Pilates is a physical fitness system popular in the United States, Germany and the United Kingdom.

Benefits of Pilates:

Pilates is a routine that helps build up flexibility, muscle strength and endurance for legs, abdominals, arms, hips and back. It puts emphasis on breathing, spinal alignment and improves balance.

When working on Pilates you would need to focus on how you’re breathing.
You need to inhale from your nose for 5 seconds and exhale from your mouth for 8 seconds.

Top 7 Pilates Exercises:

1. Leg Circles- Lie down on the floor looking towards the ceiling. Lift your right leg up to the ceiling
with your toes pointed and do small circle anti-clock wise 10~20 times. Repeat with your other leg. (You’ll see a big result by doing this 7 minutes everyday)
2. The Butt Booster- Lie down looking down on the ground. Fold your arms and let your forehead rest on it. Lift your right leg up as much as you can and circle clock wise 5 times. Repeat with your other leg.
3. Prone hold plank- Lie down on the floor but, just with your forearm placed on the floor and your toes on the ground. None of your other body parts should be touching the floor.
4. The Saw- Sit on the floor with your arms to the side. Your legs should be looking forward and should be shoulder width apart. Then, slowly twist your upper body right and left. When you twist to the right, your left hand should be touching one of your toes. When you twist to the left, your right hand should be touching one of your toes.
5. Down-ward dog pushups- Heads down, bums up and PUSH UPS.

 

 

People tend to struggle when decorating their room.
A Glitter Heart Jar is a great way to spice up your boring and monotonous room.

To complete this, you’ll need:

1.  An empty jar, big or small
2. Glitter (Amount depends on how big your jar is)
3. Spray Glue
4. Sticker Paper
5. Tweezer
6. Scissors
7. Marker

Procedure:

1. Take your sticker paper and trace out a heart with your marker. (The heart should be the size of 1 side of your jar)
2. Cut the heart out and use a Tweezer to stick the heart into the Jar. (Press the heart firmly)
3. Take your spray glue and spray inside the jar. Make sure all sides are covered with glue.
4. Carefully take your glitter and transfer it into the jar and put the lid back on quickly
5. Shake up the jar until the glitter sticks on to each side and wait 2 minutes
6. Open the lid and dump out any excess glitter
7. Take your tweezer and carefully peel of the heart
8. TAAAADAAAAAAAA YOU’RE ALL DONE!!! <3 <3

When you’ve spray glued the jar, you’ll notice that your hands are a little sticky. You can take them off by peeling the glue off but you’ll still feel some left on your fingers. To take them off:

1. Pour warm water in to a big bowl
2. Slowly place your hand in the warm water and let it sit for a minute
3. Once the glue has started melting on your hand, rub both your hands together and you’ll see the glue coming off

If there is still some glue on your hands, go back to 1. and pour in some soap to the water. Repeat 2 and 3 with the soap water.

Final Product should look like this

 

 

 

 

 

In English class, we learnt about Instructional Writing to develop our P.E assignment, which was to explain a strategy for the game Capture the Flag.

Aspects of instructional writing:

1. Steps are introduced by numbers or bullet points.
2. Readers should be referred in the steps using ‘you’ or ‘each player’.
3. Pictures/images included to clarify a text or show the product.
4. Use present tense
5. Includes heading and sub-headings

The completed product of the work showed a big difference from the first work I’ve completed. It was much more clear and easier to understand.

My completed product- https://docs.google.com/a/yis.ac.jp/file/d/0B8c9KTR-kYS0bWE4d1NBWlRoOTA/edit

In science, we learnt about asteroids, focusing on asteroid mining.
After discussing asteroids as a class and researching about them online, we were assigned to make a poster including our opinions about asteroid mining, its benefit and its problem. My poster was probably not the best I could`ve achieved. I included most of my opinions about opposing on asteroid mining along with things to support my opinon but I didn`t include much details where I had to write about the benefits. I also did not like the layout and organization of my poster because it does not look like a poster at all.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I tried my best to support my ideas by adding extra information from my research. I was also able to explain briefly about asteroid mining but made sure this didn`t take up the whole poster since this wasn`t the actual point of theassignment. My opinions are hard to see and so next time, I would write it with a different color or use a different paper and stick that on to the coloured paper. I will also like to include headings above each part so that it can be easily accessed. I cited my sources well with easybib but could`ve glued it on another place to make the poster neat.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Our recent unit in English was about the Apartheid and we mainly focused on Soweto uprising. We read the book ‘Journey to Johannesbourg’ and was able to gain a deeper understanding of racism and its effect.

