Paige's Homework

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qVJwKeq3LbE

Tournament of Minds

Last Saturday, the TOM (Tournament of Mind) team Muritai 1 WON the TOM Maths Engineering challenge! The team included Charlotte Mcfarlane, Daan Tokeley, Eva Oliver, Joshua Toomath, Kieran Smith, Mila Van Der Wilt, and Samantha Morphew.

The Maths Engineering challenge consisted of moving a 250 ml water bottle through a course on an invisible (or almost invisible) vehicle, as well as coming up with a story to give a reason for it. Muritai 1’s story was about transporting food and water to llamas in a llama sanctuary so that they weren’t scared of the humans feeding them. Muritai 1’s vehicle was a milk bottle chopped in half, with one half hot-glued inside the other so that it was skinny enough to fit through the course. They maneuvered the vehicle using clear nylon string, and 4 different people helped to maneuver it throughout the course.

The team will soon be heading to the Nationals on the 19th of September, to compete with the other winners of the regional Maths Engineering challenge.

Article written by: Joshua Toomath

Websites for today

http://www.readwritethink.org/classroom-resources/student-interactives/timeline-30007.html

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sn/prehistoric_life/human/species/

Making Maths Real!

We have been working on fractions, decimals and percentages in class over the last couple of weeks.  For homework this week we specifically looked at fractions.  We double and halved recipes.  There was lot of measurement to do to.  We had to decide the correct way to measure ingredients and be accurate.  It is great doing fun things like this and learning a long the way.
Here are some photos of Matiu. His biscuits look great.

Michael Smither Inspired Paintings

In our class we have been looking at and studying a well known N.Z. Artist - Michael Smither.
We were particularly taken with one of his paintings of his daughter eating baked beans.  She loved them so much that she ate them for breakfast lunch and dinner. Smither called this painting "Sarah's Beans'
For our paintings we started by taking a photo of ourselves with a big spoon and completing a pencil drawing from this.  We had to look closely at the tones.  We then used this pencil drawing to help us with our paintings.  They are just gorgeous and each of them has their own little personality...not all of us like beans!

Calendar, Diary, Card Art

Beehave- Inspired by Mike Weston

National Young Leaders Day 2015!

On Monday 15th June 2015, many students from year 7 and 8 were lucky enough to get the chance to go to NYLD (National Young Leaders Day)! During the trip we saw many inspiring and interesting people talk about their lives, and how they became famous! It was held in St. James Theater, where every seat in the three level auditorium was filled! Many different schools were there, including one school that made the long trek from Auckland to Wellington just to see it!

William Pike

The main goal of NYLD is to inspire and teach children how to be good leaders. Many famous New Zealanders came in on Monday to tell us how THEY became great leaders, and their philosophies and attitude towards getting there.

The first speaker of the day (which, because of the traffic, we arrived slightly late to...) was a man called William Pike. William Pike is a mountaineer who lost his leg while he was climbing a mountain, so he had to get a bionic one, which he managed to climb Mount Tongarero with! His main philosophy is All Passion, No Limits, meaning that if you follow your passion, then there won't be any limits to hold you back.

Simon Gault

After William Pike, Simon Gault (from Masterchef) was our next speaker. Simon Gault told us about how everyone is a brand (whether you like it or not), meaning that how you act will effect how people see you as a brand. As well as that, he told us about his extra 5%. 5% magic is when you're doing that little bit extra to get 105% (On top of your normal operating 100%). It makes a massive difference, because that extra 5% magic can be the thing that makes you just that tiny bit better than whatever you're competing against.

Marcus Winter 'The Sandman'

Next we had Marcus Winter, the 'Sandman'. Marcus Winter is an amazing speed artist, who not only does fast paintings (One of which he did mid-speech) but he also works with sand to create amazing artworks which he constantly shifts and changes (he also demonstrated one of his more amazing pieces). He follows three simple rules; 1. Begin with an end in mind 2. Make your Mountains 3. Surround yourself with support. Follow these three rules you are sure to be successful.

