AFL Session

Toko and I got ready to go to AFL with Mrs Nua’s class because we had Kapa Haka when it was our classes turn to go to AFL. So we lined up with Mrs Nua’s class and walked towards where our session was going to be held. Once we got there we sat down with a bunch of little kids who were ready for their session also. I saw two men walk up to us and said ”Hi Guys” and we all responded with”Hi”.One of them said that their name was Michael and the other said his name was Sam.

Once we were done introducing ourselves we got onto learning how to drop punt. The mentors yelled out “Grab a partner and what I want you to do is practise doing a drop punt”. They both demonstrated what the drop punt looked like and they sent us out to practise. My partner was Toko and we started getting the hang of drop punting even though the kicks went crooked. As we kept practising I started looking at other peoples kicks and they were really accurate. It was about 10 minutes since we had been asked to practise, so Michael and Sam blew a whistle and yelled “Come in”, so we all rushed in to listen to what we were going to do next.

The next thing we were going to do was to learn how to pass the ball with your hand. That technique was called handball. The instructors said to us “With your partner you are going to practise the hand ball”. But first they did another demonstration of how to do it. So Toko and I rose from the floor and started to do the handball. Our attempts were not very successful and our ball went flying everywhere, almost hitting everyone in sight. But as we practised and practised we got better at it. Once Toko and I started to have fun because we finally learned how to handball accurately the mentors blew the whistle and called us in.

Once we were all gathered round them,they announced that it was time for a game. Quietly I said to myself “Finally something really fun”. But they explained that it wasn't the actual game of AFL but it was something that improved kicking accuracy. The game was kind of like force back but if you had the ball you could bomb the ball high and if the opposition didn’t catch it then your team would gain 1 point. They also explained the rules and once they had finished we started the game with a simple blow of the whistle. Once the game began I looked for any ball in the air. There was one ball that went really high so I yelled at the top of my lungs “MY BALL!!!!” and miraculously caught the ball in mid-air. The game went on and I had caught about 5 balls, I was like a viper searching for his prey. But fun came to an end when they blew the whistle and told us to come in. By the way our team won 9 points to 10.

That was it we had finished our AFL session for the week. I was sad that it had come to an end and I wanted to keep on going but other people hadn’t had their turn to have loads of fun. I cannot wait until we go back next week. So we headed back to class and I hoped that the next class that went to AFL would have a wonderful time just like us.

Taonga Time

It was our first day at Taonga Time which was on Fridays and our Taonga Time class was with Miss Va’afusuaga. Once I had entered the classroom that it was being held in I wondered what we would be doing. I saw Joe, Lepa, Miracle, Sampson and Devyne so I was happy because all my friends were in my class. So as soon as we took our seats Miss Va’afusuaga started to explain what we were going to do.

So she told us that she had recruited this group because the group were the most sportiest people. Miss V also told us to split into 5 groups and she also said that we had to write down the most sport that we knew on a piece of paper. Loads of sports came to mind but I could’nt think of all of them so I just write what I first thought of. My group that I was with was Samuela, Pesi and some other people. Once the 5 minutes were up it was time to share with the class what we had written down. Lepa’s group went first and called out a numerous number of sports. Once they had finished we had to try name the sports they didn’t say. Our group had loads of sports to say that people had’nt even thought of. But once every group said what they possibly could we had been told to do another task.

The task now was to think of as many sports stars as we could and pick one of them to study  for the term. We were in our same groups and we write down everyone we could think of in 2 minutes. Miss Va’afusuaga yelled “Put your markers down”. So we all stopped and called out our sport stars we had written down. My favourite person that I called out was Jon ‘Bones Jones. After that we went outside and played a bit of Basketball

Comparing Picasso and Hulme

This is the second time our class has been asked to compare two paintings, which is Pablo Picasso’s painting ’The Weeping Woman’ and Daniella Hulmes painting ‘A Lazy Day In Paradise’. Pablo Picasso is famous for his paintings because he paints from different perspectives and his style is called Cubism. While Daniella Hulmes became a famous artist for her island paintings and patterns. Also Daniella’s style is modern contemporary.

When I look at ‘The Weeping Woman’ I see sadness in the painting and I see lots of small lines. As I carefully observe for five minutes, I can also see that Pablo Picasso has involved lots of colour in his painting. He has also included lots of different patterns and mostly the colour yellow. The faded tears that roll down the woman’s face expresses sadness and I think that might of been how Picasso had been feeling.

As soon as I take one deciding look at the portrait ‘A Lazy Day In Paradise’ I see laziness in the painting as the lady lays her head on the couch. I kept observing to find out that there were lots of wild patterns on the pillows and the couch and the ladies clothing. Mostly the patterns are pacific islander patterns and colours. The colour you can see more of than any other colour is blue which is spread pretty much throughout the painting. Plus all the clothing on the lady is the colour yellow.

When I try to compare the similarities between each of the paintings there aren’t too many. But one of the similarities I noticed was that they have both used lots of the colour yellow. Another similarity is that they both have used lots and lots of patterns. But there are some things that they do not have in common such as Daniella Hulmes island patterns that Pablo Picasso never drew. Another difference is that Picasso paints from different perspectives as Daniella Hulmes just paints what she can see.

What I have experienced doing this writing has been really inspiring. Mostly inspiring me to look more carefully at paintings than last time. This has been great to witness something like this and write this post.

Comparison betwwen Van Gogh and Henri Matisse

Our class teacher has asked our class to compare Vincent Van Goghs painting of ‘Sunflowers’ and Henri Matisse’s painting ‘La Musique’. Henri Matisse was a French artist who used a very different style of painting called Fauvism. Fauvism actually means ‘wild beast’ in French and that’s how Henri Matisse painted. Vincent Van Gogh became a famous artist when he died. When he was alive he was very sad and he even chopped his ear lobe off and sent it to his girlfriend.

When I observe Vincent Van Goghs painting ‘Sunflowers’ I can see that the flowers look rotten and have not been taken care of. The background colours look dull. Lots of yellows and browns have been used. Also some flowers have lost their petals. The colour yellow is meant to make you feel like dancing but the painting doesn’t express that emotion. I think that Vincent Van Gogh was painting how he felt.

As I carefully eye up the painting La Musique I think that there are lots and lots of bright colours and patterns. By looking at the background patterns I could tell that Henri Matisse was a happy man. There is a mixture of colours and he used lots of triangular shapes. What I really realised is he painted two ladies and no men and one of the ladies is holding a guitar and also there are heaps of contrasting colour.

To me I think that ‘Sunflowers’ and ‘La Musique’ have hardly any similarities between each other. Mostly because ‘Sunflowers’ colours are dull, meaningless and sad colours and ‘La Musique’ has bright colours and lots of contrast. But one similarity is that both of the paintings have included types of plants. Another is that they both used the same colour yellow in their patterns. From what I see I don’t think that there are any other similarities.

From what I have experienced I think I had a good time observing both paintings. Also I have learnt to look at things more carefully to see some really unoticable similarities.