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Thursday, June 25, 2015

Who is someone you admire and why?

Today we were asked the question who is someone you admire and why? We all had to express our thinking to answer the question.

Here are three of our responses to the thinking question of the day.



My Mum- By Jennifer K

My mum is someone I admire because she lets us follow our dreams, like I like ballet and she gives me ballet lessons. She even lets my sister do gymnastics even though you can hurt yourself. She always fixes problems that me and my sisters have. I also admire mum because she always makes sure we are safe and aren't spoiled.

My mum doesn't push me so I can be at the top, she just wants me to do my very best. If we so something well, she congratulates us. She makes sure everything is fair as well. She teaches us to do someting we don't want to do, but does fun things as well.


My mum is a hard worker, so she's super tired. She somethimes gets a bit cranky, but I understand because she has done the best for us. She tries to make work a little better by letting us play some music. 


I love evenings because I get to see her, so I do my homeowrk before she gets home. She makes sure we are well and healthy by giving us fruit and vegetables. She dances with us sometimes and makes sure we are all OK. Sometimes she surprises us with sweets and chocolates!


I love my mum because she is a good role model. I don't know what I would do without my mum!



Lebron James- by Levi N

I admire Lebron James because he is a basketball legend! He tries SO hard and never gives up! He tried his best in the finals, but he didn't win. He deserved to win. He was fouled so many times and the referee didn't call the other team. He pushes himeslf to the max. He never gives up!

He was Cleveland born, but when he left to play for Miami, there were riots in Cleveland and they burned his shirts. But, in the 2014-2015 season he returned to Cleveland and everyone was shouting, "Hallelujah!"

He will always be a star in my eyes. Everyone else thinks he is one of the best basketballers of all time!

Peter Millett- by Eric Z

Someone I admire is Peter Millett!

Why? because he makes humorous stories for kids, and that inspired me to start writing stories on google drive. Plus, he's one of the top authors in New Zealand, and his stories bust out bore and shove in laughter and punsAlso, wouldn't it be awesome if you saw yourself on T.V!

I wish there were more people in the world like Peter Millett, but that's not important, what is, is that he makes children laugh. So that's why I admire Peter Millett!

Monday, June 22, 2015

Teach me Tuesday today!

It was teach me Tuesday again today! Today Mrs Millett didn't need to do much teaching, because we had two lessons from room 13 students and one lesson from some UHPS korean parents.

To start, James taught us how to make chocolate mint cookies. We really enjoyed working together to make these scrummy treats! They tasted delicious too James- thankyou. 

Next, Mitchell and Rohan taught us a few basics of playing the guitar. They showed us how to play a few chords and also demonstrated some guitar pieces too.

Lastly, we were very lucky to have some of our parents teach us how to play a korean traditional game called Jegichagi. The Jegi looks like a badminton shuttlecock which is made of a small coin (or cap), a plastic bag and a rubber band. In the game the player kicks the jegi up in the air and keeps on kicking to prevent it from falling to the ground, (much like a hackey sack).

We had heaps of fun with all our lessons! Thanks to James, Mitchell, Rohan, and all the UHPS korean parents who gave up their time to teach us how to bake, play the guitar and play Jegichagi!

Wednesday, June 17, 2015

Peer Mediator day


Today our peer mediator leaders had a great day together working with teachers from the "Peace foundation" and with students from other primary schools. 

Their task was to plan out the programme for Term 3's Peace week, and also think about how they can do their role even better. 

It was an inspirational time for all involved. All came away with great ideas and a little bag of goodies for their efforts. Thanks Mrs Leonhart for organising the day for our peer mediators!

Wednesday, June 10, 2015

Musical instrument artwork

Last week we printed from our musical instrument cardboard blocks. Yesterday Eddy, Jaxson, Feifei and Madison made this movie of our finshed artworks. 

Tuesday, June 9, 2015

Teach me Tuesday (on Wednesday)

It was Teach me Tuesday again today, but it was on Wednesday this week because our two teachers were at Interschool Cross Country yesterday! 

Today we learnt how to play Solataire with Taylor who patiently explainied and re explained (and re explainied again) the quite tricky game of Solataire. We had heaps of fun! 

Next Logan showed us how to make Gooey slime out of dishwashing liqud and cornflour. It was fun... and messy too! Thanks guys- we can't wait thill next Teach me Tuesday!

Musical instrument presentations

This term we have been learning about musical instruments and have written informational reports. Here are four of them.


THE HARP
By Seraphima Y     
Introduction
The harp is a lovely sounding stringed instrument that sounds very peaceful and calming. In this report you will learn all about the harp including its features, how it makes its sound, its history, and where the harp is from.
Features
The harp has very specific features. Harps are usually played in the orchestra and come in a variety of shapes and sizes. Usually the harp stands 42 meters and has 47 strings. The harp usually has a golden base and sometimes can be wood. They are 36 kilograms also not forgetting the main parts of the harp the soundboard, the strings, and the neck those are all pretty important parts of the harp.
Sound                   
The harp sounds amazing and is calming and peaceful. The music is described as chamber type music. It has a gentle flowing and rolling sound. The harp is usually played as part of an orchestra, but was originally played by itself. It is a quiet sounding instrument, but the sound carries a long way. The harp sound is produced by the harpist plucking the strings. The strings are different lengths and each makes a different note. The sound is created through vibrations in the strings that are connected to a sound board.
History of the Harp
The harps history is very interesting and pretty cool! Harps are one of the world's oldest instruments. The earliest evidence of the harp was in ancient Egypt in 2500 BC.  The modern harp is a result of an instrument that was invented thousands of years ago in Europe. When hunters discovered that their own bow string could be used for an instrument they were very impressed with this amazing sound. As we all know that the harp has a bass. The harps bass is what we think is always gold well it’s not you see the Harp can sometimes be made of wood which is not as special as the gold but much cheaper.
Ancient Egypt
Where the harp comes from?
The ancient harp was played in many countries. Evidence of harps can be found in art from China, The Middle East, and Africa. The Harp was first invented in the Middle East which is around Egypt thats pretty cool huh! It was also popular in Celtic lands of Wales, and Britain also Scotland and Ireland. Nowadays harps are found all around the world.
Irish Harp
Conclusion
I hope after this report that you know much more about the harp. I hope you liked this report and learnt a lot! The harp is a lovely gentle instrument as you can see.

