We are learning to identify language features in a song.
This week we have been investigating different language features as a part of our mood and atmosphere unit such as simile, metaphor, personification, idiom, onomatopoeia and hyperbole. We had to find different songs that we know that have language features in them and write what we think the artist is trying to say by using them.
Check out our collaborative padlet showing all of the songs we found!
As a part of our mood & atmosphere unit in literacy we watched the original trailer for the movie Elf starring Will Ferrell and analysed the colours, lighting, sound and dialogue used then compared it with a thriller version. After unpacking these two videos we then wrote a short essay following a template provided by our teacher.
Mood & Atmosphere in Elf Trailer
In the official trailer for Elf the director uses bright and glowy colours. These colours give the idea that it is Christmas time. This makes me as the viewer feel warm and excited. The lighting used in this video is dull and murky. The director uses music/ sound which is merry and happy, this makes the video feel like a nice Christmas movie. Through the use of dialogue I can see that this will be a happy and exciting movie about Christmas. The Thriller version of this video uses dull and murky colours. These colours give the idea that it is going to be an engaging movie that makes me as the viewer feel nervous and interested . The lighting used in this video is dimed and dark. The director uses music/ sound which is catchy and makes the video feel intriguing. Through the use of dialogue I can see that this will be an exhilarating movie about Christmas. Overall I would much rather watch the thriller version of this film because it will be a fascinating movie.
Mood & Atmosphere in Elf Trailer
In the official trailer for Elf the director uses vibrant and shiny colours. These colours give the idea that it is Christmas that makes me as the viewer feel joyful. The lighting used in this video is bright and dim at the same time. The director uses music/ sound which is slow and cheerful music. This makes the video feel happy, sad and angry. Through the use of dialogue I can see that this will be a happy and sad movie about christmas and a son and father.
The Thriller version of this video uses dark, faded and muted colours. These colours give the idea that it is an angry dark movie that makes me as the viewer feel frightened and it makes me feel that the character is sad. The lighting used in this video is dark, some shadows and a caution in the movie that something is about to happen. The director uses music/ sound which is interesting, intense, dramatic , sinister and creepy singing and whispering this makes the video feel intense. Through the use of dialogue I can see that this will be a scary and dark movie about a son that hasn't seen his dad for a while .
Overall I would much rather watch the thriller version of this film because it is more interesting and intense.
- By Laila P
Mood & Atmosphere in Elf Trailer
In the official trailer for Elf the director uses primary and bright colours. These colours give the idea that the viewer feels like it's a good movie . The lighting used in this video is very fading and medium lighting. The director uses music/ sound which is loud and sometimes fast and this makes the video feel a happy mood to watch it. Through the use of dialogue I can see that this will be a very acceptable movie about Christmas and family. The Thriller version of this video uses sketchy and ashy colours. These colours give the idea that looks scary and this makes me as the viewer feel very interested. The lighting used in this video is very bleak. The director uses music/ sound which is terrifying this makes the video feel dramatic. Through the use of dialogue I can see that this will be a horror movie about a boy who is very crazy but Overall. I would much rather watch the horror version of this film because it drags me into questions.
- By Devante T
A note from Whaea Danni: It is so awesome seeing the different language being used throughout the students essays to describe what is happening in each of the clips and making comparisons. After you have watched each clip which do you think you would prefer to watch?
In our religious education program we have been learning about Pentecost. Pentecost is a special celebration in the Catholic Church where we remember the arrival of the Holy Spirit. In Te Kahu we read the story from Acts Chapter 2 in the bible then learned how to create a stop motion using puppets to retell the story.
This is our first try at making a stop motion video so there are a few things we still need to work on like keeping our cameras still and working on adding more images.
How to Create a Stop Motion
Create/ gather props
Create setting/ background
Take photos and move the props a small amount each time.
Upload into iMovie and remove the ‘ken burns’ setting for each image and make the images .5 seconds long.
Add voice over to the complete stop motion retelling the story.
By Bernard Beckett
Link to Text Link to Class Site
This term we are focusing on mood and atmosphere across a range of texts. To do this we needed to learn lots of new vocabulary such as gustatory imagery and pathetic fallacy. We will be looking at a bunch of visual, hard copy and digital texts to help us understand how the author/ director/ creator can help their audience to feel or think a certain way.
This week we read the text The Promise which is a journal story written by Bernard Beckett. This piece of writing is full of so much rich vocabulary and language that helps us to put ourselves into the shoes of the people in the story. Check out some of our learning below.
 |
 |
| When have/ might you task to help students explore the new vocabulary we will be using. |
Our class is looking into the World Wars with ANZAC day coming up in the school holidays. This is being incorporated across the curriculum. In literacy students were able to connect more to the words by being able to get into character and unpack them further. Children are adding more “helmets” to our wall as we learn new kupu associated with our topic. Students have been using this language in their own writing which is amazing!
Shared Reading Plan |
| We used this image to influence our writing. Students were able to use the new language they had learned through our shared reading task to add more WOW Vocabulary to their writing. This has carried on into their other literacy tasks over the weeks. |
 | ||
Example of a students writing.
|
 |
| Class WOW WORDS: these words were pulled from our shared reading and added to the wall. There are spare helmets available that students can add any other vocabulary to that they learn as we develop a deeper understanding of the World Wars and the ANZACs. |
Student interest has continued to grow in Te Kahu Class, they have had the great opportunity to try on a Royal New Zealand Navy uniform, look at an ammunition box and medals from the second world war. A space next to our WOW Word Wall has been set up with these items as well as images. Students are regularly heading to this space to find inspiration. We are very lucky to have some great support in our community and have an Air Force, Army and Navy visit planned for our kura. This year for sign language week we decided to learn the waiata Wairua Tapu together as a senior school. We will be sharing this with our whanau this sunday at Mass.
A highlight for me was seeing our fantastic Te Kahu seniors leading our Mass whether it was as altar servers (or Knights of the Altar), singers, powerpoint managers, readers, leading prayers of the faithful or just setting a great example on how to reverent during church from their seats.
Well done Te Kahu!
We are so excited to be back at school and to start our learning for 2021!
Te Kahu is a fantastic class of Year 7 & 8 learners. Over the first two days of school we have had a whakatau to welcome all of our new students and whanau, we have created our class Treaty and have been learning a lot about Catherine McAuley and the Acts of Mercy.
Over the past few weeks we have been focusing on music and music production. We had Floyd from Serato come in and talk to us about music production, we even got to have a turn on his equipment!
After playing with his beats we then made our own using either groove pizza or incredibox and wrote our own lyrics with the theme of Aroha- Love.
Everyone did such a fantastic job producing, writing and preforming their piece of music.
Check out our link below to give them a listen!
