2010 | Funtastic Four's Learning 2010

On Monday a musician named Steve came to our school. He came because we are learning about The Arts and he knows lots about music.

Steve played a song for us on his guitar and harmonica. He came after lunch for us to interview him. We wanted to learn about music and why he likes music. We wrote some questions to ask him. Here are some of them:

What is it like being a musician?
How many times a week do you practice your music?
Who writes the lyrics to your songs?
What is fun that you like about music?
What type of music do you like the best?
When did you start playing music?

Steve said he like the blues the best. The blues are songs that people wrote saying how they felt - Campbell & Lexie

Steve also said he practiced on the guitar every day - Laura

Steve thought it was fun being a musician. The hard part about being a musician was when he missed home - Ryan & Aidan

Sometimes his friends write some lyrics and sometimes Steve writes them by himself - Tauryn

Sometimes Steve gets music off the computer to practise with - Cory

It was fun when he played the guitar - James

I liked when he played the guitar because I want to get a guitar - Jack B.

Listen in the below video to Steve singing one of Room 4's favourite songs - Shadow Dance

IToday John from the Auckland Print Studio came to our school.

He came to show us prints and teach us about printmaking. He does lots of prints of extinct birds on rocks. This is called lithography. He likes doing printing because drawing and with printing he can can make lots of pictures.

We wrote some questions to ask John. Here are some of the answers:

How do you make your printings better and do you make mistakes?

John does make mistakes. When he makes a mistake he keeps on going and tries to get it finished. Each time he makes a mistake he thinks about how to make it better - Aidan and Tauryn

When did you start printing and what is your favourite type of printing?

John was 18 when he first started printing. His favourite type of printing is lithography - Ryan and Selena

When do you do your art?

John mainly does his art at night time because he is working with other people during the day. During the day he is teaching at university - Luke and Jaidyn

Where do you do your printing and who do you it with?

John does his printing his studio. He does it with another person called his assistant. Sometimes he also helps classes or other people to print - Emily and Cory

What do you use to do your printing?

a roller - Shardia
some rocks from different countries like Germany and America - Campbell
a machine to put pressure on his art - Ryan
ink for the colour - Jaidyn
paper - Waima

What is the size of the biggest print you have ever done?
John's biggest print is 1.2metres long! - Caleb

We thought John's artwork looked cool. He sometimes makes up his own pretend birds from two different birds. It sometimes takes him a long time to do his prints. John can mix together colours to make lots of new colours.

Here is a video you can watch to learn about the process of lithography: