Tattoo Mini Project

This is a task that we were given by Mrs Tele'a. We had to create two tattoos. One that was cultural and one that had elements that represented you. Here is a presentation that includes my tattoos. They each have an explanation so you can understand the meaning behind them.

If the presentation isn't working for you, I have put the explanations here too. By the way, there is a LOT of writing.

My first tattoo is called the Fata ‘o Tu’i Tonga. It is a portrayal of the central beam in the King’s house. More specifically, of the sennit bindings that hold the central beam, which supports the thatched roof. So why did I choose this particular Tongan pattern as one of my two tattoos?

The Fata ‘o Tu’i Tonga symbolizes unity, strength and coming together. This was exactly the reason why I chose it. I thought it reminded me of family - distinctly, my family -. When I saw the Fata ‘o Tu’i Tonga and it’s the meaning behind it, it reminded me of all the times my extended family has given my parents and I a helping hand. It’s a pretty significant design since one of the many things I value is family.

In this slide, I have included my own tattoo design that I created. It is based off of the things I value the most; Friendship, Trust and Animals. These are more of symbols than they are patterns and drawings.

As you can see, one of the symbols are in a different language. When translated, it means trust. You may be wondering what this language is. It is Kanji. Kanji is used in the modern Japanese writing system. So why would I include Kanji in my tattoo? Another thing that I value is culture and language. I thought instead of using the Tongan language, I would use a language that was foreign to me and that I was fascinated with. And that was Japanese.

Behind the friendship symbol is a pawprint. The main reason why I used a dog pawprint to represent animals was because I absolutely love dogs. Another reason why was because I recently lost a close family member. Sisa. He was my dog that I grew up with in Tonga. I had received him when I was aged one and at the time Sisa was just a pup. So we were really close since we LITERALLY grew up together. This symbol really did mean a lot to me. I actually hope one day I will get this tattoo.

I would say this tattoo is also apart of my own design. It shows my religion, family and culture.

The flower is supposed to be a franjapaini. It represents where I was born: Tonga. Popping up behind it is a koru. This represents New Zealand. Overall, this shows where I was born and where I am currently living.

The stick figures may look a little out of place but they symbolize my parents. I used the cliche gender colours blue and pink to identify them.

They are big part of my life and although they may have problems in their relationship, they’re still making an effort for me.

I think doing this task and all the research about tattoos and symbolism we did has really helped me understand symbolism and my culture. Everything has a meaning behind it. Whether, it’s the symbol on your school uniform, the tattoo your uncle has or that tick on your Nike shoes.

My friends and I have talked a lot about tattoos and what we were going to get etched on our bodies when we were older. The past seven weeks have really broadened my mind on tattoos. They are a form of art on people’s bodies, especially when they have meaning behind them. That’s when they become symbolic and can be a constant reminder for you.

What's Been Up at Extension?

Extension has been taking closer looks at tattoos and symbolism. Specifically polynesian tattoos. We researched about it and even created our own designs but we had never really seen the real thing. Although a bunch of us had already seen a pe'a before due to someone in their family having one. Anyway, Mr Tele'a was invited to come to one of our extension sessions to show us his traditional samoan tattoo. Whether we had already seen one or not, it was still a really good way to expand our knowledge.

He came to give us a personal view on what's it like to get a pe'a (samoan tattoo). Not only that but to give us a closer look at the intricate designs.

Mr Tele'a was a really good model and teacher. We all prepared questions to ask him and he answered them with great detail.  The questions varied from: 'What did your parents think when you wanted to get a tatau?' to 'What did you do to get your mind off the pain?' and many others. He explained and showed us what parts were meaningful to him and the reasons behind them.

For example, there was a 20-30 cm wide black strip that started underneath his armpit and wrapped itself around his back to the other side of his body under the opposite armpit. To an uninformed person, it would look like a patch of green on his backside but it actually held a big amount of meaning. This part of the full pe'a is supposed to be a canoe or va'a. The va'a represents the family who the wearer of the tattoo has to always protect. (Click image underneath for an actual look)

Because the extension group have been looking at tattoos and symbolism, we were given mini project that we had to complete. This task was to create our very OWN tattoo. There were two crucial things we had to include in our tattoos. One was to use or make a symbol of any part of our culture or heritage and the other was to create a symbol to represent yourself. Currently, I have nearly finished my work. I have already completed the cultural side of this project and am still working on my own symbol.

