John walsh research blog for year 9 painting 

The art work we are looking at is here:

“At a Water Hui With Manet”, 2012

Oil on board, 115 x 120 cm

List what you can see in the painting here: a dark sky, mountain range, blue water, 3 main people but they aren’t very detailed, and it looks like there’s another figure, light sand, dark forestry  

T-Shaped Literacy Activity: Adverb Sorting & Identification

Task: LOOK CLOSELY at the painting by John Walsh 

Choose the SAPLT level you want to focus on for your writing (you can delete the others, or highlight the one you want)

Identify which adverbs accurately describe how John Walsh applies paint or how his figures/atmospheres appear. 

1. Discard the adverbs that do not apply to his painting style.
2. Use your chosen adverbs to complete your T-Shaped literacy analysis sentence frames.

1. Mixed Adverb Bank | Te Punakupu (Applicable vs. Non-Applicable)

How many Adverbs can you use from your first task?

Luminous shows light areas to make a glowing effect 

Opaquely: heavy layers of paint to make a dark non see through part of work

Seamlessly: curvy non obvious edges or gaps

Atmospherical: creates a airy foggy feeling

Both paintings by john walsh reveal layers underneath. Wiping back wet paint reveals light and colour, while peeling foil from a plate reveals the marks underneath

Luminous: ghostly or see through to make the area lighter

Glaze: thin layer of paint to make in depth colour

Wiping back: removes some paint to add texture

Atmospheric transition: slow change in colour

Pigment: the stuff in paint to give it colour

Ancestral Narrative: story about ancestors

thin glaze creates depth by letting other  layers of paint go through to add a texturised or realistic

you can see soft edged gradient blends in the sky, clouds and far landscapes, where colours fade smoothly into each other.

For the past few lessons we have been learning about a New Zealand painter called John Walsh. We had to complete a bunch of tasks based on him and one of his paintings, we analysed it and wrote down what we could see and more.

“At a Water Hui With Manet”, 2012
Oil on board, 115 x 120 cm

This was the picture we had to analyse, here’s my work:

List what you can see in the painting here: Blue water, 3-4 people, branches, leaves, rocky/grassy hills, dark clouds, white clouds, blue sky, 2 women standing, 2 people laying on blanket, basket with something on top, water meeting the sky, sand, face in the rocks, different kinds of trees/bushes, attention drawn to water/blue sky first, mountains blending with the clouds.

Next we had to chose which works from the list fitted with the picture.

Next we had to write a paragraph on how his work can be described as dreamlike using the words from above:

Walsh’s landscapes can be described as “dreamlike” for many reasons, starting with how he seamlessly blends the figures into the land while still making them stand out. It also has an Atmospherical feeling because he builds mist and fog into the painting. He draws the attention to the centre of the painting luminously using the water using it to make glowing light. He expressively paints the hills using smooth brush strokes and fluid, emotive brushwork. This is why they can be described as dreamlike.

After that we had to say how wiping back paint to reveal light connects with peeling back foil on tetra packs which we did last term:

Wiping back the paint to reveal light underneath connects to peeling foil in tetra packs in multiple ways. When peeling back the foil on tetra packs, you’re making a mark on the surface which when ink is applied, makes it dark, whereas when wiping paint back, it reveals light instead of dark, so they are similar and different at the same time. This is how they connect.

Next we had to define these words:

Luminous: glowing light

Glaze: A thin transparent coat/layer over a painting

Wiping back: using something like a cloth to wipe some of the paint off to make it lighter/more textured

Atmospheric transition: When things appear blurred together or like one depending on your distance

Pigment: How much paint you add

Ancestral Narrative: Creating something based off of your ancestors/past/culture

Once we had done that, we had to say how applying a thin glaze compares to applying a thick layer of paint:

Applying a thin glaze creates a different visual sense of depth by giving it more dimension because you can see the colours blending on top of each other because they are partly see through, whereas if you were to use a thick paint it would just sit on top of each other opaquely and you wouldn’t be able to see the under layers of paint.

Lastly, we had to say where in his painting we saw soft-edged gradients blending land and figures into surrounding space:

In John Walsh’s paintings, I can see the things in the background have soft-edged gradients that blend land and figures into surrounding space. Especially the background characters and the sky and water like lakes and rivers, I find that he blends the lakes and sky together with a gradient into surrounding space.

