My Fantastic Time At Wellington!

Last week on Thursday, my flight to Wellington was about to leave. My mum and I boarded onto the plane and awaited for the flight to take off.I was sitting on the seat 17 C. I was comfortable on the plane and finally the captain said “ Everyone please be seated , we are about to take off ,please sit down and have your seatbelt fastened”.Goosebumps were seen everywhere on my skin because I was nervous about the take off. I have been watching the plane crashes on Documentary Channel on Sky and I was thinking if the same were to happen on our flight. Praying for God’s protection, a sudden movement of the plane felt like it was going up. I was right, it was going up. The plane was at about 300 feet high. If you don’t believe me, ask the captain on our plane.

On Saturday night, my uncle’s wedding was beginning. It was being held at the old museum near Massey University in Wellington. The atmosphere was AMAZING!! The lights were awesome and the place looked fantastic. Junior (my uncle) awaited his bride to walk up the aisle with her dad. His bride soon to be his wife is called Leta. The couple were looking flash and magnificent when they were together at last. Our church pastor from Wellington was the minister for the wedding. I am a Christian and I was pleased to see our pastor do a great job in ministering the marriage. after about 15 minutes he said” You may now kiss the bride”. The couple were now called husband and wife. The museum was filled with applauding hands as the couple walked up the stairs to sign something.

The rest of us headed to the next floor to eat. We were asked to sit at different tables. I was on the VIP table (I was lucky). My mum was the MC (Master of Ceremony).  Our table was the first to go and get some food. I licked my lips when I was staring at the food. There were a different variety of food e.g BBQ Lamb and chicken, sweet and sour, KFC chicken and chips, chicken curry, chop-suey and more! I ate and couldn’t believe that I was full with just 2 BBQ chopped up lambs, sweet and sour and taro. I wanted to eat more but I couldn’t, i was too full.

Next up was desert. While we had it, we were entertained by people with items. My cousin Siaosi and his best friend Simi were amazing dancers (Well they go to Acel school in Auckland city which is a christian dance school). Their dance really related to what the event was. It was funny,cool and don’t miss out AWESOME! I really enjoyed their item. Next up was my uncle Junior who just got married and his brother with some of my other cousins. They were dancing to the song Azonto. Yet again, this item pulled off. It was just hilarious! We kept laughing and laughing. Soon after, the wedding came to end. We closed the event with a prayer.

I had an awesome time at Wellington. My flight flew back to Auckland after 2 days, and I wish time could go back to the wedding. It was amazing! To be honest my definite highlight was eating and maybe the entertainment. If you were there you would agree with me because I reckon that the night went smooth and fantastic. That is a night I remember and cherish for the rest of my life!

AFL

Plan

Para 1- 5 W’s how to kick
Para 2- How to pass
Para 3- A game
Para 4- Conclusion


On Thursday last week, we were learning the skills of becoming a skilled AFL player. Our Tutor was Sam. One of the key things to remember when you are attempting a kick, is to always keep ‘Laces away from faces’.  That’s one of the most reasons why AFL players do not have impact on their kick. I was so excited to learn about this game (for the second time) because I have seen AFL games and my favourite player is Israel Folau. Israel Folau is a former NRL back in the Brisbane Broncos.

Next we learnt strategies of passing the ball. This pass in AFL is called a handball. To learn how to do this type of pass, you have to flatten your hand like a plate and place the ball on. You then make a fist like an ice-cream being squashed in your hand. If you want to hit the ball accurately, you have to focus on hitting the cross on the tip of the ball at the end. My first hit was a success but the second time it was an epic fail. I sighed then said “Better luck next time”.

We then had a game to wrap up our session. The game was sort of like octopus. If you don’t know how to play octopus, the aim is to escape from your end of the court to the end without being tagged by your opponents. But there was a twist in the game. Sam (our AFL teacher. Also known as Samwhich) with our other teachers had to tag us with a ball using the skills we learnt. Heaps of people got out, especially me. I tried to step but I got caught with the ball.
I had a great time and I can’t wait until next week. The skills I have learnt have definitely improved my skills and has taken me to the next level of becoming a skilled AFL player. My highlight was playing the game at the end. I am looking forward to next week!

Pablo Picasso and Daniella Hulme

Pablo Picasso has a very unique style when he paints. His style of art is called ‘Cubism’. He likes to look at things from different perspectives and angles. That is the reason why he is famous. However, many people think that his style is very unusual. I can agree with them, but on the other hand it is very interesting at the same time. Daniella Hulme is another artist with a very unique style. For example she loves to use tropical backgrounds and patterns in her artwork. That is one of the reasons why she is famous. Having being married to a Samoan, this is where her tropical influence comes from. I think that her paintings are very appealing.

Looking at Pablo Picasso’s painting of the ‘Weeping Woman’ you can see that he uses many different styles of lines and patterns in his background. The reason why this painting is very unique is because he contrasts the colours from bright to dark. That really impacts his artwork because it shows he can use many different varieties of colours. There is a mysterious part in his painting which is whether the character in the artwork is holding a handkerchief or not. Maybe this is why the painting is called ‘The Weeping Woman’.

Daniella Hulme is very passionate about using tropical patterns in her artwork. Her influence comes from her husband because he is a Samoan. I am a Samoan and I can say that her artwork is fantastic. You can see that she also loves to use bright and bold vivid colours. She also contrasts her colours very well. The impact in her painting ‘Lazy Woman In Paradise’ is that you can see where the light is shining. What I am trying to say is that she makes the colours go from dark to light. Daniella painted a fan or what Samoans call a ‘ili’ (pronunciation ‘eeee-lee’ ). In many of Daniella’s paintings she paints the same eyes and nose.