Chris Jupp

Chris Jupp was our next speaker. Chris Jupp has worked with World Vision and the 40 Hour Famine since 2011. Even in High-school, Chris Jupp had a big role in the 40 Hour Famine, which he gained through hard work and dedication. He did so well running the 40 Hour Famine in High-school, he was on the news! His story shows that hard work and dedication to your passion can get you anywhere.

Next up we had the Mother and Daughter Duo, Marina and Sariyah. Sariyah told us a story about herself, and Marina read a poem. They told us that you are a story, and that you are unique. They said that it was important to know your story, and to be honest with yourself about it.

After those two, we had Shannon Williams. Shannon Williams is an 12 y/o student from Wellington Girls College. She has managed to set up an Interschool Environmental Leaders Council with only minor help from other people, with a goal of bringing students from separate colleges together to appreciate the environment through leadership events and activities.

Jamie Mcdell

The final speaker of the day was Jamie Mcdell, the famous New Zealand singer. After she became famous, Jamie found that she could be a leader in a different way to most people. Instead of talking to them face to face, she could use her status as a celebrity to take a stance of certain things. As well as that she told us that she didn't really know what she wanted to be  when she was 13, but she did write songs as a hobby, and so at the age of 16 she became a singer, which taught us that it was okay to not have a plan of what we wanted to do at our age as well.

The day was so much fun! As well as the speakers, we got to watch a few videos about other inspiring people, as well as people that couldn't make it, a few breaks for morning tea and lunch, and the presenters even played games with us! All in all, it was a very inspirational day, and I for one feel more motivated and qualified to be a good leader!

- Joshua Toomath, (*Insert funny joke here*) Class Blogger.

Mike Weston In Class!

On Thursday, Room 24 was graced with the appearance of Mike Weston, a famous New Zealand artist! Mike Weston was kind enough to come into Room 24 on Thursday to teach us about how he became such a successful artist!

 His career as an artist began mainly with photography and photo-shop as he worked to create posters for his music gigs. Unfortunately, he found that most of the time, all of his work would go to waste after his show, as he had to scrap the posters afterwards.

 He decided to do full time art, but his real career began when he started to work with his friend, Otis Frizzell, and acted as a sort of 'Art Producer' like how a music producer might work.He would tell Otis what to paint, how to paint it, and when. Otis used to be mainly a street artist, but with this new setup, he could paint on canvas's instead of walls, and so, get paid.

Later, Mike Weston became famous for his 'Behave' piece of Artwork. He drew the original draft on a napkin at a dinner party, and later made a rough draft on the computer. The piece of artwork consisted of the Beehive matchboxes logo, with the Beehive company brand below changed to 'Behave' in stencil writing. The original black and red stripes were changed to have four white koru's in-between them to add some Maori cultural influence. The piece was made during a time where the country was trying to figure out how to be multi-cultural, the art piece saying that the solution is to 'Behave'.

However, when he presented it to his wife, she said that it was dumb and wouldn't sell. After many iterations he abandoned the idea and let it sit for awhile. A few years later he re-visited the idea, and he decided to dump his box of sharp metal pieces, nails, bolts, screws, rocks and sandpaper all over the piece of art. Surprisingly, it made it look much better, the scratched and bruised 'Behave' looking much better than the clean and non-damaged one.

He brought it to an art exhibition where it quickly sold for $1500 to the Labor party leader at the time, who quickly displayed it in her office within the Beehive (House of Parliament). It sold quickly after that first time as the price was set, and many copies were sold, even requiring them to find a printing press so that they could mass-produce copies. Eventually it even managed to become a sponsoring brand, going on to win an award at a wine awards ceremony.

The 'Behave' brand was Mike Weston's crowning achievement, making him $1.5 Million  over the ten years since it was first launched in 2004. However, Mike Weston has worked on other projects despite the fact that 'Behave' is still making him money today. Some of his other more interesting projects include artwork on Woolworth's recycle-able and a large mural depicting Auckland's most famous landmarks.

Because we were so inspired by him, Room 24 will be making a 'Behave' mural on our bland breeze block wall, which is quite fitting for a school! Room 24 gives many thanks to Mike Weston for spending some of his time to come to our class and teach us about himself and his art.

- Joshua Toomath, (Half-dead) Class Blogger.