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OOOOOOOH NOOOOOOOOOOO I just realized what the day was! Today it was the last day of Enrich EVER!!!!!!! Well I guess this would be  a great time to reflect on what has happened over the last three years. There have been ups and downs - we had some highs, and don't get me wrong,  we've also had lows.   There has been photography, talent development, passion projects ,Wilson games, Technology Challenge, Mosaics, Blogs and so much more. But in the end, the thing I am going to miss the most is all the people and learning opportunities here at Enrich and I would just like to say it was an honor to be here.

Mandala

Today we made some Mandalas I know what your thinking how can you make Nelson Mandela but I mean Mandala the ancient Buddhist art. It is an art where you just let your mind flow and there is no such thing as a mistake - that was music to my ears. You start with a seed then link it off like a flower it is a very addictive art. You can do it with a pencil, pen,vivid and even sand. It is a mathematical art when I first heard it I thought how could maths be art? Be the I realised that all the lines have to be the same but just like I said there are no mistakes, unless you make one line bigger than the other. Then you just make up for it next time.  The Buddhist's made it out of coloured sand that they gathered from all the 4 corners of the world. Every single Mandala has a different meaning and I doubt you can make two the same.

Technology

Today the most exiting thing happened!!!! Not really but anyway today we learnt about how to keep yourself safe using technology. We learnt about keeping our persona safe and what's appropriate to post and what is not. Nicola who was our teacher for this segment. She told us about this website where it has clips and games that show you about the result of posting to much private or personal information. She also informed us about the creeps that live out there and how they to take advantage of people. So now we know the minuses of posting to much online.

Jackson Pollock

You are probably wondering who the heck is Jackson Pollock he could be a scientist, magician but he is not any of those he is an artist. He is not just any ordinary artist he was the artist who uses drip painting  it is a form of art when you still use the brush you just don't touch touch the canvas. You might be thinking "How can you paint without touching the canvas?" well thats is what drip art is. You start by drowning you brush in the colour you want (light colour's are the most effective) the you splotch it around the canvas to make blobs you leave the brush over it and the make lines you move the brush very fast over the canvas or paper. We started by doing it on a sheet on the top of the tarpaulin in case the carpet got paint all over it. Then we had four colours to chose from orange, purple, green and blue. For starters I chose orange the blue to make the two colours combined and from then on I just went crazy at one point blue then orange followed by green before purple but in the end it all paid off. I thought we were done, then Katie dropped a bombshell on us... We had to do more. But it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be we just had to create a outline in black for something we were going to fill later. I couldn't think of something so I just did a combination of shapes. We also found an online website were you can create your own digital image here is the link http://www.jacksonpollock.org/ Here is my online one:

As you can see it's pretty carzy

Editing

Today I had to apply all my changes to my story. I was thinking it would take like 20 minutes but instead it took hours and now I have piles of pages beside me. Darryn was my proofreader. He found the little mistakes that I would never find. Anyway, I had to change images, text and even some layouts. Long story short, I completed my editing.

 We also had a technology challenge and we had to make a chair that could hold a big wooden frog out of newspaper and masking tape. Our teams chair was kind of looking good then when we were moving the chair, disaster struck and the legs fell off and the chair ripped and finally when we got to where we were supposed to be, it really looked like a heap of trash. So, our team didn't end up winning or even getting close to winning!

Patterns in Art

Today in the world of ENRICH we did patterns in art but we didn't do any boring work we went into the city!!!! We went to art gallery that for some reason in nearly every piece of their art had a piece of red string in them. We also looked at art in every day life that you, sometimes wouldn't even notice. In a totally unrelated note my affective domain assignment is going well, just thought you might like to know. Now back to the patterns in art subject we also looked at statues everywhere and found the patterns in them. 

IT HAS PRINTED

It finally emailed and printed. If you are wondering what I'm blabbering on about, it is my story! I finally, nearly, sort of got it finished! YAY! Now I just have to edit it and order it.\

But aside from passion time, today we did our patterns workshop. I was in Migration, and today we talked about Genetic Engineering and how things evolved. I learnt that you can take one white feather of a blackbird to make a pure white bird.

No that's not the end of this post. We also worked on our affective domain gifted study and I changed  my presentation idea to a POSTER-BOARD. I'm pretty sure it's going to blow everyone's mind, (I hope).  Also this is one of the images that I am going to use for my poster-board of Abraham Lincoln.

Lots of different SUBJECTS!

