Tanerore - Week 1 Activity 3

Symbols and meanings I think my drawing has based on it's appearance:

The kowhaiwhai are Maori motifs, a decorative image or design, especially a repeated one forming a pattern. If you can spot that giant, circular kowhaiwhai cutting right the the middle centre, it points out that it could be some kind of bridge or wall for all of the life styles or type of mood we live in. For example, if some of us reading this has multiple personalities, one of the two could be shy type of person who doesn't like to show off much and keeps to themselves, and the other could be someone who enjoys making people laugh, and basically the clown of their friend-group. These personalities could have also been developed and improvised while growing up, if you're not a multi-personality type. The left side of the drawing represents a quiet, but disorientated life. You see, this person doesn't like to stand out too much, can also be seen as a bit clumsy and sticks to those he or she knows fully well. But when people start to get to know this person better, the kowhai plants start growing and bloom a beautiful yellow colour. The right side of this "masterpiece" can be represented as a person full of HUGE AMOUNTS of, well, happiness. But this person could also be seen as someone who leads a subtle and organised life. He or she is easy to approach, easy to talk to, easy to make friends with and makes you feel like you never want to leave their side. The repeated pattern points out that this person likes to have things their way, and likes the comfort of their home because they know where everything is and how everything operates. The drawings that kind of look like waves at the bottom of the page that goes from the left to right side in a curved kind of position is a little something I added because I love the sea. The line of upside down triangles on the top right side of the picture was drawn because I dream of going to Mount Fuji in Japan. And as for the little circular circles in random places of the art work was implanted so that big spaces in the picture wouldn't stand out that much, and also because I'd like to go to a place where it snows. If you're wondering why I haven't coloured it is, well, because I'm not very good with colour choices. And I'd like to look at it as a picture that's "not finished" because it also reminds us that for some of us young ones that life has a long way to go, and that opportunities are still yet to come. This goes for the older ones too, don't get the wrong idea :)

Fishy False Teeth

Marc Chagall

 March Chagall name was originally Moishe Shagal, he had changed it while he was in the French artistic metropolis in 1910. Marc was born as a Jew and grew up to become a Russian-French artist. His date of birth was the 7th of July, 1887, and he died on the 28th of March, 1985. Marc created a wide range of arts including, paintings, drawings, stained glass, book illustrations, stage sets, clay work, tapestries, and fine art prints. In 1964, Marc Chagall painted the ceiling of the Opera Garnier in Paris, covering over 200m2. Chagall's painting is a tribute to fourteen significant opera composers and their work, and he completed it when he was 77 years old. He humbly refused to get paid for his astounding work. 

- The painting of the Opera Garnier in Paris.

- This painting 'The Vision' portrays a young painter at his easel being visited by an angel. Marc had painted this in the early 1920's.

- Red Sun over Paris. This painting was originally used as a poster of an exhibition of Chagall's works at the Musée du Louvre, Paris.

The Giraffes

 Silence.... Then, sounds of clip-clops echo through the hallways. A tower of giraffes, in a single-file, walk forward in a hypnotized sort of trance. The atmosphere is heavy with uneasiness, though no-one seems to notice.

The Advent symbols in the summer

Alma, meaning soul in Spanish...

 She breathes through her nose, and exhales the oxygen out roughly. She does this in a panic, and does this rather quickly… Breathes in, and out. In and out. In, and out… Alma isn’t able to rotate her new, plastic head, so she moves her eyes instead, examining the poorly decorated doll shop. She moves her eyes silently, and the clock that’s ticking get’s her agitated. Tick, tick, tick, tick.. Confusion and fear starts to rise within her as the attempt to move her body fails. “What’s going on here?” she asked herself. 

Alma figured out pretty quickly that she couldn’t move her lips to sound out the words she wanted to say. Her movements were very limited, and she didn’t like that. She continued to scan the room to kill time, hoping she could find a door, or someone that could somehow help her esca- wait…. Alma realizes she’s sitting on a shelf, no standing on one, that’s pretty high off the ground. She stops thinking all of a sudden, noticing a couch below… And, is that her glove?? How did it get there? 

Alma begins to retrace her steps and initiate everything that has happened that got her into this mess. “Now let’s see….,” Alma thought. “I saw a mini doll who looked like me that was displayed in the middle of the window, the door opened by itself once I angrily threw a snowball at it, I stood on that very couch down below to grab my mini self, and somehow…” Alma’s mind froze. The pieces were all coming together, and it didn’t create a nice puzzle. It was a very sinister one. To put it simply, Alma is now stuck inside of a doll that resembled herself almost too accurately. 

The sun has now fallen into a deep sleep, and the full moon has taken its place. The moonlight shone so brightly it created shadows for the light posts outside of the shop, which lit the walkway with its golden light bulbs. No one came into the shop. Not even the person who owned this empty-hearted doll store. Alma grew tired of waiting, and began to observe every detail of each doll. Some dolls have old school clothes from the 1800’s. Some have some very foreign looking accessories and bright clashy colours. 