Both of these artists are very inspirational to me. Pablo and Daniella have similarities in their paintings. For example Pablo Picasso loves to contrast his colours in his artwork. Daniella also loves to contrast her colours in her artwork from bright to dark. He likes to use different patterns. Daniella Hulme on the other hand also likes to use patterns in her paintings. However these two artists have some differences in their paintings. Daniella Hulme uses more bright colours than Pablo Picasso. Maybe that is because he was painting a woman crying and the colours are suppose to be dark because the character is sad.

Many people can agree with me when I say that Pablo Picasso has a very unique style, because this is the first time that I have ever seen anyone mix up their artwork by looking at different views and painting the different angles. Daniella Hulme on the other hand is an artist who I think is always happy. I get this idea from her paintings. She likes to use very bright colours such as e.g pink, yellow, blue and orange. These colours make me feel happy! I have been influenced by these two artists and I hope that I can take what I have learnt with me and try to create an artwork using different patterns and colours!

                                     

Henri Matisse and Vincent Van Gogh's Paintings.

Vincent Van Gogh is famous because of his style of art. Well to be fair, it was his sister-in law who made him famous. After he died, she went through the town and showcased his artwork to the people. The sad thing about Van Gogh's life was that he only sold one painting while he was alive. Henri Matisse on the other hand, didn't like painting when he was younger. He was always bored inside, so his mother gave him a box of paint and paintbrushes so that he could paint something. Before Henri Matisse became an artist, he was a lawyer.

In Vincent Van Gogh's 'Sunflowers' painting, you can see that he uses more yellow than any other colour. Sunflowers are yellow and that colour is meant to make you feel like dancing. The painting doesn't make me feel like dancing because he also used a lot of brown. Some of the flowers are droopy. Some haven't fully bloomed. Maybe the artist felt sad when he painted it.  Van Gogh liked to use little brush strokes. You can easily spot his technique when you look at it. That is just the way he paints.

In Henri Matisse's paintings, he loves to use interesting backgrounds and patterns in his artwork. He also loves to use bright, bold, vivid colours. Henri Matisses artwork is fantastic. He believes that colours had healing effects on people. I think that is unusual for him to think that, but on the other hand, I respect it.

Vincent Van Gogh's sunflower painting and Henri Matisse's La Musique paintings have some similarities in their artwork. For example they have both used the colour yellow. They both have plants in the paintings. However there are more differences. If you analyse the picture closely, you can see the different techniques they use. Vincent Van Gogh uses little vertical strokes while Henri Matisse uses long brush strokes. Another difference between these two famous artists, is that Henri Matisse loves to use different patterns and lots of contrasting colours in his backgrounds. There are no contrasting colours in 'Sunflowers'.  


What I can conclude about these two very famous artists, is that they were very passionate about painting. Van Gogh for example, lived a miserable life and explained it through his artwork. His painting the ‘Sunflower’, sort of described his feelings. He used his technique to make impact on his artwork. It is a great way because it sort of tricks people in making it look bumpy.  Henri Matisse loved to paint. He believed that colours had healing power on people. I think that these two artists have been a great influence on people who want to be artists when they grow up. 

My Shaun Johnson Starmap Reflection

This week was the last bit of editing and finishing off our starmap movies in extension.This task was set by our COOL teacher, Mrs Tele'a. We had to do a project about a person we look up to and what obstacles they had to overcome ion their life. If you don't know already, I did a starmap on Shaun Johnson. He is one of the key players in the Warriors side and is a rookie halfback.

A number of kids in our group, displayed their movie while the rest of us watched and waited for our turn. To be honest, I thought that I did a pretty good job. But in order for me to say I was right, I have to get this comment from our AWESOME teacher, Mrs Tele'a. She is our extension tutor.

If we get another project, I will assure myself, I will try to do the best and to strive to succeed. Our starmap project was fantastic to me, but I want to extend my skills to prove that I don't PLAY around. Just kidding. I just want to show people that I am capable of doing a job and getting it done!

Art Alive!

Our theme for this term is ART ALIVE. As part of our learning, Team 5 have had immersion rotations. The rotations are for us to learn about different artists and their style of painting. Our first class we went to was Room 22. We studied and analysed Vincent Van Gogh’s style of art. His technique is using little brush strokes in his paintings. That is called ‘expressionism’. Our class carefully sketched a sunflower and painted it the same way as Van Gogh did. It was pretty difficult because the more I did little strokes it didn’t look anything near like his art. The reason was because I had to keep adding more paint and wait for it to dry before adding a new layer of paint.

Next we were off to Mr Barks’ class (Room 18). We were learning about Picasso. His style of art was looking at things in a different perspective (Cubism)). For example, if you drew a person looking at the front view, he would then move to the side to see a different perspective of the object he was drawing. We drew a face looking at the front and another looking at the other side. We added the little details e.g. the nose, the eyes. It’s amazing because his style is the most unusual because he thought to himself “I don’t like doing the same as the other paintings”. So he decided to change his perspective in order for him to be satisfied with his artwork.


For our next session, we went to Room 19. There we learnt and studied about Claude Monet. His style of art is called ‘Impressionism’. Impressionism painting takes more time than doing a normal painting. That is because you have to do little brush strokes instead of long strokes. A few quick facts about Claude Monet is that he was born in France in 1840 and died on the 5th of December 1926.

During our lesson, we got to choose what we wanted to paint. I decided to paint the NZ flag in the style of Monet. It took me a long time (I’ve already explained why) to paint it. I started off with painting a red cross, then colouring the background and finally after waiting for it to dry, I added the white to the cross and the stars. “That looks awesome!” I said in disbelief. Who would’ve ever thought that I could paint a great piece of art! I had a fantastic time in Room 19!
Well I am looking forward to what more our teachers have instored for us