THE CIRCUS IS IN TOWN in about three years. It's so long. >:(

But seriously,  today we had a circus PERFORMER come and talk to us. She talked about her seven month tour and she had some videos of her at circus Aotearoa. When she was here she told us how they set up the tent and that there was no age limit, so next time kids say "I'll run away and join the circus".... they actually can.

Today we also went to our patterns workshops, so I went back to migration patterns. We talked about the people migrating to Australia from Pakistan and places. Then one of the questions we had was how do they pay the smugglers.


I have an idea

Sand Money!!!!

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MIGRATION it might just sound like a bunch of random letters but it's actually a word and no I'm not fooling with you. Migration means when a group of people or animals move to a different place for reasons that include: Natural disasters, money, work, war and many more. We had to identify pictures and figure out what type of migration they were. There were sections like prevention of migration, migration by boat/truck. When they do that they risk their safety because there is a high chance that the sharks could get to them first, but it would have had to of been better then their country. Animals migrate mostly because of food and water, then that is when the hunters leave to follow the animals. Today I learnt that things and people migrate because of many different reasons.

Term 1 and 2 Reflection sheet

WOO HOO the reflection sheet is done. Then Darryn calls me own to the mat and says the reflection sheet doesn't contain enough information, my mouth dropped on the outside. I was calm but on the inside I was saying "NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO" I just got out then he pulled me back in. So I proceeded to the mat with a laptop in my grasp. Then when I got down to the mat it wasn't that bad then I started working REAL hard. I just kept thinking after this it's all over. Then when I  had finished it  I tried to send it to Darryn then the unbelievable happened!!! My mail STOPPED WORKING, then it came up with a notice saying that is was logged in somewhere else so just as I started my hunt the music sounded it is just clearly not my day. I learnt that you should just do what you can fast.

Pic Collage

This week it is Gifted awareness week for those of you who didn't know that. Last week I used an app called Live Sketch. This week I was shown an app by Darryn which I used in his i-Pad workshop today. The app is called PIC COLLAGE. You can find images from the web and put then in the document and you can choose different backgrounds. You can also add text, so its like making a real life collage, but on technology. I made some pages for my book. When I was in the middle of my collage Darryn came over to me and said that we could make it into a physical book and send it out to some of the schools that participate in ENRICH. That got me excited and I mean really excited! But now I have a lot of work to do to make my book presentable, but I am willing to do it.

Drawing on Live Sketch

Have you ever drawn on a computer? It's a lot harder than you think. But on the i-Pad there is an app called LIVE SKETCH. It is an app were if you draw two lines close to each other they connect like a spider web. I used it for most of my passion time.  It was the cat in my story that I worked on. It was really hard to colour in because of the effect. I had to find a lot of pictures to draw at the start it was easy, then it got harder as I added more detail. We had to use a special pen with a soft tip to make thicker lines.

It's not finished

If you don't know about my story read my other posts.

PASSION FLIP CHART

Today for PASSION TIME I made a flip chart for my illustrations and story board. I planned out my title and some visual things like the cat and I  didn't use my real drawings.  I had to draw a different one on the computer. Trust me drawing on the computer is alot harder than it sounds, you have to get the right position and everything. But aside from the negatives lets focus on the positives. I made a very successful slideshow about my story.  It took a lot of time but it was worth it.

The Dark Pit

Today I went to an affective workshop about THE PIT. The pit is a mental state when you feel that you have got into a place where it depresses you and could take years to get out of it.  This could be for any number of reasons but the key is, if you find yourself in this situation, You CAN get out of the pit using a number of strategies. 1.Telling someone about your problem 2. Laughter  and many more. But there are also feelings that can get you into the pit like 1. Anger 2. Sadness 3. Depression etc etc. The pit is not a place you want to be because you could make many people around you sad and angry. WARNING TRY TO STAY AWAY FROM THE PIT.

Busy day in the land of Enrich

Today at the adventure of ENRICH we did extraordinary things like....... passion projects, chess etc etc.  Now for an inside on all of the above.

Firstly for passion time I finally got onto drawing the cat - that was a big challenge. All of the detail for the right image....finally I got it, but then I figured out I had to find a lot of poses.

Also in the middle of passion time I had to go over to the performers and play guitar for a piece I had been learning - the solo of Don't Stop Me Now by Queen. Then even earlier in the day I played chess vs Callum. I had high hopes for the game but it had a stalemate so nobody was the victor. So my place on the leaderboard still stands. So that is nearly the end of a exciting and packed day at Enrich.

First Day for term 2

Back at Enrich for yet another term. But at least it's a place you want to come back too. Today we put up a chart showing the new student led workshops. But we can actually choose what to go too- it's like a free choice class that people can come to if they want and it is run by other students. 

I also got a reply from a expert writer and he told me where to go next with my book (which by the way is coming along nicely) He told me that it sounds great and to keep going and also look on the Internet to help me with further instructions. I bet your wondering who the author was well it was GAVIN BISHOP. You should know my book the one with pukeko's and the New Zealand take on the story of the Three Little Pigs.

Also on the chess leader board I am now in 3rd place and am not certain I am going to get in the chess tournament but I have high hopes.  

Passion time

9:15 is the time of the day when we have Passion Time; a block of time where you can follow your true passion - do your teachers ever let you do that?  Well today I contacted Gavin Bishop the author of the classics like Piano Rock. I emailed him to help with my story.  Also, today I started my illustrations for my story. Later we went into photoshop and edited our field trip photos, then we put them on a keynote. But I didn't finish mine. I will, I hope. Here our some of my illustrations.

They're only practices though.

Passion time (the continuos of the THREE CHUBBY PUKEKO'S)

Today the making of the three chubby Pukeko's . Well enough about that more about the book that took lots of time. I had a lot of time and writers block to get it done but it happened. Now onto the next headache, illustrations not my best subject but I'm going to push through that and complete the book. It's going to teach me how to draw and task commitment that subject hasn't been a favourite but I have been improving bit by bit. That's it for today, see you next week on Maxf@enrich.net.nz.

Patterns

"STAY TO THE LEFT" said Nicola as we walked up the streets of Invercargill. People running, biking and driving cars we could only just hear our own voices. Today at ENRICH we went on a patterns field trip. We went all around Invercargill looking for everyday patterns that we never notice. Like the patterns in buildings that give it Strength, The pond that give the ducks Survivability, The makeup pattern that supplies Beauty and the road signs that give Order. Now look at all the capital letters in that section if you mix them up they make B.O.S.S which stands for types of patterns. So next time you go out and try look for the patterns you don't see and you will be amazed of how much you have missed.

Here are some pictures that we took

Bulls Eye

One shot and a world of possibilities.....

Thoughts flowing through my mind.... which hoop.... thinking about my chances. (Sorry sounds like I am mindlessly mumbling but believe it or not its actually a game) It is called bulls eye - not the animal though.

Its all a game of chance. First of all you have four chances, also known as four beanbags four hoops. The first hoop is worth two which is the most likely for you to get; the second is four that's pretty likely. The third hoop is not very likely, but if you get it you shall receive six points.... sadly its not that likely. Now, if you think you're going great and you want to take a gamble the last hoop is EIGHT POINTS - that's only if you're feeling lucky like you just met a leprechaun.

My team was going well then we hit rock bottom and had a draw for second. I know last sounds bad but that was a great effort I think. Well enough said. When you have the time you should play the game bulls eye. It is amazing!

All you need is:

8 hoops

8 bean bags ( or bean bags animals if you want a challenge)

A line to stand behind.

Someone to keep score

And a timer.

Then you are ready to play BULLS EYE.

Blokus Tower defense

The War of Blokus

Defend your tower, defeat your opponents trap your enemies and win the war in the realm of BLOKUS. My enemies Jake the orc and Miro the wizard and me Max the monster this is a war of logic "max max max wake up" is what I heard from Jake when my eye squinted open. It had all been a dream NOOOOOOOOOO! But enough about board games and day dreaming. Today we had a drama game where the teacher started the sentence of and the next person had to continue it. Sounds pretty easy but we had to do it from the alphabet like the first persons sentence had to start of with a A and the second person with B and so on. That is the experience of a day at Enrich.

Wilson Game

Hello! Today we played a Wilson game as we do every Monday. This time it was a game that included hula-hoops, holding hands and teamwork. When it was a group of three in a circle Darryn said "READY HOP " then he clapped and it was the only time you could jump. When you jumped, everyone in the group had to jump at the same time ( with feet together) and land at the same time as your team. If you didn't manage it, then you had to go back to the start. The teachers' jobs were to stop us - not physically but mentally it was really hard.Kumbaya

CONCEPT

Today at enrich we learnt what our concept curriculum was which is......... Patterns. When you think patterns you might think easy I know everything but have you ever dared to try write what you know about it down, its a lot harder than you think. That's what we had to do when we were naming the 4 cornerstones of enrich which are Talent development, Affective domain, Concept curriculum and Mental edge. For patterns we looked at the four types of patterns: strength, survival, beauty and order.