Family drawing - by Samantha

This is my picture – it has snowflakes on it. It’s my whole family with Cocoa in it. I wanted to draw it because I felt happy and I wanted to draw so badly. What was easy was the humans I did. The snowflakes weren’t easy because they are new for me to draw. But I did the sun great. Mom and I are wearing toques. I like that it’s my whole family in the sky and I like that they are playing in the snow together!

Film Artists!

This week Mariah, Samantha and Makayla have made really funny, fun videos.
Our funniest video was when we had someone sing in the background and the person in the video lip sync.  For example, we had Samantha lip sync while Mariah sang in the background.

We also sang some Mariah Carey songs like "All I want for Christmas is you" and Makayla lip synced while Mariah sang in the background. Which I am really good at that! 

We have been exploring video and picture this week and it has been very fun. The app we did it in is called Photo Booth and there are many settings you can put it on. We made quite a few with mirror. Our favourite is mirror.

1. read here if you want to make a video. 
2. theres three different ways to make the picture or video you can make one picture into four or take a picture or make a video.
3. when you pick what your using you are ready to pick what setting you use.
4. then you take the picture or video and your all done.

Here is the second video: click here

Science Experiments! by Makayla

The science workshop was really fun. I learned how to make a lava lamp and Goo (known as flubber). All you need to make the lava lamp is a big pop bottle and cooking oil and water and food dye and alkaseltzer. We tried an experiment to see if hot water makes the lava lamp more bubbly. My hypothesis was right: the hot water makes the lava lamp more bubbly. But we also found out… the cold water made it bubble longer! 

I wrote down all the ingredients, I wrote down my hypothesis and I wrote down my conclusion. We keep our science books at Niki’s home. First you pour the hot water (or cold water) into the pop bottle (1 dry measuring cup); then you pour the oil up to where you want your lava lamp to be; then you wait for it to settle; then you put the food dye in – what ever colour you want; then you stir it around with a stick (a stick that you can get dye on); then add the alkaseltzer and it will explode (don’t worry – it won’t explode on your table!) – it actually brings bubbles up to the top of your oil and it doesn’t get out of the bottle (you don’t have to have a lid) and it looks really cool – just like a lava lamp! 

I was really excited doing it and watching it. I really like hanging out with the other kids at science workshop (2 other girls aged 9 and 10 and one older brother who is 13).

Haida mask - by Mariah

This week we went to Angie’s for an art class. It was a lot of fun. We made some masks and my mask is a First Nations mask. It is the raven, half sun. It is a Haida First Nations mask. I chose the Haida mask because Angie had a few Haida books because her husband is Haida. And I thought the raven and the sun were cool. I felt quite excited and joyful and I also felt questionable – in case it wasn’t going to turn out. It was nice problem solving with an adult because Angie knows a lot of math (we used a lot of math to figure out what measure I needed to make it round and perfect) and she knows a lot about art. I am most proud about how much work I put into it and how much I love first nations art – I like when they say it’s amazing : )

Halloween Drawing Workshop - by Samantha

I did a drawing workshop. I taught it – Samantha taught it – and that is me! My students were Mom, Mariah, and Makayla. I wanted to teach them how to draw a Dracula (see photo). The Dracula came from a cupcake – hee hee hee! I tried drawing it at Uncle Jeff’s birthday – I was having fun with Dan – he didn’t teach me, I just copied it; he was drawing a bat for me and that gave me the idea to draw! My first drawing went really good. 

The drawing workshop day, I did my vampire, my vampire is good and bad – the head is square and it should be circle; I like the left side of the cape because it has a loop on it : )

The drawing workshop went really really good! I did a story out of another picture I drew. (see photo). It was a headless horseman and it has a buddy with no head and it has a horse – a princess horse. It is rain and clouds and ghosts and a bat and pumpkins and a tree. You can make any stories out of it!

I like that my students are really good drawers now (see their drawings this photo)! I felt happy teaching the workshop.

