As I said, school is over! I have now finished Year 6 and my primary school education. Next year I am off to secondary school.

My last day was very exciting. All the Year 6′s went to Adventure Park  on an excursion, and we could go anywhere for the day. My friend Ebony and I spent most of the day together, going on the rides. My favourite ride was the Aqua Racer, because you had to slide down a giant water slide on your stomach on a board. It was pretty high at the top, so I was a bit nervous. But I went down and it was so much fun!

Then we ate lunch, went on some more things, and then we finished.

On the bus ride back, everyone was talking about the great year that we had and how we were leaving onto a new time at high school.

When we had got back, everyone had to say bye, which was sad because I had to say goodbye to one of my best friends Ruby, as she is in Year 6 next year.

Later that day, all the Year 6′s had their graduation ceremony. Our theme was ‘Lean on Me’, and that is what we walked in to. Then we had all the graduation things, like certificates, prayers, blessings and so on. At the end all the 6′s had prepared a dance performance, and it was so much fun! These were the songs, and there was about a minute of each.

1. Thriller/Heads will Roll by Glee – That was my group and our dance turned out really well!

2. Tonight, Tonight by Hot Chelle Rae- That was another group of girls, and it looked really cool.

3. LMFAO Mashup- Most of the boys did this one, and it was shuffling, shuffling, and more shuffling.

4. Dynamite by Taio Cruz- This looked really good. There was boys and girls dancing to this one, and I thought it was really upbeat and fun.

5. Good Feeling by Flo Rida- Our finale song. We belted out the lyrics, and then skipped around the church, and threw out streamers to the crowd.

Then our graduation was over, and primary school too.

I will keep going with posts, as I now have a free 12 month Pro Subscription!

So…

Stay Posted,

Gemma xx

This is a very special and important post. As it is the end of the year, Mrs. N asked us to do an end of year reflection. I decided to make a video with my blogging buddy Ruby. Hope you enjoy!

These are just questions and answers about my blogging time, and Ruby interviewed me, on a blog show called…

If you are a blogger, what was your favourite part of blogging this year?

If you are not a blogger, what was your favourite part of this year?

Stay Posted,

Gemma xx

This Term in Inquiry, our topic was ‘Design’. We could choose from Computer Animation, Toymaking, Food, Fashion and House Design.

Guess what I picked?

In Fashion, our brief was ‘Design and create a fashion item by changing an existing item (old or new)’

So I decided to change an old, boring, black t-shirt, into a new fun playful design to wear anywhere.

This was my design.

So we spent three weeks designing, making and evaluating. I loved making my top. Here’s an extract from each of my sections.

Designing-

What product am I designing?

‘I am designing a t-shirt pattern made out of a coloured theme of circular buttons around the outside of a material-made heart.’

Planning-

‘What are your steps?’

1. Create design on t-shirt, then applique on.

2. Organise pattern on heart with buttons.

3. Hand sew all of the buttons on!

4. Wear!

‘What are the measurements, cost, and length of time you will need to make your product?’

Measurements- Heart, draw on piece of paper, (only half) fold in half, cut around the outline you drew, then put on applique, and cut out applique paper, iron on to material, peel off paper, and iron on to garment!

Cost- FREE! I had everything at home.

Length of time- 2 – 3 weeks

Making-

We had to list all the changes from our original design.

Change #1-

I changed from sewing the heart on to applique because…

It was easier and more simple.

Change #2-

I changed the way I was sewing on the buttons to a more complex way because…

They kept coming off.

Evaulating-

Once we had finished our product, we had to evaluate everything we had done.

1.  How does your fashion item compare with your design?

I think it compares well, because the design and top are the same.

2. Test your item-

I tested it and it fits perfectly and looks great!

3. Is there something special about your design?

I think something special about my design is the buttons because I have never seen anything like it before. It also gives it a personal statement.

4. How could have you improved your design?

I think I could have thought through more of how I would sew on my buttons because they kept coming off until I learnt a new technique.

5. What modifications did you have to make?

Apart from sewing on the buttons differently, nothing.

