Intense Archery

Title: Target Concentration
Brainstorm: Concentrated, Veins on arms, Focus, Target
Sentences:
1. Striding onto the platform, he felt the pressure of a thousand eyes observing his every move.
2. Nerves started to take over, as his heart pumped, and arms ached.
3. He proudly wore his country’s colours while keeping his eyes on the prize, which in this case was the target.
4. Pulling back the arrow, he whispered words of encouragement to himself. “I can do this, I can do this”.
5. Upon release, the arrow shot straight towards the target.....and achieved a direct hit.

Devonport!

Walking down these mysterious steps, I looked into the tunnel but it was pitch black. Using my senses, I ran my fingers over the rough walls. My niece Maya tried to use her phone as a light but, the light was drowned out by the conquering darkness. “We’re lost...” I moaned, then all of a sudden we caught a glimpse of what looked like light. we followed it and came across a contraption. Smothered in spider webs we studied it hard. It had all sorts of levers and spikes, which made it looks like a former contraption used for torture. We were so concentrated on it that we didn’t hear my sister calling us. “Lena, Maya, come lets go and eat!”. We reluctantly did as we told, and exited the tunnel. We were visiting the Devonport caves.

10 bruises and a scar later, we arrived at another set of steps. As we stepped onto the boardwalk, we were greeted with a stunning scenery. The sun hung gracefully in the sky, while it shimmered on the deep dark water. My feet ached like I had just run a marathon. Sitting down on the seats, I took out a packet of chocolate brownies. I bit into one, and it tasted like heaven on a platter. 5 brownies later, we packed up and were heading to the caves now.

On our way to the caves, we saw something interesting in the corner of my eye. We looked and saw a couple of people sliding down a hill on pieces of cardboard. It looked reckless, but what would be the harm just to go and check it out. We looked and saw that there were tracks where you slide down. “Hey Lena, If you go down I’ll give you 10 dollars!” My sister dared me. To be honest it didn’t look like the best thing in the world but, I looked fun. I searched for a piece of cardboard in good condition, and snatched it up. Calmly laying it down on the edge of the hill, I stared at the density of it. Sitting on it, I felt the pressure of my sister’s eyes on me. “1,2,3...GO!” She screamed. Riding down, It was a bumpy ride.....and when I say it I mean it. Pieces of long grass somehow landed in my hair. At the end of the hill, I looked up and saw my sister laughing hysterically. “Well I’d like to see you come and try it!” I screamed, But that was physically impossible...especially since she was pregnant. “Come Lena, We have to go home now.” Walking up the hill, I made my way to the car.

We finished the day off with a box full of steaming hot Pizza. While I bit into the Beef and onions, I reminisced on the day we had. It was full of scares, food and FUN with the family, But the downside...We were stuck in traffic, though this was the perfect time for a snooze. The day was awesome and hopefully we could come back again!

Brown Brother

Poems. They never really appealed to me until I saw a student form Mt Albert Grammar reciting a poem which had a really deep meaning. His name is Joseph Iosefa. He is a Samoan and Nuiean and is a Prefect at this school. It all started out as an ordinary assembly. It was compulsory that prefects give a speech, but his speech was a stand out and we wouldn't have known about it if it wasn't for his close friend Rashard. It ended up on YouTube and this is where people started to know this poem "Brown Brother'. This poem speaks about what brown people have gone through and what people assume about us. He states: I am Brown. Brown like the bark on the palm tree which holds my heritage, Brown like the table that my family sits and eats upon, Brown like the paper bag which holds burgers and fries which my people consume, brown like the mud on the rugby field which my people play Brown like the coat of the guitar that my people strum. Brown like the sugar the crust the grain or the nut whatever ingredient that I mix up and around, brother I am Brown.

I can easily relate to this because, clearly I am brown, but because I understand what he means when he talks about all the difficulties our people have to go through when people assume that we are not worthy enough. His family members pop up a lot in the poem, when he compares them to people's issues. You should really listen to this poem because it has a deep and beautiful meaning to it.

Hinemoa, The Belle of Kainga

The extension group are focussing on a particular New Zealand artist who is well known for his detailed oil paintings which have influenced many artists today: Charles Frederick Goldie. We had to choose one of his paintings and we had to try to replicate it. Out of numerous paintings I chose to paint this one called 'Hinemoa, The Belle of Kainga'. 

Over a period of 2 weeks, I researched, observed and drew this fine work of art. While researching I found out that this painting was painted in 1913 which is about 99 years ago. This painting is one of Charles Goldie's few oil paintings, which make it hard to believe that it was a oil painting at all! You might be wondering why Charles Goldie only painted Maori people. Well the answer is quite simple: The culture was dying out. Especially the Maori tattoo called the Moko. It symbolises your family, and respect that you have for your culture.

The finished product is better than I expected, because as my friends know: I am not very fond of art. After this task, I have learnt the beauty of art and the power that it has to change the way people think. The thing I want people to notice about the extension groups artwork is the importance of Maori culture. Of the beauty and and respect that their Taonga bring to them, in this case the Taonga in this painting is the Tiki.

