Explanation of Homemade Instrument

Ever thought of making a guitar from your own bare hands? Did you know there’s all types of guitars, so that means there’s a variety of guitars you can make? Well, I’m going to tell you about it! While you’re reading it, you will notice how sound travels through your ear through a guitar!

How does sound travel when playing a guitar?

When you strum the guitar, the rubber bands start to vibrate. When it vibrates, it creates sound waves. The sound waves go into the sound hole and bounce off the back of the homemade guitar and into your ear!

How do I make it?

It’s really simple to make a homemade guitar! Looking and researching the internet, I captured some idea’s of how to make a really good guitar. Lot’s of people use really great methods, that I would like to use. You will need A rectangle shaped container, Scissors and most importantly rubber bands for strumming. Make sure the container has both closed sides. Get scissors and carefully cut the middle of the container into a circle for a perfect sound hole. Strum the rubber bands, therefore you might see the rubber bands vibrating!

I think that making your own instrument gives you an opportunity to not be bored to be honest! You can show your homemade instrument to your family and show how it is made. If you would love to play guitar, but don’t have enough money you can just make it?

Science Roadshow

Isn’t it fun discovering interesting stuff you never knew before? Like how food digests through your body? or how much urine you develop in a day? Friday morning, class 2 along with class 5 walked to Tamaki College to the science roadshow. Waiting outside of the foya, I was very eager to see different experiments in the hall.

As we went inside the Tamaki Hall, I could see different sets of science experiments all around the hall. During the show, one of the teachers grabbed 3 volunteers. The first volunteer, was Emmanuele and she had to blow through a tube to see how much air is in her lungs. I surely expected lots of air but, in reality there wasn’t enough! As she blew through the tube, the  colour of the water started to change! That was surely amazing. Then the second volunteer was Anthony! The big question was how tall will he be when he’s 20? How did they find out?   They installed an app called size me up. And Anthony was about to be the same height as Mrs Lagitupu when he is 20!

A few minutes later we got try out the differents things around the hall. The first thing I tried was an interesting one. I had to grab letter magnets that spell my name. And then I gave it to a TC student to mould it. It was really cool. One of my favorites was the ‘foot piano’ instead of playing the piano with your hands, you could play it with your feet! It was fun.

Overall science roadshow was really interesting and fun at the same time. I got to find out lots of facts about our body and the environment! I wish that we could have another chance next year trying out the roadshow!

20 hour famine!

Tonight is 20 hour famine! And so far we have had lots of fun with the ambassadors! We learnt so much about life style in Malawi. We got to play lots of games and have lots of fun! We also learnt a word! It's pronounced Ma-lu-gu-ak-wa-da-ri-sen! ( may god be with you!!!!)

Guitars

Have you ever wondered what parts of the guitar are there? Or how it makes sound? Well, you are in good luck! Because I’m going to tell you about those things. Did I mention, that there are all types of guitars?

When playing a guitar you will notice six strings. The six strings are stuck to the bridge of the guitar. Those are the parts that you strum. Every guitar needs a fretboard! A fretboard is the long thing stuck to the board of the guitar. A sound hole supports the guitar by  making the sound louder and clear.

How can I hear the sound of a guitar? When strumming a guitar the string vibrates which makes sound waves. The waves go through the hole of the guitar and bounces of the wooden part  of the guitar. Which causes the sound waves to go into our ear.

There are a variety of songs you can play on the guitar! But sometimes it takes practice. Did you know that guitars have 2341 playable chords? Thats surely a lot!

In acoustic songs one of the main instruments are the guitar. That’s why guitars are one of the greatest instruments invented! I would surely recommend this instrument to everyone who has not yet discovered the guitar! I’m sure that the guitar is the most inspiring instruments.

Comparison Between Malawi and New Zealand

This morning our task was to compare New Zealand to Malawi through a google presentation. If you read carefully through the presentation, you will notice some really BIG differences!

science experiment

Science experiment:       

Question: What will happen to the sound if I change the shape of a piece of paper? (e.g. from a flat shape to a funnel shape)

Links to research about Sound:

http://www.thetech.org/exhibits/online/robotzoo/guide/bats_and_echoes.html

http://www.sciencekids.co.nz/sciencefacts/sound.html

http://www.softschools.com/facts/energy/sound_energy_facts/401/

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Hypothesis: (What do you think will happen?) e.g. I think that…. You will hear a deep kind of echo!

Materials needed: Paper, tape and cotton ball/tissues

Experiment (procedure):

e.g. Step 1 - First hold a flat piece of paper against your ear. Block your other ear with your hand. Get your partner to speak to you. What is the sound like? Can you hear clearly?

Step 2 - Next, roll the piece of paper into a funnel shape. Put the funnel against your ear. Face the funnel towards your partner and listen to them speak. What does it sound like? Can you hear clearly?

Step 3 -  After that, put a tissue/cotton ball at the end of the cone. And put the funnel against your ear. Tell your friend to speak and try figure out what it sounds like.

Step 4 -  Try facing the other way and tell your friend to speak again. Block one side of your ear. Can you hear her/his voice clearly?

Step 5 -  When you are done with that face it directly away from them? will you notice anything strange?

Data (What happened?)

