Zheng He - Explorer Extraordinaire

For reading over the last couple of weeks I have been studying Zheng He an infamous Chinese explorer. We were learning to show our information we found in an interactive and attractive way. In other words, we were making visual posters. Zheng He was in command of the largest fleets of ships in world history. There were lots of different ships for trading, war, carrying people and supplies. I tried to do my work really fast but when I showed it to Miss Dods she said it was not acceptable. I enjoyed learning about Zheng He because I had never heard of him. I found out that the Chinese had very advanced navigation and maps for their time. I think it is amazing what he has achieved, it shows that China has always been a very powerful and forward thinking country. That is my favourite explorer, who is yours?

Squirrel Vs Hawk...

When I first saw this video I was a little bit stuck. In fact I was a lot stuck I could not think of anything to write about because I had done a very similar piece of adrenalin writing before. Then i decided that i would make it funny. I had seen pictures of squirrels holding bazookas on the internet and that was my inspiration. I had fun with this piece of writing because I could take it wherever I wanted. The only challenge was when It came to editing I had changed tense a lot. I wanted to end the story but it kept going on and on. Finally I finished and only just met the deadline. I hope you enjoy it!

Banksy

Banksy was my second choice for my art inquiry. He is an anonymous graffiti artist who's work shows up mostly in England but also in other places around the world. I chose him because of his political art works and the mystery that surrounds him. He does such cool work and it inspired me to do my own Bansky prints. I found out the names of some of his simpler works, e.g balloon girl and then searched on the internet "balloon girl stencil".  Next I printed it out on about 12 peices of a4 paper. The next step was to stick it to cardboard and cut it out. Wow cutting it out is tricky! It took ages to do it with the craft knife, and that was the fastest way. It was worth though because once I had the cardboard cut out all I had to do was spraypaint over the top of it. The paper underneath was left with a cool design once I took the cardboard off. It was hard but it was definately worth the trouble. I learnt lots about stenciling and the techniques that Banksy uses!

Macklemore - Living a life for art!

When we got told we had to choose a artist straight away I new who my first choice was... Macklemore! I really love his music and I think he has an inspiring story, from rags to riches. We were learning about the arts and all of the different types. I had no idea that singing and acting were an art!
 The way Macklemore presents his music and the fact that he sings about everyday life is what I really enjoy about him. It was fun making my google slides presentation and making it look cool. I was trying to make it more like a movie than a slideshow and also add a music backing.

 It is actually harder than I thought to navigate and use google slides. I discovered that there was lots of different little tricks and cool things you can do to your work on slides, such as animating pictures. It was a fun challenge and I was very happy with the end product. Who is your favourite artist and
why?
 

Profile

My name is Quinn. I live on a rural New Zealand farm about an hour away from the city of Gisborne with my family. I go to Matawai School where I am a year eight student. I have lived in Matawai all of my life. It is a really cool place to live because sometimes it snows in the winter. I have lots of great friends at Matawai School and I will miss them next year when I go to High School.

I have always enjoyed school and I am quite competitive so I am always challenging myself to be better. I am good at reading and maths and they are the subjects that I enjoy the most. My goal this year as a year eight was to be the best that I could be with everything and put 100% effort and lots of time into all of my tasks. Sometimes I find staying in my work a little bit tricky because I like to talk to people.

I am looking forward to more sports ahead, I love all sports and enjoy being fit and healthy. My favourite sport is hockey and I try really hard to be a supportive and happy teammate as well as being a good player. I also play rugby and do running competitively but I do not enjoy them quite as much. I always think the second half of the school year is much more exciting than the first half and the half way point has just shot past. The year is whizzing by and I can not believe that we are past halfway through!