Hello everyone,

These past few lessons in art, we have been analysing the artist John Walsh and his work. For a couple lessons, we have been working on a doc and doing the tasks from there. This is the artwork we have been looking at.

“At a Water Hui With Manet”, 2012
Oil on board, 115 x 120 cm

Our first task was to list what we saw in the painting, here is what I wrote:

• Silhouette of a woman
• Two people laying on the ground (one blending into the background)
• An outline of a woman camouflaging into the background
• Bodies of water that look like they’re glowing
• Various types of trees and bushes
• The night sky
• A basket full of food (i presume) 
• A towel

Next we had to identify which adjectives best described the painting from a list. I chose the Titan list.

                          Given List                                                                  My list

For the second task we had to explain why the author described Walsh’s work as “dreamlike”

From what we can see from this specific artwork, it has a vast difference from art that is more realistic. Walsh’s landscape includes humanoid figures evocatively, translucent glazes to add depth to his water and capturing the hills’ details masterfully. All of these things combined create a beautiful piece of art that captures extreme emotions, bringing a sense of adolescence from the silhouette of the young woman.

For our third task, we had to explain how wiping back paint with a solvent connect to our tetrapak plate.

With tetra pak, we embed a permanent mark into the plate just like memories, and how John Walsh paints about memories.

Next we had to explain the definition of terms in his works using our own work.

Luminous: glowing

Glaze: see-through layer of colour

Wiping back: removing a layer of paint with a solvent

Atmospheric transition: blurring things from how far they are

Pigment: the amount of colour it deposits

Ancestral Narrative: stories that get past down through generations

And finally, we had to explain how adding a see-through layer of colour adds a different sense of depth.

Adding a see-through layer of colour can and depth to a drawing whether it is acting as lighting shining down on someone, or adding a deeper colour into the sky.

Our chosen song – Petals by Hole

Song meaning – The song is about your innocent view of the world being stripped away.

Musical Genre – Indie/Alternative rock

Group Roles

Singer : Sienna

Bass :  Juliana

Guitar : Marvel

Drums : Riamme

Ensemble – Rock/indie band

Practice and Challenges – We still need to practice our own parts individually before we can fully practice together so we hope to achieve this by next or next next week

Today’s blog post will be about my health assessment research task, we had to choose a drug to research about and I chose magic mushrooms. Magic mushrooms also known as shrooms, mushis, boomers, caps, and P. shrooms (other street names) are highly dangerous drugs people use.

How would you describe Magic Mushrooms? Magic mushrooms are mushrooms that contain psilocybin  and it is also known as a hallucinogenic drug, meaning they cause hallucination if eating. Magic mushrooms are mushrooms that look moldy, old and small, so it looks very unpleasing.

How do people use magic mushrooms? People usually sneak it into foods and eat the foods, like for example people will mix the mushrooms with the muffins they made, so when people eat the muffins they also eat the magic mushrooms in it. its also because the mushroom will taste bad by itself so people put it in foods and eat it so it taste normal or good.

Why do some teenagers decide to take mushrooms? It may  be because of some simple common things like pear pressure or just curious or maybe even bored these are some common reasons teenagers might take mushrooms.

some positives and negatives of the drug when you take it for example the negatives may be causing and addiction and affect your mental and health overall if taking it again and again. But in the positive side of things when taking it, is that you can escape the real world and feel good about yourself and everything turns good only temporarily. But long term and short term affects. Short term can make you feel good and stuff but for long term affects it can greatly affect your health.

Since mushrooms are in class A tier they are extremely high risk drugs and can be arrested if caught with them because it is illegal.

My advice for teenagers too “not” take mushrooms is stay away from people who might have them and overall don’t get near them and get influenced by people too take it.

te phare tapa wha is

Taha wairua

Taha hinengaro

Taha tinana

You can get taller

Taha whanau

hanging out with friends more

Taha whenua

Question 1: What is Ecstasy?

Drug Name: Ecstasy

Street names/Other names: MDMA, Molly, Love drug, candy, caps

Ecstasy is an illegal made drug that acts as a stimulant or a mild hallucinogen. This is used to boost energy and physical sensations. It also creates feelings of love, happiness and closeness to others.

Question 2: What does it look like

Ecstasy looks like these pills that are all different colours and shapes.

How is it used? Ecstasy is used by swallowing like it is a normal pill you would take for pain.

Question 3: What makes teens want to use drugs?

• Peer Pressure – Interpersonal
• Curiosity  – Personal
• Online/social media – Societal
• Family do it – Interpersonal
• To escape from reality – Personal
• Easy access (like school or Neighborhood) – societal

Question 4: Positives and Negatives

Positive: Short term

• Feeling intense happieness/ euphoria – Personal
• Feeling a strong sense of empathy closeness and warmth toward others – Interpersonal
• Increased feelings of connection, solidarity and harmony within community – Societal

Positive: Long term

• Improved ability to process deep emotional breakthroughs – Personal
• Reduced feelings of social isolation and long term sense of belonging – Interpersonal
• New avenues for scientific research, mental health treatments, and psychiatric breakthroughs. – Societal

Negative: Short term

• Severe dehydration, dangerous overheating – Personal
• Severe mood drops, anxiety during the comedown – Interpersonal
• Higher risk of drug-facilitated accidents, injuries, or unsafe BEHAVIOR in public areas – Societal

Negative: Long term

• Severe memory loss and confusion – Personal
• Breakdown of trust, neglect of domestic duties, and domestic conflict – Interpersonal
• Increased crime rates, higher costs for law ENFORCEMENT, and courts – Societal

When these different impacts happen, they completely roll into one another. For example, if you experience severe dehydration and overheating (physical), it drains your body, which directly triggers a massive mood drop and anxiety during the comedown (mental and emotional). Because you are feeling so anxious and miserable inside, it becomes way harder to communicate, leading to a breakdown of trust and conflict with your family and friends (interpersonal). Ultimately, when individual relationships start breaking down like this, it ripples out into the community, leading to broader issues like neglect of duties and higher crime rates (societal).

Question 5: Laws and Penalties

• Possession or use: Up to 3 months in prison and/or a $500 fine (If it is a minors first offense it could be a fine or warning of prison time)
• Manufacturing, Importing, or Supplying (Dealing): Up to 14 years in prison.
• Presumption of Supply: If you are caught with 5 grams or 100 pills/capsules of ecstasy, the law automatically assumes you are a dealer unless you can prove otherwise.

Question 6: How to keep safe around Ecstasy

• Handling Peer Pressure: It is completely ok to say ‘No’ or ‘not my thing’ or an excuse like having a game or practice the next day if there if pressure from others.
• Monitoring Beverages: Keeping an eye on drinks (like water, soda or more) ensures that no one can place anything inside them unnoticed.
• Staying together: Remaining with a trusted friend group helps to ensure everyone looks out for one another. A friend should never be left alone if they appear unwell.
• Seeking Immediate Emergency Medical Care: If someone ingests the substance and exhibits dangerous symptoms like vomiting, confusion, or passing out, calling emergency services right away is critical. Safety and health are the priority, and getting medical help immediately can save a life.

Question 7: Decision Making

Scenario: It is the start of interval; you receive a text. The text is from your friend. Your friend tells you to meet them at the back of the field to use (insert your drug) with them.

• Option 1: Go to the back of the field and use the drug with your friend.
• Option 2: Say no and don’t go (either make an excuse or tell the truth).
• Option 3: Try to convince your friend not to do it either and hang out somewhere else.

Question 7: Decision Making – Option 1

Consequences:

Positive: You fit in, avoid social awkwardness, and keep your friend happy in the short term.

Negative: You risk getting caught by teachers, getting suspended, or getting in trouble with your parents. It can also harm your health and get you addicted.

Feelings:

Positives: You might feel relieved, accepted, or like you belong.

Negatives: You will likely feel paranoid about getting caught, guilty for breaking rules, and stressed about your health.

Question 7: Decision Making – Option 2

Consequences:

Positive: You stay safe, keep your school record clean, protect your body, and avoid getting into trouble.

Negative: Your friend might get mad, call you names, or make you feel left out.

Feelings:

Positive: You feel proud, safe, in control and relieved

Negative: You might feel lonely, anxious about your friendship, or sad that your friend is upset with you.

Question 7: Decision Making – Option 3

Consequences:

Positive: You look out for your friend’s safety, protect yourself, and potentially keep both of you out of serious trouble.