	Shape/object/materials	Results:
1	flat piece of paper	The sound was really clear, but it had made no difference
2	funnel facing to the front	I can really pick up sound from the persons voice
3	funnel facing to the side	i can only pick up noises from others except the v
4	cotton ball blocking funnel	I can really hear her more clearly
5	rolled up piece of paper (facing to the front)	I can pick up her sound a little bit
6	rolled up piece of paper (facing to the side)	no difference

Observations:

I rolled up the piece of paper and taped it together . I asked my partner ‘Iron’ to speak directly into the funnel. I could only pick up her voice very clearly. I then faced to the right, I then could only pick up voices of the class but not Iron.

Experiment 2: I got a tissue and placed it at the end of the cone . I told her to speak, but I could still hear her voice. Her voice had more power than the tissue that was placed inside the funnel.

Conclusion:

During all the hassle, doing the experiment I found my hypothesis . . . a bit wrong. I expected a ‘deep’ echo sound. In reality, I could just pick my partners voice clearly and properly. No pitch change!

Music and Sound Affects

Music is one of the greatest things invented! There are all types of music , Pop, Hip hop, Rock , Soul and more. No matter how great music is, they still can be dangerous. Why? When the sound of music is too loud, it can cause damage to your ears and you might lose the sense of hearing. That is why we need to be careful around some objects such as headphones. If you're listening to music through headphones and it is really loud, lower it down because it can damage your eardrums!

To me , there can never be music without amazing artists/composers! Now, there are different artists all over the world. Such as, Iggy Azalea, Ariana Grande, Will.IAm and lots more. If I could choose one of the best legendary singers, it would have to be Beyonce. She started from the group Destiny's child and became solo. Lot’s of these artists write their songs through personal experiences, and thats what inspires me to listen to their songs.

How is music made? Music is made with a variety of things. Guitars, Piano, Drums, and even Bongos and more. You can even make your own instruments too. Instruments make sound by developing vibrations and it turns into sound waves which go through your ear drum! Did you know that the first instrument invented was the flute? Did I mention that instruments, have different types. Like the electric guitar and electric piano.

Have you ever wondered how you remember songs that you’ve recently listened to? There is a part in your brain called hippocampus , so when you’re listening to a song The hippocampus performs an essential role in your brain. Searching the internet, I found some really interesting facts about hippocampus. I heard it is actually shaped like a horseshoe around you brain.

What would would earth be like ‘without’ music? It would be really frustrating living a life without music. Because music is one of the most things in the world that has inspired me. If there was no music, people wouldn’t be singing, we also wouldn’t be singing the national anthem as well! That is why, to me, music is important.

If we lived in total silence

Imagine if we lived in a world without sound. Wouldn’t that be awkward? Not laughing with others. Having to live in a silent atmosphere? It would just be unnatural too. Why? Because our environment would become more dangerous.

If we lived in total silence, we wouldn’t be here at school! Because when we come here we wouldn’t have anybody to talk to, not even a teacher to teach us. Without the ability to hear, there wouldn’t be a word such as ‘talking’, or ‘noise’ and to me those are two important words. Living in a muted world, would be hard too. We wouldn’t be learning how to speak or sing, because in order to learn we have to ‘hear’.   

Right now , we are very lucky to have a special gift! That special gift is to hear. The sounds I hear at school are sometimes annoying and are sometimes ok. I really enjoy listening to music at school, because it pushes myself to write more or read more. Not only do I enjoy music, but I also enjoy the sound of heels tapping on the concrete. Why? it makes me feel calm a lot. I really dislike the sound of people smacking their lips! I find it really annoying.

I’m sure that many people will get injured in the next few months, if we all lived in silence. Why? These days our roads can be very dangerous, due to busy traffic. Many people could get injured if they couldn’t hear car’s coming, trains or motorcycles.

Sound is very important, it keeps us safe, it entertains us and helps us. Some people are not blessed with the gift of hearing, but we can help them be safe. Living in muted world would be difficult. We are very lucky and thankful for the gift of hearing!

Term 2 Assembly

Every start of the term , each team of teachers perform an item related to our topic! What is our topic this term? Our topic is ‘ I like to move it ‘ . I didn’t have any idea of what our topic meant. But watching other performances I captured the idea of what it means. We are learning on how things move or work like boats, light and sound. I looked around the hall , only to see balloons everywhere! There was even balloons , hanging down on the ceiling!

As always, we started our Assembly with a karakia to bless us through the rest of the term. I sat impatiently waiting for team 1’s item. After the karakia , Mr. Burt showed us a picture of a house. He said  that ‘ This house was a very special house’. After that, he showed a picture of the house floating! A few moments later we counted how many balloons can make a small taxi fly and it was 16! 16! I was amazed. Finally, team 1 was ready to do their thing! They started off their item with a movie. The movie was mainly about animals at the zoo and what they eat. Mz   george came out with great news for team 1. She says that they will be going to the zoo , tomorrow! I thought that was really quick!

The next item was team two, their main focus is on how planes work. Miss Eadie and Miss Dwires was dressed as planes while on the other hand, Miss She was a fairy and Mrs Glaze was a pilot. They did a little dance as their item. The next team was team 3! They were focusing on speed of light and it was one of my favorites. Because they used the characters as their demonstration it was hilarious!

Team 4’s item was about how boats float and why it floats! I was truly amazed by the facts that I didn’t know. Then they got up and asked a few questions from the film that was previously played. Who ever got an answer right gets a chocolate fish! Then team 5 did their item which was related to music. They made their own instruments and played it individually , then they played a movie showing a music video which was really cool to watch!