A Salmon Graveyard - by Makayla

This week we had my friends over and went down to the river to see the salmon spawning. I really liked seeing the fish that close up – you could touch them if you had arms like my dad! It was really cool – we had races with them: we would see whichever one would make it across this really hard rapid. None of the fish that I voted for got through it. I named one Sharon – I sure hope she made it! It was a joke that I named her Sharon because Kahlil and I were ‘sharing’ her!! I really liked doing it with my friends and seeing the awesome fish.

Makayla’s poem from our Salmon workshop:

A Salmon Graveyard

A salmon graveyard

Is a gruesome place

It smells of rotten eggs

There are dead fish everywhere

That seagulls eat

A salmon graveyard is a gruesome place

Bones, spines, skulls, guts, flesh

Memories of childhood splattered everywhere

Love, stories, thoughts that shouldn't have ended

But to think

That it fed all those seagulls, bears, river otters,

It almost lets me forget

All the memories lost.

Trying Picasso out - by Mariah

This week I learned about Picasso and his drawings. And how he did lots of cubist art. We were inspired by that art and we tried it. That process was quite interesting...how art can actually look crazy and strange and beautiful and insane.

I chose to do a cat first because Mom was doing a cat and in case I got a bit mixed up I could ask her. It only made sense to me to do a cat. Once I got the concept then I did a portrait of myself! It was a bit hard but it made sense to me. I like how it looks. I look a bit strange but I got used to it. It's a new piece of art - I hadn't seen that kind of style before.


We got books from the library on Picasso and we read some of those - I liked the stories told about him. I also copied one of his sketches that wasn't cubist.

Garden Club - by Samantha

So, there is this club and it is called Garden Club. So we made bird feeders out of milk cartons – so we put some holes in it and cut some windows out – I had 4 windows. And we put a stick through so a bird can stand on it. And we decorate the bird feeder – I put on bird on the front and a bird feeder (as my drawing). And string in the lid. 

We also made pizza in the cobben (cobb oven!). It was so delicious! Mom really really really liked it! 

And we made apple juice – there was this great big machine and we put apples in it and more and more till it made apple juice! Then we turned it and turned it and then we stopped. And then we drank some apple juice. The end! My favourite part was the bird feeder.

Racing Internet - by Makayla

Today I learned how to search the internet for something I needed. I wanted to unlock some characters on Mario Kart Wii. I asked mom on the phone how do you search for Mario kart information? She told me the steps on the phone [open Safari; go to File and open new window; then type in on Google specific what you want] and I looked It up and then I watched a video on how and then I read how to! Then I went to set up the wii but the wii didn’t set up properly. So then I waited until Mom came home, but while Mom was still out I was looking Mario Kart on my ipod – looking at Apps and searching for Mario Kart – and then I found an app that told me how to unlock characters, worlds, and different cars and other stuff that I don’t even know about yet!

I felt really excited looking up the info and proud. I was a little nervous that I would mess something up. I learned how to look things up on the computer. I didn’t mess anything up. And I learned way more than I was looking for! I wonder what I will look up next….

Greek mythology adventures - by Mariah

This week I went to a Greek workshop. I was invited by my friend Pippin to come along. When we got there we met the workshop leader who was pretending to be Athena the wise goddess who is also who I was pretending to be! 

We played a lot of fun games to test our brain and our listening skills. One of the games was to make a marshmallow cage for this ‘elixir of life’ which was a hacky sack. Then the hacky sack ball could not be touched by a mortal hand! So we had to work together to work with strings and pull and move side to side until we got it into our marshmallow cage. 

Another game was Minotaur maze – the workshop leader told everyone to close their eyes and one person was chosen to be the Minotaur and the rest of the players would be goddesses – they would hop on one foot to get to the other side of the backyard, and the Minotaur would have to do somersaults or run across to get there. 

Another fun game was the human knot! We held hands and tried to get undone – it was so much fun! I learned I’m really really good at being a leader and a follower. I like learning with others. I am a very good runner too.