Negative: Your friend might react badly, think you are acting like a parent/teacher, and push you away.

Feelings:

Positives: You feel loyal, helpful, and responsible.

Negatives: You might feel frustrated, rejected, or disappointed if they don’t listen.

Question 7: Decision Making – best option

The best option to take is Option 2 (Saying no and not going), or Option 3 if you can safely convince them to stop. Choosing to walk away and not use the drug is the best decision for Hauora (the 4 areas of wellbeing):

Question 7: Decision Making – 4 areas of wellbeing

Physical Wellbeing (Taha Tinana): Your body stays completely healthy and safe. You avoid the harmful chemical effects of the drug, protect your brain development, and don’t risk getting hurt or sick.

Mental & Emotional Wellbeing (Taha Hinengaro): You get peace of mind. You won’t have to deal with the intense anxiety, paranoia, or guilt of hiding a secret from teachers and parents. You will feel strong and confident for standing up for yourself.

Social Wellbeing (Taha Whānau): You protect your long-term relationships. Even if that one friend is temporarily annoyed, you maintain the trust of your family, teachers, and other peers who value good choices. True friends won’t pressure you into dangerous things.

Spiritual Wellbeing (Taha Wairua): You stay true to your own values and identity. Saying no shows you know what is right and wrong. It builds your self-worth because you are making decisions that align with who you want to be, rather than just following the crowd.

Today we learned about New Zealand Election. Here my work sheet did today.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1qtrHaWuHiIcHYQvN_yZlWqEDKrLRxW6LTa01v1YQOQk/edit?usp=sharing

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1doM4NWWHzAt5Bb1qMnLMnatne31vzgMeH8FAiiT1cko/edit?usp=sharing

Lesson 1: My society

Here is the link to my work, a summary of it was that In the document we wrote about the kind of island we would want and leardership in power and the type of laws we want to have in our ideal society.

Lesson 2: Demokratia

Today we learnt about where democracy came from, and demokratia  heres the link to my work

Fit for life yoga supports physical and mental health by building up:

• strength and stamina for your body to build up endurance.
• Flexibility and Balance – stretching and balance.
• Hearth rate health – regular practice helps lower blood pressure.
• Stress reduction – deep breathing and out
• Better sleep – relaxing routine helps calm and nervous system
• Mental focus – yoga trains helps practice focus.

Types of Yoga:

• Hatha: A gentle, slower-paced practice focused on basic foundational postures and breath.
• Vinyasa: A fluid, dynamic style where movements are smoothly linked together and synchronized with your breathing.
• Ashtanga: A rigorous, physically demanding style that follows a strict, unchanging sequence of postures.
• Yin: A slow-paced style where passive poses are held for several minutes to target deep connective tissues and improve flexibility.
• Iyengar: A precise practice that focuses heavily on proper body alignment and uses props like blocks, straps, and blankets.
• Hot Yoga: Practiced in an intentionally heated room to increase sweating, elevate heart rate, and deepen stretches.
• Restorative: A deeply relaxing practice utilizing props so the body can completely unwind and hold supported poses with zero effort.

We did deep breathing and yoga poses

The deep breathung help us feel relax, softer and easy. Yoga poses helped our body more flexibile and easier to move.

This is my stress core:

Hello bloggers, welcome back to another blog post. In Health, for this unit, we have been focusing on fit for life. So far we have learnt about nutrition, budgeting, comfort zones and interpersonal skills. Currently, we are learning about fitness, relaxation and stress management. 

What is Yoga?

Yoga is a physical, mental and spiritual practice that enhances your flexibility, mind, and emotional wellbeing. This practice contains dynamic poses, breathing techniques, and meditation. 

Benefits

Yoga enhances your physical wellbeing, because with all the poses and stretches you perform, it helps you become more flexible. It also helps you with your emotional and mental wellbeing because doing meditation and breathing techniques soothes your negative emotions. 

Box Breathing

This breathing technique helped me feel more calm and control my emotions.

Yoga

We did some yoga, and personally yoga is not for me. It felt calming, but the poses weren’t really helping, but the breathing did. What helps me soothe my emotions, I would listen to music or take a walk on a cold morning. 