Party Vote 2014

As the reveal of the new government drew nearer, New Zealand waited in front of their TV screens and computers, awaiting for the final word. After seeing many signs and advertisements, I can say that the support from the people is incredible. Seeing kids and adults alike, coming together and holding signs at the side of the road, showcasing who and what they believed in was pretty awesome. 

Just by looking at the vote count, National is the team bypassing everyone else. 48% of the votes were National while Labour lagged behind with only 24%. It seems that National's Mr John Key will be receiving his third term in the office as the Prime Minister.

Now that the elections are over, one of National's things on their to do list is bringing a simple economical plan to the table for the next three years. Their main goal is to Live within our Means, Start Paying off Dept and Keep Generating New Jobs. Since 12 months ago, they've grown eighty three thousand new jobs and by the time its 2018, there should be 150,000 new jobs. More on the subject about new jobs, National plans to lift the quality of teaching to provide a better education. Not only that but now they are providing free doctors visits for children under 13. 

New Zealand has voted and hopefully this is the best choice for our country. Although I am not a very big politics person, I actually can't wait to see what happens next time Elections come along. Maybe they'll get more creative with their advertisements, who knows. But for now, congratulations to National.

Sources: 

National Campaign

BBC National Party Wins Elections 

Storylines Festival Reflection

The Storylines Festival turned out to be pretty successful. I definitely enjoyed the show and the authors who presented. However I liked last year better, the audience was more involved and the authors were connecting with us. Not that this year was terrible, it was really educational.

Juliette McIver and Jill McGregor were probably my favourite authors during the festival. Juliette was incredibly funny with her bubbly personality and her books and stories were really out there. She liked to rhyme a lot and she even created her own words to match her story, much like Margaret Mahi who she looked up to. She read aloud one of her many books, Queen Alice’s Palaces. The graphics stood out to me a lot. The illustrator had used iconic buildings to incorporate Queen Alice’s many Palaces and that made the book even more interesting.

If I were to present at the festival, I would really interact with the audience. Paula Green had gathered some students to create a poem on the spot. They each had a line they would say directly after the person before them. I thought that was a great way to get involved with the kids and teachers. Another way I would do to get the kids intrigued is get some kids up to act out the story as I read it. That would be pretty funny since they are just improvising.

I would’ve loved to have seen the authors collaborate to create a wonderful masterpiece. That would’ve been amazing. I would like to give a great big thank you to the authors and to the Storylines Festival holders because it’s such a great experience for kids everywhere. Their stories and backgrounds gave us a look at what an author really endures to make their stories the best it can be. Cath Mayo traveled to Greece where she got lots of information for her books. That’s just plain awesome.

Storylines Authors 2014

This Thursday, the extension team are attending the Storylines Festival. Similar to last year, we are going to be hearing from some authors. Many of the authors this year are New Zealanders which is really cool.

Juliette MacIver is a children's book author who grew up in Wellington. She went to Victoria University where she received a degree in Linguistics. Juliette had various jobs; teaching English, working as a tour guide, travel agent and a few more. She has written a total of twelve books and is quite well-known for one of them, Toucan Can.

Born in Auckland, Catherine Mayo is a Young Adult writer. Not only that but she is currently in a band named Gentle Annie. She has written only two books, Murder in Mykenai and The Bow.

Out of all the authors, I'm looking forward to listening to Jill MacGregor. Although she was born in Dunedin, she spent a reasonable amount of traveling through the Pacific Islands. For two years, she worked as a VSA teacher in Tonga. Because of this, she writes Pacifica Books, four of them being about Tonga.

Paula Green seems to be the only poet who is attending the festival. Only a few of her stuff are children books but most of the things she has written are poetry collections. She is also a reviewer, anthologist and book-award judge teacher. Ms Green also has a PHD in Italian from the University of Auckland.

So as you can probably tell, there are a lot of things to look forward to at the Storylines Festival. I definitely have some questions for these authors and I can't wait to ask them personally. 

Astria Countdown to Impact #2

Kaycee and I tried our best to play the game everyday but found ourselves having difficulties with the game especially when we were nearly finished. We played it on Wednesday and Thursday, trying to figure out what was wrong. That was until our teacher told us, everyone else was having the same problem and it was a bug.

Luckily, today they fixed the bug and now we are going to finish it. But we did some interesting things on Wednesday. We hoped on and realized we had completed all the parts on the game except the Courtroom. So we presented our idea to the council and out of 4 ways to stop the asteroid, we picked the Solar Sail. We believed it was safer than the other options because it resulted in less deaths, the idea of it sounded more effective and we trusted the information we were given about this subject.