The Oboe  
By Andrew L

The oboe is a long tube woodwind instrument. This report will tell about  appearance,history,sound and a famous oboist.       
English Horn picture.jpg
Appearance
The oboe has lots of interesting parts. Oboe has a long narrow tube and at the end there a bell shape end which is called a bell. The oboe has 45 separate pieces for the key and all the woodwind instruments has a reed but a oboe has two reeds stuck together. Oboe’s made out of black wood.      
History      
The oboe has a interesting history. In the 17th century the became one of the solo instruments. Michel philidor and Jacques Hottcterre for inventing the oboe. The oboe was used in the military or in the orchestras. The oboe play with the string instruments and it use to have two key.         
Sound          
The oboe has amazing way to make a sound. Oboist blow through the double reed then it make the reed vibrate then the air will escape though uncovered holes but not all the air will come out of the holes some will come out of the bell which makes a sound.        
Famous oboe players    
The oboe is common around the world. There is 123 well known famous oboist in the world and Johann is one of them. Johann christian fischer was a German composer and a oboist and one of the best known oboe soloists in Europe during the 1770.          

The oboe is a very calming, peaceful sounding woodwind instrument. It is special because it has a double reed in the mouthpiece. This report has covered the sound, appearance, history and a famous oboe player.    



THE VIOLIN
By Madison R

The violin is part of the string family. It can be played with by plucking or with a bow. This report will tell you about the history of the violin, where it comes from, famous violin players and what it look like.        

The first violin was created in Italy and had 3 strings, but the modern violin has 4 strings.  The french king Charles IX in 1560 ordered 24 violins and one of the violins are still in existence. In 2006 a violin was made by the most famous violin maker Stradivarius and was sold for 3,5 us million.   


The violin was made in italy by Andrea Amati in 1555 in Cremona, Italy that is more than 450 year a go!   








There has been many wonderful and famous violinists. Some of them include:
Arcangelo Corelli: A fun fact about Arcangelo is that he did not like to play high notes.
Niccolo Paganini: A fun fact about Niccolo is doctor dissected his hand to see what was so special about his hands.

Antonio Vivaldi: A fun fact about Antonio is that he was called Prete Rosso ( his red hair )

The violin is a carefully made hollow wooden box shaped like a hour glass.
If you look closely at the bow, the strings are made of wood and horse hair.
There are many different parts of the violin. The pegs help to tune it, the fingerboard helps to make the perfect sound and the chin rest is where you put your chin to make it easier to play.

The violin is a very popular instrument for people to play. It plays high parts in the orchestra, and has a pretty sound. I hope you learnt a lot and now know     more about the violin!


By Liam B
Intro
A guitar is a hollow peanut shaped instrument with a neck and strings. This report will cover the types, parts, uses and the strings of a guitar

Guitar types
Electric guitar: electric guitars are a type of guitar that uses electric pickups  
Acoustic Guitar, GuitarA banjo is another type of guitar with a round body. The Lute is an old fashioned instruments that has a bent end
At the end of the neck a Spanish guitar is another type of guitar with nylon strings

Strings
Guitars can have up to 12 strings. There's a company called the fender company the fender company makes around 90,000 strings a day.

Uses
Lute, Instrument, Stringsguitars are normally used for rock pop and jazz music sometimes is used for classical music and folk music too.

How the guitar makes its sound
By plucking the strings the sound goes into the hollow parts of the guitar the sound bounces around and comes out amplified(louder) so you can actually hear the sound the guitar is making.

Conclusion
In this report you learnt about the types uses strings
and how the guitar produces sound. The guitar is a very popular stringed instrument that can be played both electronically or acoustically.
Electric Guitar, Axe, Ax,

Tuesday, June 2, 2015

Drums Alive today!

We had another really exciting musical learning experience today when Steve from "Drums Alive" came and showed us how we could make music and get fit at the same time! It was really fun using the drum sticks on the swiss balls. Thanks for coming Steve!

Room 13 creativity collage

This term we've been exploring Creativitity through the context of Musical instruments. Here is a collage showing some of the things we've been doing. In the collage you can see our class in a music workshop with a specialist music teacher. You can also see members of the Thunderbolts community working in groups creating their understanding about musical instruments and sound.

Johnny Danger Trailer

Johnny Danger 2 trailer

Johnny Danger 3 release video

Peter Millett on WBTV

Peter Millett on Studio 3

Another pep talk from Kid president.

Kid president- 20 things you should say!