When she was just about to close her eyes, voices started echoing in her consciousness. “Oh no, he’s almost here.. Hey, there’s another new victim today… How much you wanna bet that another kid’ll come here tomorrow… Oi, shush, we’re not supposed to hope for that kind of stuff…” Alma decided to join in while she still had the chance. “Wait, what? Who’s coming? What are we not supposed to talk about?” There was silence...

When she was just about to say something, the voice who asked about the bet spoke softly, but something about his tone made it sound like he was spilling a very important secret. “Just try to survive. Don’t anger the shopkeeper. And most importantly, don’t talk to us in front of him.” Alma was surprised, but the last part sent chills up her spine. “In front of wh-,” Ding-a-ling. The doorbell rang. “Who would come into the shop at this ungodly hour?” Alma asked herself. “Hopefully it’s not a child.” It wasn’t a child. It was someone worse. 

The person who walked in wore a pitch black cloak that covered most of his body, though you could just see his shoes sticking out, they were pitch black too. His baggy hoodie covered most of his face. “This guy has no sense of style,” Alma forced herself to snigger, or smile at least, but it was no use. The dark figure rotated his head while standing in front of the door and took his time examining the dolls, like a kid admiring all the candy in a confectionery shop. The hooded figure stops at Alma’s area, but it’s almost as if he's looking at her. He starts walking in her direction, making her panic. If she could scream, she would. If she could cry, she would. If she could wake up from this nightmare and forget all of this happening she would do exactly that. But this wasn’t a dream, and she couldn’t scream for help or cry her eyes out. This was reality, and things were about to get messy.

The sun was dawning and the hooded figure prepared to head out for the day. He looked at his new masterpiece with satisfaction, and put it on a stand in the center of the shop window. The brand new doll had snow-white skin with green eyes and crimson red hair. She wore a  maroon jacket with sea-blue jeans that stopped stretching around her ankles. She had pink mittens and her shoes were black with white laces. Looking back at his dolls once more like it was his last, he left the shop as swiftly as he did the night before. Without anyone noticing, the story took an unexpected turn.

Co-ordinate positioning

This week for maths, we have been learning co-ordinate positioning on grid maps. We had to answer questions that asked us to find and write down the co-ordinates of places in Auckland. After that, we had to make our own grid map by finding a completely different location and to create our own questions for our friends to answer. I chose Japan as my location. Here is my grid map and the questions my friend has answered:

Grid map:

Questions:

Fake facts

For this reading activity we had to describe misinformation, malinformation and disinformation in my own words.

 

Aroha, heart filled with love but mind clouded with grief...

Aroha was a free-spirited girl
Full of warmth and sunshine
She enjoyed exploring the forest grounds
Except the times she fell on her behind

Aroha was a thinker
A strategist no doubt
But as she watched her friends return to their parents
A thought made her pout

For Aroha had no parents
And it never failed to spoil her day
When this happened, she often roamed around
She'd run, and jump and tumble and fall down
All to get away from this feeling, somehow

Though a voice echoed softly somewhere
"Don't worry you're burden isn't all for you to bear"
She refused to let the thought prevail
And held her head up
Instead she breathed in deeply
And let herself exhale

Aroha attempted to share her thoughts
Her strengths, weaknesses and feelings
It made her feel proud
and somewhat lighter
And she knew whenever she felt down
Her friends would be there to make her days brighter

  

Brain diseases

 

My reading group has been studying about Brain diseases. Here are examples of the brain diseases we've been researching.

Mophead - Diary entry

 

 This is a piece of writing in the form of a diary based on a book called Mophead by Selina Tusitala Marsh

My diary entry:

My gosh, I hate the kids at my school. I want to ask my parents if I could move schools but they'll ask why. I don't want them to get involved with all the bullying happening outside of home. It's annoying...

Oh no, mum said the principal had called her to say that we had to go back to school and have a Restorative Justice meeting, whatever that means...

We were the first to arrive. A few minutes of waiting later my bully (the one whose patronized me the most and the longest and says the meanest retorts) comes in with her parents and sits across from us. My bully and I made eye contact, and just when I thought someone was about to speak, the principal opened her office door, welcomed both families, thanked us for coming to the meeting, and invited us inside her office. It was pretty cramped and the cold, dense atmosphere made me feel like a person diagnosed with claustrophobia. Then the Restoration Meeting began...

My parents and I have jut come back from the extremely long meeting. When I first heard about the meeting I had thought my bully (Regina George) had made up another lie so that the principal could tell my parents about it, but, no. I later found out we were there to discuss the bullying that's been going on. We talked and I shared about my experiences I've had with the countless bullying. The pair on the other side of the room apologized on behalf of her daughter, and then she apologized. I accepted their apology, but didn't forgive them. I don't think I'm ready to forgive Regina and the rest of her followers yet. Until next time, dear diary...