After we put in our option, we had to provide some evidence on why we wanted to use the Solar Sail. Not only that but we also had to put in reasons why we didn't pick the other options. Kaycee and I soon finished the game after we were given a hyperlink to where the game wasn't buggy. The solar sail proved to be very very effective and didn't kill anyone at all.

The game wasn't that difficult, we were pretty happy with our outcome. I do wish it was longer and had more tasks to complete before going to the council. Other than that, I really liked the game.

Astria Countdown to Impact #1

Extension got the privilege of being the first class in New Zealand to try out a new game that was developed by a group of people from Auckland University. We had to take a quick test first before getting into pairs and starting the game together.

Kaycee and I played the game together and we found many interesting things about the game. Basically, you are a Alpha Leader in the future who is trying to find a way to prevent an astroid from hitting your planet (Astria). You go through a series of challenges and puzzles that you have to figure out.

I found that the hardest part of the game was talking to the right people to find the right information. Not only that but also we had to rate whether a piece of information was trustworthy or not.

Today, my partner and I managed to complete 4 zones in the game. I think we could be close to completing all of the tasks and presenting the final presentation. We got a lot of information already and are on the right track to finishing the game.

I'm excited to see where the game will go, especially the story.

BAR Keys

Today is extension, we took a look at BAR keys. This was apart of a game/activity called the 20 Thinkers Key which includes 20 different puzzles to get us thinking. BAR keys is practicaly when you make something Bigger, Add something and Replace something. B A R. 

First thing we did was draw a house which we completed in 5-10 minutes. Then we rotated around the room so different people could make something Bigger, Add something and Replace something. Here are the three images I ended up with after we did this little activity. Hopefully, you can notice and read what the changes are.

20 Hour Famine!

World Vision PES 20 hour famine team from SchoolTV on Vimeo.

Last week, on Friday, a group of kids volunteered to be involved in the 20 hour famine. During extension, we took the time to study about Malawi. This is where the money was going to be going to. We had already learnt a lot of about the famine before we participated. It was incredibly fun!

Some kids brought barley sugar and Just Juice but I had decided to try to go without it and just bring water. It was VERY difficult to not be tempted not to eat. Although, we did have many activities to distract us from the hunger.

Tyla and I were chosen to be team captains of Yellow. We were pretty competitive with Team Green. This movie shows you the awesome sleep over we had at school! Hope you like it!

Malawi Compared to New Zealand

Here is a presentation showing what the differences are between New Zealand and Malawi, food wise. Hope you enjoy!

Term 1 Overview - Extension

Term 1 Overview - Extension from Team 5 PES on Vimeo.
Here is a movie ALL about what we did last term in Extension. It includes what we learnt and more. The past tense is a bit off since I made it in the end of last term and just finished now. Hopefully you enjoy! :)

Visual Mihi 2014

Here's my Visual Mihi for 2014, it holds the 4 symbols that represent me.

The very first symbol is my prefects badge, the reason why I put this as a symbol is because it represents my school and my role as a prefect.

The second symbol is of my hobbies. Now you may not see all of the things that I drew in the column, but in my spare time, I like to go on Youtube or read and write.

Thirdly is one of my favourites. This one, as you can probably tell is of my culture. I interputed it by drawing the flag, some patterns and the quote from the four of arms. "Ko e ʻOtua mo Tonga ko hoku Tofiʻa" which means in English: "God and Tonga are my inheritance"

The last symbol is my religion. I am Christian and it plays a big part in my life style and family. I drew the cross, the bible and the communion bread.

Also feel free to explore the other Extension students work by clicking the next button on my image. :)

ANZAC Brainstorm

There following is a brainstorm of things that Kaycee and I thought of when we were asked about Anzac.

Boer War Diary

In Extension, we learnt about a war that New Zealand participated in. The Boer (pronounced BORE) War. We were given a task to write a diary of what a NZ solider in the Boer War would be experiencing. Here is mine :) By the way, the following is completely fiction. Sorry if you can't understand the lettering.

Ballon Investigation

 In Term 2, the Extension Group did an interesting investigation involving a string, a ballon, tape and a straw. We had a little experiment and tested our theories and see if our predictions were correct. This was called the Thrust Investigation. We blew up the ballon and attached it to the straw with tape. The string was inside the straw and was tied on one end of the classroom and on the other side too. Mrs Tele'a timed each of our experiments to see if our changes really did a difference with the speed. We did this three times. The first one, everyone had the same exact thing. The second one, we changed it up a bit and that was the same with the third one.