6. Does your item fit the brief?

Yes. I changed an old black t-shirt into a completely new fashion statement!

What next?

 Instead of having a boring old presentation that everyone gets tired of hearing, the teachers decided to have a ‘Try, Try Again’ Design Expo. Toy Making had a ‘Toyworld’, Computer Animation had an ‘Animation Loop’, House Design put everything on display, Food had a cooking process demonstration and guess what Fashion had…

 

 If you guessed a Fashion Show you’re right! I walked with Amy and Georgia, and we rocked it! (Click on the links to go to their blogs) Georgia cut and decorated a pair of jeans into shorts, and Amy decorated a pair of jeans with sequins, and she also added some iron ons to a  top.

If you watch the video, you can see my design commentary.

Fashion Show! from Gemma on Vimeo.

Afterwards we had fruit punch made by the people in Food Design, then our Inquiry for Term 4 and 2011 was over

Stay Posted,

Gemma xx

What did you do for your inquiry?

If you didn’t do anything, what would you have done?

Secondly, well….let’s just get to the post.

In ICT last term, we had to make a demonstration of our learning across any area. Ruby M, Montana and I (5/6 BV) decided to do a video on…

Mime!

Yes, we did mime. I really enjoy drama, and so did Ruby and Montana, so we decided to make a mime video, because that was what we were learning during drama.

We had to film an introduction, make up our content, and practise! But the best bit was probably filming our content because it was really fun.

So here’s the video!

Mime from Gemma on Vimeo.

What did you think? Leave a comment below.

Stay posted,

Gemma xx

For this, it involves a bit of your participation for it to work.

This is called zooming out of an image. What you have to do is firstly, have an image. So here’s one.

What you have to do is make a comment, and continue on the story. I will start.

Zooming out of an image is a fun activity to do on blogs, websites, or even the classroom. For example, in writing you could use a picture that you have sourced (I have used my own from my photograpy obsession) and make sure it is very basic, for example I have used a teddy bear. (Don’t worry about the babushka as it was in the image by accident.) You can go in a circle, and each person has to say a bit of a story. Or they can write a sentence or someone can follow on (You can do this on a large piece of paper or a smartboard, whiteboard or anything else you can find.) If I did this as a student I would definitely enjoy it.

So let’s start zooming out!

Make a comment, and I will start with this.

‘The teddy bear was sitting in someone’s bedroom. His name was… ‘

Comment on this post and lets see how long of a story we can get!

Stay Posted, (and comment)

Gemma xx

Story Bird is another tool I have found through blogging group, and it’s amazing! Instead of just typing up a long wordy story on word, with this you can pick a picture series, add whichever ones you want, and put in your words too! It’s very simple and easy, and I love playing around with it. A lot of kids in my class have been playing around with it too, and I’m pretty sure they all enjoy it too. They use it for puplishing their writing peices.

Storybird is something that all of you guys should check out too, and have a play around. These are two quick Storybirds I made – the first one is about a town where there are cute little creatures, and the second one is about a girl named Lilly who likes to dream. Hope you enjoy them!  Have a look and see! 

 
Tottertown. on Storybird

The Dreamers. on Storybird

Stay Posted, 

Gemma xxP.S – you can check out the September Challenge 3 and I did this for that anyway!

I used to have my regular class teacher for my leader, but since she went on holidays, we have had Mrs. N, my blogging teacher and the 5/6 web 2.0 tools wizard.

This book was a great book, and I really enjoyed it. Amy, Georgia and I worked really hard on the project, and we all decided to put them on our blogs. So here it is!

Me and some of my friends

Book Parade was so much fun! We had our annual school book parade, and it was really good. The theme was ‘One World, Many Stories’ as you probably guessed from my picture, and everyone looked great. My friends and I were really excited to see each other when we got to school.

The performance started with Mrs. N, also known as Mother Superior and a few student ‘nuns’. They had to get to Rome for the sisters’ Roma Grande Pizza Eating Competition. So, on their flight they went.

They thought they had arrived, but they were in New Zealand!  Half of the 1/2′s performed a Hairy Mclary show. Then off the sister hood of the travelling nuns went, again. This time, they had arrived in Uganda! In Uganda, the other 1/2′s performed a great African dance and song. The nuns had had enough, so this time they hoped that they would get to Rome.

But sadly, no. This time, they were in America to watch a Dr. Suess rendition by the 3/4′s. They were very good. These nuns sure were having trouble getting to Rome!

This time, they arrived in sunny Hawaii, to see a very cute traditional dance by the Preps. My buddy loved being Hawaiian!

Now it was my turn. The nuns had arrived in Federation Square to see a multicultural performance, run by all the 5/6′s. I got to do China, and it was really fun. Once all the 5/6′s had finished, the nuns had arrived in Rome!

There were all the sisters (well…teachers) and they were all ready to eat some pizza. In 3, 2, 1, start! All the teachers ate the giant pizzas (cardboard pizzas,) and the winner was…

Sister Agatha...Well Mr. Flint.

Sister Agatha! Also known as Mr. Flint. The show was great, but sadly that was the end. We all went back to our classes, and had the rest of the day to continue our work.

What did you dress up in?

Stay Posted,

Gemma xx

Wow, what a day I had on Tuesday! My class went to China Town on a multi-cultural excursion, which was so much fun!

Firstly we had to be on the bus to get there, which took about an hour and a half. Caitlyn and I talked the entire way about different things, and drew in my sketchbook.

Once we finally got to China Town, we went to the musem, which was really fun, except for the stairs Our tour guide, Gabriel, walked us through many different aspects of Chinese culture, and also migration. We went into a simulated boat- like room which was the same as if we were on a small boat coming to Australia from China. It was so small, and the rocking felt so real! It was very squashy.

Then we saw the millenium dragon, one of the biggest in the world. It takes about 45 people to hold it and it was really pretty. We got a class photo, and then we moved upstairs.

Upstairs was the culture of China. We learnt about:

• Binding feet- which is where the arches of your feet got broken and all the toes except for the big one were bent underneath the foot (luckily it stopped in the early 20th century.)
• Chinese weddings – They would go for 12 days long, full of dresses that the bride had made . . .  and
• Chinese medical herbs -they smelt delicious.

After we had finished looking around the museum, we went in to the actual China Town! It was amazing, and everything made you feel like you were in China. My supervisior bought paper lanterns for myself and the others in my group. They were very pretty, and there were so many to choose from!

Once we had walked around China Town and all it had to see, we had to go back to school . I had a great day, and would just like to say if it weren’t for the teachers and parents who came, we wouldn’t have been able to go, so a big thankyou to all the staff for organising it, and the parents for coming to supervise us.

China Town Excursion on PhotoPeach

What did you think of China Town, and what souvenir would you buy?

Stay Posted,

Gemma

This post is about a snapshot (cheese!) that I wrote last term about being nervous. It is based on a true story of me, and how I was super nervous when I sang for a competition in our school called ‘Clairvaux’s Got Talent’. I made it a little bit more larger than life and said I sang in front of the whole school when it was only half, but that’s why I said it was BASED on a true story!

Here it is:

NERVOUS

I’m standing up, ready to walk on stage. I can feel the butterflies fluttering in my stomach, it’s like a ton of bricks is pulling me down. I try to relax, not very easy when you’re just about to sing in front of about 500 people. I can feel the power of a knife stabbing me in the stomach, now I’m so nervous my knees are nobbling. I have no idea how I got on this stage, microphone in hand. 1000 single eyes staring right at me. The music has started. My heart is in my throat. I start singing. No-one is laughing at me, thank God. I start to feel a little bit better. I sing a bit louder, stand a bit straighter, and it feels amazing. I finish my last word. Everyone is applauding me. I’m in a good spot right now – dreaming about my singing competition.

So, what did you think? Make sure to leave your comments below, and I would also enjoy your constructive criticism.

Stay Posted,

Gemma