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...

The Great Zoo Debate/Zoo Art

This Term Room 4 have been focusing o persuasive writing. We've done a couple of pieces on things like uniforms and homework etc. But last week we had a proper focus on the zoos, doing research to back up our thoughts and learn about the positives and negatives. Once we had read several articles, we set to work on our actual writing. I decided to disagree with zoos being a thing. I actually am on the fence, because there is compelling evidence for and against zoos. But I decided that I would try to write a piece against it. We also did a piece of zoo art and  I decided to do a red panda. There is a photo of it below my writing. But anyway, here is my writing.

The Great Zoo Debate

Zoos are cruel and should be banned. This is a statement I strongly agree with. Here are some reasons why.

Reason 1
The enclosures are far too small for the animals. No matter how much zoos evolve to allow for more space, they will never be big enough, especially for large animals. We have all just come out of quarantine. A time when we were confined to our homes alone. Imaging that for your entire life! Many animals are constantly roaming over vast areas. A zoo can simply not cater for the required land.

Reason 2
Diet. It is far too costly for a zoo to fully mimic an animal's regular diet in the wild. But not only is it the food they eat, but also how they get it. Big animals aren’t able to hunt, therefore not getting normal exercise or expressing their natural instincts. They are able to do all this in the wild. Yet another thing the zoo can't accommodate.

Reason 3
Animals can get bored or lonely. Or can easily get stressed. For example, the expected lifespan of an elephant halves in captivity. This is because they are very social, and often have only 1 or 2 others in their enclosures, leading them to basically die of loneliness. The only word I can think of to explain this, is sick. We are basically killing them, for entertainment.

In conclusion they have the right to be free. They shouldn’t have to deal with confining enclosures, a diet that doesn’t fully suit them, or the general stress of zoo life. It is simply inhumane, and that is why I am obstinate that zoos have to be banned.

Red Panda

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

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: 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

How To Make A DIY Rain Gauge In 5 Easy Steps

Today for lock down Mrs Bennett set us a challenge to make a DIY Rain Gauge and record how much water is falling averagely at your place each day, for a week. So I decided to do a 'how to' writing to show you how to make one. Of course these kinds of rain gauges aren't particularly accurate because the bottles that you use differ in size and width. But I figured I'd try it anyway.

     What you'll need

• a  plastic bottle (not including cap)
• craft knife (or scissors if you don't have one)
• sellotape 
• something to fix it in place (I used duct tape)
• and some vivids/pens to decorate (optional)

1. Remove the label from your bottle, and draw a line around your bottle about 3 to 5 cm from the top, as a vague line of where to cut. 

 
        2.  Cut around the line using your craft knife.

          3. Next flip the top bit upside down and using the sellotape, stick it to the top of the bottle,                  creating a funnel of sorts.

           4. Then  you can decorate your funnel to your hearts content using vivids or pens.

            5.  Finally using your duct tape (or whatever your using to fix it into it's place) stick it to a                   fence post or something similar outside, where you'll catch some rain.

And There You Have It!!

Your Very Own Rain Gauge In Only 5 Simple Steps!

And Of Course I Had Some Help On This Project With My Faithful Little Helper Gus

My Dream Superpower

While I've been stuck at home, doing work for the last week of my term, I decided to write a poem for my writing, about my dream superpower. It isn't exactly what you'd expect, for it's not exactly mainstream. But perhaps that is why it is a logical one, of which the only limits are your imagination.
What would your dream superpower be?
Stay safe everyone.

Here is my poem...

My Dream Superpower

If  people could have any superpower they dream,

from your imagination, or fitting a theme,

many upon many would choose to fly,

go higher than the clouds, up in the sky.

Others would pick invisibility,

they could do good, or bad, with great agility.

Perhaps some would select knowledge,

to be smarter than Athena, who created the olive.

Furthermore there is witchery,

to win almost any battle, with great victory.

Or maybe to see ahead in time,

to stop, or avoid, any crime.

Possibly the power to read the mind,

to manipulate, or leave, betrayers behind.

You could choose to run with great speed,

to enter the Olympics and succeed.

However I would not choose any of these powers,

nor to be super strong, or control the hours.

I would pick the talent to change probability,

with which anything is in your capability.

Zero percent chance or breathing underwater?

Well with this power, those numbers I would slaughter.

