Binary Bracelets

On Wednesday this week, we made bracelets out of beads. The beads spell your name in Binary. Binary is the language that computers use. For example, H in our alphabet represents 1000. To find that out you need to know the numbers of binary. It starts off with one, then it keeps on doubling. So it goes like 1, 2, 4, 8, 16, 32, 64, and so on. H is 1000 because it represents 8 in our alphabet. The 1, 2 and 3 become 0 and the 8 becomes 1. On my bracelet, it says BA, the initials of my name.

Literacy Work

For literacy this week we have continued to work on our website. This week we started and finished symbols. For symbols, we had to find things that had a meaning in the book. For example, Magrathea represents new life because they make planets with new life. We had to pick out 5 symbols that we find important in the book. Next week we will finish our website by writing the genre of our book, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.

Forest to Factory

For inquiry, we are learning about global issues. I chose to do climate change because I think it would be extremely good to raise awareness for rising sea levels and greenhouse gasses destroying our atmosphere. To understand global issues, we went around our hub and found pictures of problems that are happening all around the world. When we were at a picture we would start to brainstorm ideas about them. One of these pictures was two workers that are covering up the windows with pictures of nature. But in reality, outside is a factory pumping out smoke.

Verbal Irony

For inquiry after lunch every day we have been working on different types of irony. To show our understanding of one of the 3 types we had to make a comic in groups. My group choose to do verbal irony. Verbal irony is when you expect something to happen but the opposite happens. Underneath is my group's comic. 

Samoan Siapo

Every Wednesday we would continue to make Samoan Siapo. Siapos are one of the oldest and most important traditions of Samoa. Sometimes Siapos will be referred to as Tapa. It is a type of cloth made from the bark of the mulberry tree.  It is very time-consuming, because the bark must be harvested, stripped, separated, scraped, and beaten before it can be used.  It is then laid out in the sun to dry. To dye it they will use natural dyes created from berries, bark, and nuts to make patterns on the cloth. There are 13 traditional patterns used on Siapo that represent things common to Samoan cultures such as nets, coconut leaves, shells, and flowers. Underneath is my Siapo cloth.

I am very proud of my cloth. After the dye has dried we will scrunch it up so it has the olden feel to it. Do you think you could have done a better job or a different design? 

Koru necklace

This week on Friday we continued to make our koru necklace. Today we could use air-dried clay. When you were making your necklace shape you had to make sure the clay wouldn't dry out so you had to shape it with wet fingers. Mine symbolizes strength and power. When you had carved your design into your clay you had to smooth it out with water. Underneath is mine that I finished.

I am very proud of what I did, but maybe I could have gotten rid of all the flakes which are on the edge of the lines. Overall I think I did a good job for my artistic talents. Do you think you could have done a better job?