Stress

Ways to cope with stress: 

• Mindful drawing / colouring
• Listening to music
• Yoga
• Breathing techniques
• Doing something you enjoy

14 October 2026 Wednesday: Yoga

Some breathing benefits are physical and mental health. The stretching in Yoga helps improve flexibility, pain relief. For your mental health, it reduces stress/anxiety and would improve sleep schedules.

Yoga positions 5 5 5:

• Yoga pose one: Arms felt heavy
• Yoga pose two: Small stretch in back leg
• Yoga pose three: Back of calves well stretched
• Yoga pose four: light back stretch, felt loose
• Yoga pose five: also a light back stretch, felt loose

Breathing: Felt calm, shoulders loose. 

Stress level:

Things I do to chill: Sleep, Watch TV, hang out with friends, play sports.

1. List 10 words that describe clowns 

• Makeup
• Hair wig
• Costumes
• Silly
• Gloves
• Funny
• Loud
• Creepy
• Entertaining
• Friendly                                                                                                       2.List 5 props a clown typically uses
• Horn
• Red big nose
• Giants or Oversized objects
• Rubber Chickens
• Bang Guns or Squirt flowers

Show 2 Clowns Costumes 

History of Clowns – Describe one kind of clown 

Boss Clown: a clown responsible for leading the other clowns.

A boss clown can refer to several different concepts depending on the context:

Hello, welcome to my first blog post for term 4!

Today in science, we were working on our physics assessment, we focused on electricity and circuits. In this blog post, I will be answering the assessment questions and showing my circuits.

Questions

Define Current and Volt:

Current – Current is the flow of electric charge (electrons) in a circuit, it is measured in amperes (A).

Volt – Voltage is the measurement of how much energy the current is carrying.

My Circuits

Why are the bulbs in your parallel circuit brighter/dimmer than bulbs placed in series?

Parallel Circuit: In a parallel circuit, each bulb has it own path, so they get full voltage of the batter. Because adding more paths lowers the resistance, and the current flows easier and makes it shine more.

Series Circuit: In a series circuit, all the bulbs share a single path, so the voltage of the batter is split between themselves. The single line increases resistance, which makes the power lower and makes the bulbs look dimmer.

Thank you for reading my blog

Shreeya

Current: it’s the flow of electrons in a circuit. The higher the current the faster it is. lower the current the slower it is.

Voltage: it’s how much the circuit current has.

as you see that the series circuit is brighter than the parallel circuit, it’s because the current on the parallel circuit is slower then the one in the series circuit.

The current is slower in the parallel circuit then the series circuit area because in parallel circuit, the current takes different paths around the circuit to light up 2 or more bulb so it has to split equally to cross each different patch, while the series circuit, it only has 1 path and so the current isn’t split or shared across different path.

Define current AND voltage.

The flow of electrons in a circuit is called current.

Voltage is a measure of how much energy the current is carrying. 

the Parallel Circuit.has less light. because current has to go a longer  ways

For our science assessment this term, we’ve been learning all about how electricity moves through circuits using the site PhET. HEre is my assessment on how current and voltage work.

What are Current and Voltage?

Current: Current Electricity moves around a circuit in a loop. If there are a lot of components in the series or parallel then the electrons are still flowing but are shared around.

Voltage: It is the measure of how much energy the electrons are actually carrying. To measure voltage, you need to have a voltmeter to measure it.

The Difference – Basically, current is how many electrons are flowing through the wires, while the voltage is how much energy has to give to the components attached.

My PhET diagrams 

Series Circuit: The series circuit shows two light bulbs and a switch in a single loop. But when the switch is closed, current flows through the bulbs the same.

Parallel Circuit: The parallel circuit shows two seperate branches with a switch on one branch controlling a single light bulb.

When we used PhET to build my circuits, the lightbulbs in the parallel circuit were brighter than the ones in the series circuit.

——-

Why they are lighter and dimmer 

Series Circuit: The bulbs have to share the battery’s electrons, so if you have two bulbs, they get half of the energy. Because all the bulbs are lined up in one branch, it slows down the electrons which also slows down the current.

Parallel Circuit: Every bulb used on the circuit has a different connection to the battery, each one gets an amount of energy. Having extra branches gives the electrons more paths and an easier way to travel. So electricity flows easily through the bulb.

Current Meaning:the flow of electrons in a circuit is called current

Voltage Meaning:voltage is a measure of how much energy the current is carrying

the parallel circuit has less light things because the current has to go further