I could change it to one hundred percent,

I would dive under, and to my health there'd be no dent.

With this ability I could do ANYTHING!

Converse with animals, or become the king.

Why only one power would you steal?

If you could simply get them ALL in a package deal!

My Life Time Of Blog Posts

Today for cyber smart we made a graph to show the number of all our blog posts from 2019-2020.
The first graph shown is the chart that I created to show the dates and numbers so it's more specific information. The second graph is the class one, which is comparing my posts to the classes blog posts over 2019 and 2020. The sum of my blog posts is 31. We used google sheets to add the data and then used that data to make a graph.

As you can see Hayley has made the most blog posts by a LONG way. She has done 121 posts from the start of last year to now. Therefore she has made 90 more blog posts than me. WOW!!
Mrs Bennett, my teacher, has done 1 more blog post than me with a total of 32.
My cousin Isabel has done 43 posts, 12 more than me.
My other cousin Blake has done 18 posts, 13 more than me.
Sophia has done 26 which is 5 less than me.
Next time I think I would find it interesting to make a graph about peoples eye colour at my school.

Here are the graphs...

Making Ice Cream!

Room 4 have tech every Wednesday, we have 3 different techs: woodwork, sewing and cooking. This term the year 8's are in cooking tech and we got to make ice cream. Just the twist was that we got to design our own flavour as long as it wasn't too crazy and had a fresh element like fruit included in it. Every week we pair with someone different to make our various foods. I made the ice cream with my classmate John. We came up with the flavour of cinnamon peach with a dash of marshmallows. I really enjoyed making this even though our arm starts to ache after a while of whisking. Afterwards we were allowed to make posters using Poster My Wall to showcase our work like it was a new flavour coming to stores. Poster my wall provides various templates which helps to make an awesome poster and I would definitely recommend using this.

Here is the poster that I created to showcase my ice cream...

Sunflower Poem

Currently at Matawai School there are sunflowers so Room 4 are basing some of our work on it.
We were told to make a poem using personification and metaphors.
Here is my poem

Sunflower, 

innocent sunflower,

dancing as the tendrils of air nuzzle her.

Sunflower,

shy sunflower,

following the celebrity of the sky from a distance.

Sunflower,

bright sunflower,

with golden flames engulfing the centre.

Sunflower, 

regal sunflower,

wearing a crown of petals, the queen of flowers.

Sunflower,

Innocent, shy, bright and regal,

the one who stands tall and searches for
the sunlight even on the darkest of days.

-Liana

Whanau Art

This term Room 4 made whanau art. Each koru  represents a family member. First we outlined the koru's in chalk and coloured it in with pastel. We were only allowed 2 colours for our korus and 1 for our background. Each colour for the korus were supposed to represent something, for example mine is gender and others did closeness. We then put dye over the top of it, so that the chalk lines were dyed black. Are you familiar with this technique?

Here is my art...

Lorde

This week Room 4 made a small inquiry into the famous NZ singer-songwriter Lorde as a teaser week for summer learning journey.
Our learning was to use image attribution which can be vaguely seen in small print underneath both the photos I have used.

Here is my work on Lorde...

Anaura Bay: Where We Went Tour

During week 7 Room 4 went on camp.
My biggest highlight would have been the surfing on the first day.
My downlight would have been when 'Crazy Bird Lady' started shouting at us (you need to watch the video to understand)
I had a lot of fun and look forwards to next years camp.
Here is my video, I hope you enjoy seeing and reading about where we went. Hope you have a great holidays whenever you start your holidays...
-Liana

2019 Highlights

Lately Room 4 have been working on our highlights videos or for the year 8's their leavers videos.
I really enjoyed making this because you were able to be really creative and make yours a lot unique from everyone elses (apart from the music).
I found it challenging to find all the photos because most of my photos are at home so I was basically working off the photos I could find from school.
With out a further ado here is my video...

All About Kawakawa

This term some of  Room 4's students went to a workshop on Kaiti  hill. We learned about some of the legends about Gisborne but we also did some workshops at the end of our day. During the work shops we learned about weaving harakeke, planting kumara, where plastic comes from and also the process of picking kawakawa as well as how to make kawakawa tea, which is very useful when you have a cough. Myself and my classmate Sophia make this google drawing to show our learning.
Enjoy!!