a poem. And because poems sound much better when rhyming in my opinion, I chose to make the challenge harder for myself (because it's me and why not) and rhyme.
So here is my poem...

What Is In My Room

If you were to go into my room for a peek,

Past the door with a very loud ‘CREAK’,

Perhaps half the things you would not understand,

But to me, all the items are very grand.

Step in, and you would see,

Many books that cause me glee,

To pore over with much of my time,

Because in my mind, not reading is a crime.

Go in further and more books than you guessed!

Because over books, I am obsessed,

Harry Potter, Hunger Games, Percy Jackson and Divergent,

Those are some in many to give you a hint.

Pictures of animals, pets and friends,

A desk littered with pencils and pens,

Drawings and sketches from some of the stories,

Of different genres and odd categories.

A comfy bed, to give a good sleep,

And a big window to watch my beautiful sheep, 

A drawer crowded with arts and crafts,

And birthday cards filled with many laughs.

A nice, white, functional ceiling,

Because having rain on your head isn’t appealing,

Although in winter there are sometimes rats,

Who wont stop scratching, the little brats.

There is not need to critique,

My obsession with the ancient Greek,

As shown all around my room,

Because that information I happily consume.

Oh and remember to never overlook,

My piles and piles of beautiful books,

I know I’ve already touched on this subject,

But books in my eyes are the definition of perfect.

You see this is what makes us all unique,

Maybe you wouldn’t like my door that creaks,

Or in winter, the ceiling rats that squeak.

Perhaps you’d even think me a freak,

My books a bit weird, so to speak,

Or find my belongings mild and bleak,

But this is what you’d find wrapped in all it’s mystique,

This is what you’d find if you gave my room a peek.

Random Word- Writing

For writing today Mrs Allan shared us a challenge to do a 'random words' piece of writing. I highly recommend this fun and quick writing challenge. We had to choose a book, pick a number between 1 and the number of pages were in the book, and turn to that page. Then pick a number for the line to go to. And finally pick a number for which word in that line to choose. I chose one of the books I'm currently reading- Little Women by L.M Alcott, page 119, line 10, word 12, and got ornament. We also had to pick 2 or more language features from the the following list to include...

I am still apparently on the whole 'slightly somber' writing theme at the moment so please excuse the fact that it's a bit dark. I blame the fact that all my favourite characters are dying in the books I'm reading. It's also find that for me, the best writing is ones using raw emotions as it makes it realistic to a certain extent.  So here is my writing...

Random Words Writing

What is left of the living room makes my nose tingle from the mixture of ash and lingering dust. The right side of the room is a smouldering mess. Instinctively I stride to the fireplace to search for clues. Singed ornamental books lie on the shelf, forgotten photographs capture families which have long since been broken by time and tragedies. My full eyes spill tears like falling rain as the memories flood back to me. I will find her, if it's the last thing I do.

Kowhaiwhai Patterns

Today our teacher Mrs Allan challenged us to make kowhaiwhai patterns as shown below

A kowhaiwhai pattern is basically a simple Maori design repeated using translation, rotation or reflection, using the colours red, black and white. The koru is typically white. Here are my attempts at a more simple design...

I did have a better design but because I am so good at this, I forgot to put the red in, so it had to be redone. I would also like to share a bit of humour with you. You see because my computer's language is set to English, it doesn't register Maori properly. So when I wrote 'kowhaiwhai', it's for some reason wanting to change it to 'wheelchair'. Which I found quite funny for some reason.

Tech From Home-Invention Test

Yesterday Mrs Bennett gave us the task of an invention test which is often seen in Master Chef. You get given ingredients to cook with and have to make a dish out of it. Of course because none of us are professionals we were given 4 ingredients and had to pick two of them to include in the baking. These four ingredients were...

• Eggs
• Fruit
• Cheese
• Chocolate

I figured that most people would use the chocolate, so I set out to make something savoury using the cheese and eggs. But as I was going through my mothers recipe book in the savoury section, there was a misplaced recipe for swirly biscuits, which just so happened to use eggs and chocolate. Call it what you want, I call it fate. So of course my resolution to make something healthier got thrown out the window and died. Swirly biscuits have long been a favourite in my family, and my cousin is practically in love with them. But without a further a do here is the recipe I used and a picture of my creation...

Swirly Biscuits

Ingredients:

125g butter, softened

2/3 cup sugar

1 egg

1 tsp vanilla essence

1 1/2 cups flour

1/4 tsp baking powder

30g melted dark chocolate

1/2 tablespoon cocoa, sifted

Makes 20 biscuits

Method:

• Line 2 oven trays with baking paper.
• Cream the butter and sugar with an electric beater until the mixture is light and fluffy. Add the egg and beat well.
• Fold in the vanilla essence. Sift in the flour and baking powder and mix until a soft dough forms (add a little more flour if necessary).
• Divide the dough into 2 bowls. Add the melted chocolate and cocoa to one batch and mix well.
• Place the vanilla dough between 2 sheets of baking paper. Roll out to a rectangle about 20x22cm
• Roll out the chocolate dough between 2 sheets of baking paper until it's exactly the same size and shape as the vanilla dough.
• Lift the top layer of baking paper off both dough's and place the vanilla directly on top of the chocolate. Remove the top baking paper and, using the bottom piece, roll up the dough as firmly as possible into a log shape. Place in the freezer for an hour.
•   When you're ready to bake, preheat the oven to 180℃. Slice the dough into 1cm rounds and place them onto the prepared oven trays. Bake for about 15 minutes until firm. Leave to cool for 2-3 minutes before transferring onto a cooling rack.

Here is a photo of my biscuits...

The Quest Drawing

About a week ago I wrote a story called 'The Quest' which I am now basing a novel off. Mrs Williams challenged me to draw a scene from that writing, so I did. I am the first to admit that it's a definitely not the best of artworks. In my defence the camera doesn't really pick up on the detail I put into it but, oh well. I realise that it is a bit bare but I tried putting trees, sheep and detail onto the hill and it just didn't really turn out that well, so I settled for how it was naturally.  Also imagine it's lovely and colourful because I am too scared of putting colour into my work because it will end up looking like a 2 year olds if I do. Anyway, here is my drawing...