Finished Art

Today at Enrich I finished ALL my paintings and fixed up all the hiccups. My alien sea monster looks amazing and will soon be framed. The art exhibition will start next week at a local art gallery until around about Xmas. Now I am making my soon to be published story more detailed. It will soon be published as an actual book. I am also in the process of making a very detailed picture of a horse for the cover. Then it will be made by the 'Tikatok' company and they will send it to me. Enrich is paying for it to be published.

Mood 1: Fustrated of how much I still have to do
Mood 2: Happy because I've finished my art
Mood 3: Exited for Xmas!
Mood 4: Sad because it is almost time for my schools year 6 leavers assemably
Mood 5: Sad because its the last year I'm at Enrich.

My two stars and a wish

Today is the last day of Enrich@ILT for term 3. =( . We have all been asked to do a blog-post on our two stars and a wish for next term. ( I will make it less complicated for you : 'We have all been asked to do a blog-post on two things that we enjoyed the most and what stood out to us this term and what we would like to happen next term') My first star is Talent Development because I got to go further in my talent. My second star is P4C because it got my brain really thinking and there was interesting questions floating around. My wish is for there to be more P4C and Passion Projects and Talent Development.

Mood 1: Happy its almost the holidays! =)

Mood 2: Sad, no more Enrich in the holidays! =(

I have mixed feelings about this.

Cave painted and Dragon head almost made

Today in Talent Development I painted the cave's under coat but it won't stay the mucky mustard colour that it is at the moment. I will then get into detailed colours and effects next week. Today Libby and I put clay on the body of our dragon and made it's head with tape, wire and tin foil. The great thing about tape, wire and tin foil is that you can make it do what you want. Next week I will be doing details.

Dragon Project

As you know our theme for Art Talent Development is Dragons, Mythical creatures and Taniwha's. Today I started in a group of three to produce a dragon themed paper mache and clay project.

In my group there is: Libby, Grace and of course me. We are all planning on making a serpent wrapped around a cave which it's egg lies in. This is all going quiet nicely and on the cave we are planning on sticking on rocks/pebbles (for texture) , vines (for extra effect and a dragon-like fantasy) leaves ( just because we can... plus we could sell it for more $$$) and we are hoping that if all goes well we are wanting to also going to put flames coming out of its mouth (we will do this by clay and then paint it so it looks like the serpent is shooting flames!).

1st Week in Term 3

Today was the first day back for Term 3 2011 and everyone got to choose a Talent Development area. We all had three choices which were:

1. Documentaries with Alana,

2. Art with Darryn

3. Creative Writing.

The Creative Writing and the Documentries will be featured in 'The Made Awards' this year. But the best of the Art with be presented at the City Gallery by S.I.T arcade at the start of next year.

I am in the Art group with Darryn. Today from this morning to lunch time Darryn took us out to two places which were:

1. The Art Gallery by the Water Tower

2. The City Gallery by the S.I.T arcade.

Our topic for Art this Term is Dragons. We will all be doing 3 types:

1. Clay,

2. Prints with chisels

3. Drawings/sketch

We also have a new Must Do/Can Do sheet when we have to get the things we've done signed off and checked by ether Katie, Darryn or Alana.

Today for my workshops I did P4C with Alana about friendships and Drama with Katie which, we did a game of 'Hot-seat'. There is one person who sits on a seat and the rest of the group tries to get them out by asking questions as the person on the seat can't say 'Yes' 'No' or shrug.

I can't wait until next week for more Art and other activities! =)

Mood: Happy because of the awesome day! =) =)

Teacher Comment

Alex.

You have had a busy term at Enrich. You used your passion for writing to produce original stories to be recorded onto an audio CD for children in Christchurch who were effected by the earthquake. You make very good use of your time at Enrich - it was great to see you tracking your learning on your Must Do / Can Do sheet, as well as posting interesting comments on your blog describing your new learning at Enrich. I look forward to another productive term with you.

Katie.

Last Day @ Enrich 4 the Term

Today is the last day at Enrich for Term 2 =( . My stars (good things) of the term was: P4C because it got my brain woking and got me to add more detail to my answers, like why I think that. My other star is making my Passion Project, because I got to write more stories which is what I love to do. My wish is that Enrich was for all ages and I could never stop coming.

At least I had 2 more terms after this one! Today I have finished typing up all of my stories for my passion project but I have only recorded 2 of my 5 stories =) . After Term 4 I will be off to high school which means that I will not be able to come to Enrich because Enrich is only for children between the years 3-6. =( .

Mood: Sad of leaving for the holidays because I can't come to Enrich =(

Mood: Happy because it's almost the holidays and I won't have to get up early every morning to go to school or Enrich =)

Completed 3 more stories

Today at Enrich I have successfully completed 1 story and yesterday at school I wrote 2 stories. For the stories that I wrote yesterday I just have to find a really good and catchy name to go with them.
The first story I wrote is about 2 sisters who are on a holiday in London and the girls go to a park to play. Alice ( the older sister) steps on a particular square metre and falls through the earths surface and lands in some pipes that are apart of a railway station. Jess ( the younger sister) follows her to the underground pipes.

The second story I wrote was about Friday the 13th. I have decied to call this story the Haunter Library because I ( in the story my name is Matilda) am in the Library with my best friend Jordi and I end up being dragged by the collar by a skeleton hand and I go through the couch. Jordi tries to save me but it is to late. I end up in a cave and try to get out but I'm tricked by a talking, purple frog like creature. In the end it was all just .......

Plots for my stories.

Today I have written the first story for my Passion Project. The first story I have written is called: "King Marco" and is about a Polar Bear - King Legend (which is for both boys and girls). I go searching in Antarctica for his tomb. On the way to the, tomb I find two rare penguin eggs, get buried by an avalanche, which I just survive and then I get frost bite all over me! The story 'King Marco' is non- fiction (which means the story is made up).

I have also made a plan for the next story that I'll be writing which will be called: The Blood Thirsty Dragon, (which is a book for the boys). The Blood Thirsty Dragon is about when a dragon flies into a new home which is in a cave in a volcano. The volcano is behind where John, Kate, Jessica, Grandma Mary and Grandpa Brain live, in their house. One day the dragon makes rocks fall onto the house and the house is destroyed. So John sets out to kill the dragon.

Gifted Awareness Week

This week is Gifted Awareness week and Katie has asked all of the kids at Enrich@ILT to write a blog that tells you what being 'Gifted means to us.' What I'm gifted in is Art and Writing. The bad part of being gifted is that at school, when I don't know the answer to a question people ask me why I go to Enrich and critisize me. The good part about being gifted is that I have the opportunity to go to Enrich. Another good thing about being gifted is that at Enrich I can get away from School and get challenged. I really enjoy going to Enrich because I get to work with 'Like Minds' and kids just like me.

My favourite model of giftedness would have to be Renzulli because it's simple and easy to understand. Renzulli thinks that to be gifted or talented you only have to have 3 things which are: Creativity, Above avrarage abilty and Task commitment. I have Creativity because I'm an Arty person and I like to think outside of the square, I have above avarage because I am better in some subjects that other people and I have task commitment because I like to stick to things until I get it done.

Passion Project - Finding out what kind of books kids like

Today I made a survey on Survey Monkey about what kind of books 7 and 8 years olds like to read. This survey will be sent to all of the 7 and 8 years olds at Enrich. Once I get the feedback I will look at the results of what the kids like and I will write a story that will be based on this feedback. From there I will read the story using a podcast on the programme Garageband. I will publish it onto CD's and send the CD's to the children in Christchurch who are visually impaired. I hope to do quite a variety of stories. I think that the visually impaired children in Christchurch will really enjoy my stories.

My New Passion Project

I've found a new passion project! For my new passion project I've decided on podcasting children's books (up to 14 or 15 years old) on Garageband. I will be putting the stories onto CD's and sending them to Christchurch. I think that my passion project will change blind children's lives because they can learn new things as a lot of learning comes from reading books.. Since the blind children don't have the ability to read because of their disadvantage, I'm going to be on the CD reading to them.

Passion Project Change

Today all of the returning students had a conference about our passion projects. We have all just found out that we have to do something that will help ether Christchurch because of the earthquake or Japan because of the earthquake and tsunami. I think, (if Darryn, Alana and Katie say yes), I could make the set for a costume/art show that some other kids from Enrich are doing.

New Term, New Learning

Today is the first day back at Enrich for Term 2. This term I (and all of the other Enrich students that were here in 2010) are doing Passion projects this term and term 3! For my Passion project this year I am learning to draw animals in more detail, more realistically and accurately. For my term 3 Passion project I'm planning on doing pottery.

Cooperative Game

Today I did the cooperative game with Katie. Katie and I organised a game called 'Terminator' though some people recognised it as ' Maths tag'. What we had to do was find a place to stand on the wooden floor in the upper part of the room. Sarah called out some hard questions for us to answer. Like: What is the big statue in Ohakune? The first person to put their hand up gets to answer the question. If the person gets the answer wrong they're out and have to sit down on the ground. If the person gets the question right they get to take one step towards someone and if they can reach that person (Standing up) they can tag them. The person that got tagged is out and they have to sit down. The aim is to be the last person standing. Isabella won the game today.

It was a fun game because you got to learn things you didn't know from the questions that were asked. A lot of people wanted to play again.

Half Day of Workshops!

Today we have a half day of workshops and for the other half of the day we have a technology challenge! It must be a pretty long challenge.

Since it's the last day of Enrich for the term its probably very special and super fun.

I wonder what the challenge is.

Mood: Suspicious = )

P4C AGAIN!!!

Today I did P4C AGAIN with Darryn but the question was different. The question was: Can you lie to yourself? I picked No because you can convince yourself but you can't lie to yourself. What do you think? Post a comment to tell me!

P4C

Today I did a P4C workshop with Sarah. P4C stands for Philosophy for Children. In P4C we had to answer this question: 'Should we be rewarded for effort at school'. I said Yes because if you work hard at something you should be rewarded for your hard work. I love P4C because it gets your brain working hard to think outside of the box.

A New Year at Enrich

Its Week 7, term 1, 2011

This is my painting of an Avocado and two pears. This type of painting is called 'Still Life'

Do you like it? I hope you do, I'm proud of this painting because I've never used acrylic paint before. There was a plate of fruit with a light shining on it to give shadow. We had to think carefully about adding shading to our painting. We watched a youtube clip before we started so that we could get the shapes and shading right. Even the easels were set up in different angles to the fruit so that we all had different views to work from and to show different shading.

This year is a whole lot different than last year because there are yr 3, 4, 5 and 6 on the same day! Plus since week 2 we have all been managing our own time and going to the workshops we would like to do!