During this unit, we made a Wordle of our values. To represent the biggest values in us, we made the important values bigger than the other words.

In our current, we are reading the book, “The House on Mango Street”. But I’m not very sure about what the unit is going to be about.
In class last week, we made a 2nd Wordle of our Values. (We did not look at the Wordle we made last time)
The aim was to compare the 2 Wordles and see how our values can change quickly.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

How are they different?

My first one was mainly focused on myself and to enjoy life. Such as laugh, happy/happiness, smile, fun etc.
My second one is a bit more towards the relationship between me and other people. Such as caring, respect, trust, supportive, communication and tolerance.

 

Why do our values change? What influences our understanding?

I think my values changed because of the things I learnt through out the year at school. Especially our lesson on apartheid in English class. As we grow older, we learn new things and this is how our values can change slightly or maybe a lot

 

In music class on monday, we continued our lesson on “what makes Japanese music sound Japanese”?
We listened to a Japanese music, Rokudan no Shirabe, which uses the tuning scale, Hirajyoshi. (D, G, A, B♭, D, E♭, G, A, B♭, D, E♭, G, A)
This scale has been around Japan for 350 years and is a very common tuning for songs played with the koto. This tuning is faced more towards the dark sides. The flats and low notes in this tuning makes it sound dark.

What makes ‘Rokudan No Shirabe’ sound Japanese?

The tuning, Hirajyoshi, is probably the main aspect of which makes ‘Rokudan’ sound Japanese. Other than the tuning, the unique techniques used in this piece also makes it sound Japanese. Such as the ‘Sha Sha Tens’ or ‘Sha Shas’. Sha comes from the sound when you play 2 strings together with your middle or index finger. Which means that Sha Sha is when you play it 2 times in a row. The ‘Ten’ from ‘Sha Sha Ten’ is the sound from when you play a string with your thumb after the ‘Sha Sha’. Next is the ‘Ato Oshi’. Oshi is the Japanese word for press (For koto, it means to press the string with your left hand). Ato means after in Japanese, which means ‘Ato Oshi’ is a basic after press. After press is when you play a string and press the string after a second. This gives a unique sound and vibration to the original sound.

The Japanese music usually has a story hid behind it. The techniques used in this piece gives some dramatic effects to the music which makes it sound like a story. This is why, the Rokudan sounds Japanese.

I decided to list them all out on my blog so you guys can take a look at their video too They are amazebeans <3 <3

1. Bethany Mota, Youtube Name- Macbarbie07 (http://www.youtube.com/user/Macbarbie07)

2. Meredith Foster, Youtube Name- Stilababe09 (http://www.youtube.com/user/stilababe09)

3. Zoella DeVille, Youtube Name- Zoella280390 (http://www.youtube.com/user/zoella280390)

4. Ingrid Nilsen, Youtube Name- missglamorazzi (http://www.youtube.com/user/missglamorazzi)

5. Tanya Burr (She’s friends with Louis Tomlinson’s sister!!), Youtube Name- Tanya Burr (http://www.youtube.com/user/pixi2woo)

 

On thursday, we had a Shakuhachi player, Bruce Heubner come visit our school. It wasn’t a normal music class like usual where we are split between, band, koto and choir and taught separately. We were all together in one room and we had 2 of my koto teachers and Mr. Heubner (Shakuhachi player) perform in front of us. This was to help us start of our new unit, ”What makes music sound like it belongs to a particular part of the world?“.

First of all, they introduced the instruments they were going to play. Ms. Miyama introduced the koto which I already mostly knew about because I play the koto too. And mr. Patterson introduced the Shamisen and Mr. Heubner introduced the Shakuhachi (Vertical flute).

They first performed a song called Eghigo Jishi, an Classical japanese music. Mr. Patterson with the Shamisen sang while playing and the Koto (played by Ms. Miyama) and the Shakuhachi (played by Mr. Heubner) was more like the background music for the piece.

Next, Mr. Heubner, played a shakuhachi solo. The name of the piece is Honkyoku. He also showed us quite a few different shakuhachi he owned. The bigger the Shakuhachi was, the lower the sound was.

Then, Ms. Miyama and Mr. Heubner played a Koto/shakuhachi duet called Kaze no Uta (Song of the Wind). Mr. Heubner expressed the sound of the wind really well by changing the tone and pitch. This song was more modern than the other songs they played because of the techniques Ms. Miyama used for the koto.