Hide and Seek.... (Narrative writing)

“This is boring!” moaned Jesse, while kicking rocks on the sidewalk. “Stop whining!” Sam growled. “If you want aunty to get better we have to take this soup to her!”. Walking along the track, Sam and Jesse were taking chicken soup to their ill aunty.

A few minutes later as the sun was setting over the horizon, they soon realised that they had to hurry. “Psst”. Jesse spun around, her long blond pigtails slapping her face. “Who’s there?” She quietly whispered. Sam was anxiously searching for anything weird in the forest. All he could hear were birds chirping, and the wind whistling through the trees. “Give me your basket, NOW!” a stranger screamed, with his low voice. “RUN!” Sam shouted. They started running through the forest. Loose twigs were scratching their legs, while they were swiveling through the maze of trees. Then in the distance they saw a tower. Sprinting to the tower, they grabbed the door handle and slammed the door shut. They took refuge inside this tower. Getting back on their feet they made their way up the tower stairs.

“Come on we need to find somewhere to hide!” Sam screamed. His golden hair covered his dark blue eyes. Jesse was running out of breath. Her lungs were screaming for air, her legs were aching and for the first time in her life, her tongue might’ve been dry. She came to a stop. Sam came back and clutched her T-Shirt, pulling her up. “Come on” he said impatiently. Her blond hair covered her green eyes. “Fine” she said while getting up. “Come out, come out wherever you are” said the stranger. His spine chilling laugh echoed throughout the tower.

Jesse and Sam collapsed beside a huge maroon door. Jesse’s curiosity got the better of her. She stood up and examined the tower. It was rusty, spider webs filled every corner. As she walked around, the floorboards creaked under her feet. She ran her fingers around the interesting carvings engraved in the door. Sam joined her. They rested their palms on the hard surface of the door. “Open it slowly on the count of three” Sam said. “One, two...” The large doors creaked. They peered through the door and saw.....

The beauty of Static images

What is a static image? Well a static image is anything that is not moving or is not in motion. For instance, Signs, Posters, Paintings and Pamphlets are all examples of what static images are. Static images are all around us, we just need to pay close attention to our surroundings.

The thing that is so captivating about this static image is the background is blurry, which adds effect because then the camera focuses on the subject, which in this is case the Butterfly. It looks so delicate, while it’s poised on the plant. The colour of the butterfly’s wings are contrasted with the green in the background. The angle of this photo is effective because it looks as if you are also perched on the plant with this butterfly. The light focuses perfectly on the butterfly and the plant.

Tamaki Tech

Every Thursday the year 8 students of Pt England, make their way down to Tamaki College. we were usually in Food Tech, but today we were shifting to Japanese. Looking up, dark rain clouds blanketed the sky. As I entered Tamaki college, I saw a man standing, waiting for us. He looked Asian, his hair was brushed neatly, and he was holding a box that was jam-packed with papers, pencils and other things that could not be identified. We walked over to the Sylvia Fausset library.

As I stepped into this new environment, all that greeted me were shelves and shelves of stacked books. It was dead silent until we entered the premises. We made our way to the work area. Putting our chairs down all you could hear was the clank of the metal legs. While he our Teacher was getting ready, I looked out the window. The rain was falling in sheets, coating the ground  in water. “Trickle, trickle” was the sound of the rain trickling on the roof. He snatched our attention back with his loud voice “Hello class, My name is Mr Ishibahi”. Our Japanese lesson was about to begin.

Throughout that lesson we were learning interesting facts about Japan like these:
* Japan is made out of 5 main islands which are: Hokkaido, Honshu, Shikoku, Kyushu and Okinawa. The main island is Honshu.
* Before Tokyo, the capital city of Japan was Kyoto.
*Japan has roughly 120 million people living there.
*Japan’s currency is Yen.
*Karate, Sumo wrestling and Judo are all very popular sports in Japan.

Struggling to fold the paper, I felt like pulling my hair out. Origami was really hard, especially when I was trying to make a samurai hat. The instructions didn't make any sense...well at least to me they didn't. Folding it right, left over the top and under, it didn't look anything like a hat. "YES!" I exclaimed. I had finally made a Samurai hat. This was a huge accomplishment, especially since this was the first ever time I had come to Japanese. Time was up, It was time to learn the Japanese language.

"Ohayou Gozaimasu, Ishibashi Sensei" I replied uncertainly. "That is correct" He said proudly. I was relieved because if that was wrong that would've been embarrassing. We learnt 3 phrases that day: Ohayou Gozaimasu, which means Good morning. Sayonara which mans, Goodbye and Arigato Gozaimasu, which means Thank you. The next week we came we had to greet him in Japanese.

Japanese class was an exciting experience. Learning about a foreign country, that exports goods to our country. I look forward to learning about this country that has temples, shrines, had an atomic bomb dropped on them and isolated themselves from the rest of the world. I can't wait to go to Tech now!