I Wonder.......

Extension I Wonder School from Team 5 PES on Vimeo.

A while ago in Extension we thought about everyday things that we do in our lives and we wondered about how these things were created/invented or how they were established. Kaycee and I wondered "Who invented school. When? Why? What?" And so here is a movie we both created to explain our findings.

Halloween Extension

Halloween is one of the only times where you can eat as many junk food as you want and dress up and go ALL OUT!! Many people dress up and go Trick or Treating and see if they can get some free candy from complete strangers! What a great time! . All of this around me made me think that Halloween is about having fun, being something else and dressing up like maniacs!! That was what I thought Halloween was about before I discovered more about Halloween.

The Celtic Calendar had a light half and dark half. Celtic people would celebrate something called the Samhain (Sel-win). Samhain was the beginning of the dark half and also was the time where they had to harvest their food/crops. It was a matter of life or death because they might not have enough food. 

On May the 13th, ancient Romans believed that the dead would rise on that day so to prevent this from happening, they poured milk on their graves. This was called Lemuria until Christians christianised it and called it All Saints Day. All Saints Day was where people would acknowledge the most holy of dead christians and this day was actually so popular that they moved it to November the 1st which was the day after the Samhain (Sel-win) Harvest Festival to drain the life out of Pagan Samhain.

Samhain Harvest Festival then changed to All Hallows Evening as it was the night before All Saints Day then into All Hallows Even and now Halloween. November 2nd then was the date for All Souls Day to honour the departed.

Trick or Treating came from people who asked for soul cakes. It started on All Souls Day when priests told christians to pray for souls who were stuck in between heaven and hell, a netherworld called purgatory. Bakers would give their soul cakes, in return for prayers for souls who were trapped in purgatory. And if enough prayers were prayed for that certain soul then they would fly up into heaven.

Now Jack o Lanterns originated from a man named Jack who was so bad that he got kicked out of hell. So Jack would wonder around and when people would see a flicker of light in the night, some believed it was Jack. Another version of story, Jack one day tricked the devil by nailing him into a wall. The devil begged to be freed so Jack agreed to do so but with some conditions. Jack told the devil that he will free him if he doesn't harm him, just let him roam around. The devil took this deal and was freed. This is just two versions of the story. There are many more beliefs. 

Outlook for Someday Workshop

Earlier this term, the Extension group had a workshop with Eli and Chris. They taught us so many things that would really came in handy when film-making. They explained to us the different genres of films that you can create and they also told us about the Outlook for Someday film competition that we have already entered.

During the workshop, they showed us some winning films from the competition which really got us all thinking about what we could create. We were split into groups and we had to create a film about sustainability.  Makerita, Mary L, Jay-Lee and I were were one group. With a group, there of course has to be a group name, we called ourselves GJMR Studios.

Eli and Chris gave us some quotes and a puzzle to complete. When we completed the puzzle, it had 4 bold words on it. Those words were: Culture, Economy, Environment and Society. We thought about the quotes, and the four words and decided to create our film around Economy and Society.

Our main question was: How did the world come to evolve around money? We did pretty well with how much time we had to film and edit which was just 1 hour. 

The workshop was really helpful! We learnt so many things like camera shots, different angles and so much more. It will definitely be remembered for future movie making.
GJMR Studios Extension from Team 5 PES on Vimeo.


Here is our movie we created with them and another movie about our experience.

Outlook for Someday Workshop@ Pt England School from SchoolTV on Vimeo.

SER Research

SER Roads from Team 5 PES on Vimeo.
Last term, for extension, we researched about Self Explaining Roads. These are the islands on the roads. As a way to share our information, we had to create a presentation or movie. Here is mine. Hope you like it.

John Farrell

John Farrell is a singer, but not just a singer, he is known also as a songwriter, author, and peace educator. John has recorded 7 CDs of songs and stories! That's a lot! From Japan to Ukraine to Spain to South Africa, and all across North America, he has done over a thousand presentations in schools!

As an author, he has written two Boyd's Mills Press picture books, named It's Just a Game and Stargazer's Alphabet. In 2008, John's third book, Dear Child was published.

Currently he is living in Hillsdale, New York with a his wife Ann Marie who is a kindergarten teacher. Together they have five kids. John Farrell is the founder of Bridges of Peace and Hope. This international program is to promote understanding through writing and the arts.

I'm really looking forward for the Extension group to meet him.

Courtesy of www.hoperivermusic.com