Ms. Miyama then played a Koto solo called Gensokyoku (Fantasy). Again, this song was more modern than the other songs they played. It was a really catchy song and the dynamics were really strong.

Lastly, Mr. Patterson and Mr. Heubner played a Koto/shakuhachi duet called Deep Forest. This song was more like listening to a story than listening to a music. The sound that gradually became louder and softer was really dramatic and outstanding.

Which of the instruments did I like the best and why?

I like the Shakuhachi the best because I love the sound it makes. The sound of the Shakuhachi is much more calm than the other instruments. It does look hard to play since there’s a specific way you have to breath in but I think it’s really cool

Did something surprise you?

The different sounds that can come from the Shakuhachi surprised me. Like when Mr. Heubner never changed the whole he was covering with his fingers but changed the way he blew in and the sound changed.

Which piece of music did you like the best? How did it make you feel? What did you like about it?

I really liked ‘Deep Forest’. I seriously don’t know why, it was just the really catchy melody that struck my mind. I just thought it was beautiful and amazing and awesome and cool and pretty. And the Shakuhachi and Shamisen seemed to match a lot.

What made the music sound “Japanese?”

It’s really hard to explain. I would say the vibration that came after every sound was something that made it sound Japanese. But it’s not a normal vibration you would hear after a guitar or anything.

Overall, I think it was a really fun lesson to have and I enjoyed every single bit of the lesson. It was kind of awkward in a way since we are normally the ones that perform in front of the teachers but the teachers performed in front of us.

BYE

 

 

In P.E, my class has been working on creating and adapting movements.
For our first assignment, we had to pair up with someone and create/adapt a dance to Gangnam Style. For the first half of the music, we were assigned to dance to the actual movements and for the other half, we needed to create our original movements with our pair.

How much did I contribute during this task? 
As I love to dance and create movements a lot, I made quite a lot of the dance and my friend helped me make the movements better by giving me feedbacks. It was really helpful of her since I usually make the most disgusting dances ever and she helped me a lot with adapting the movements I created. So basically, I think we both contributed equally and fairly.

How did I keep my group working effectively?
We both promised each other to focus while creating the dance. I think that focusing should be something really important because we can easily get distracted by things and that would cause us to mess up the dance. We also had a time limit for our task so I made sure that we had enough time to create but also practice to make everything even better. I also made sure that we go through all the steps slowly at first because we want our movements to be synchronized.

For the second assignment, we were put into much bigger groups including 8 people. This time, we were allowed to choose our own music. We combined 2 songs for this dance.

How much did I contribute during this task? 
I didn’t contribute as much as I did on the first task. I suggested about 15~20% of moves and my friends helped me adapt/improve it.
I also helped some of my friends improve the moves they created but may have not been very helpful. During this task, I was listening more than contributing.

How did I keep my group working effectively?
Sometimes, some of the people in my group were either left aside from the conversation or not helping that much. I did my best to let them join as a group member and made them focus. I might have been a bit harsh at some places because I shouted in their faces. That might have not been a great idea because that can cause them to feel depressed or embarrassed. But sometimes, I was the one day dreaming and some of my friends helped me get back on focus.
We usually disagreed on each others’ ideas y so me and my other friends somehow tried to stop with all the shouting but it failed. But we always managed to agree on something at last which was great

What makes a good performance?
As a class, we also discussed some of the things that makes a good performance. We came up with, synchronization, flow, use of space, enthusiasm, exaggeration, organization, quality (Skills), energy, etc.

If I had to rank the top 3, I would say,
1. Flow- Because you need flow to make the movements all neat and make it look like you put a lot of effort into it.
2. Energy- Because slouchy movements make your dance look boring and if you put in energy into your dance, the audience can enjoy it too
3. Use of space- I think audiences will eventually become bored if you’re only dancing on 1 particular space. It’s always better to use a lot of space and surprise the audience with your moves

How did you address these in your dances?
We used quite a lot of space by moving around often during the dance but also keeping it neat. I honestly think that I didn’t have much energy during the performance and that is one place I really want to improve on. Some of the people in my group used a lot of energy and that was something very admiring and inspiring to me. For flow, it wasn’t very bad. We made sure that one move to another wasn’t too sudden. Sometimes, we didn’t have much flow between 2 different movements and the hardest part to keep the flow was when the music changed.

 

Conference Raveena and Miha

In tutor, we worked with a partner on recording a conference scene. One played a role as a mom/dad and one presented their work to their mom/dad.

The purpose of this task was to give an idea to your teacher on how you really presented your work on Student Led Conference day. (I think)