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Toronto International Dragon Boat Race Festival

6/23/2014

By Dea Yu & Emma Zhang (Age 9)

On Sunday, June 22th, 2014, a group of Voice K journalists headed out to Central Island for the Toronto International Dragon Boat Festival. The drive was pretty long. When my family finally arrived at our destination, I wanted to jump out the car!

When my family got to the ferry dock, we had to wait in a long line for the ferry. My family rode on the top layer of the ferry. When I got there, I was amazed by the buzz if excitement in the crowd. There were so many people with paddles so I knew they must be paddlers competing in the race. There were lots of vendors with food and games, and the thumping of the dancers’ feet on the stage was amazingly loud.

I explored the island until I saw the Voice K group. We got split up in two teams. I interviewed a paddler named Tim Hudson who was competing for the P&G team.

“My dad and I used to always go rowing when I was your age and we did the same in Boy scouts too.” Hudson said. He told me that the important part about racing is that everyone has to be in sync. “You have to make sure you listen to the man in the back and everyone on the boat has to know his instructions.”

I also learned that in a race like this, you want start paddling very hard at the start, slow down in the middle, and then pick up at the end.

In order to prepare for a dragon boat race, you need a lot of different training. One of the most important ones is to train how to row. You can pull your paddle to your sides and work on your strokes. You also need lots of warm-ups and muscle trainings because paddling requires a lot of back exercises, shoulder exercises, and cardio exercises.

“How do you feel when you finished the race?” I asked.

”Relieved,” Tim said. “Because you get really exhausted in the race and it’s good to finish. And I feel even better when I win.”

Then I asked to see his hand and there were so many calluses on them!

Then I interviewed one of the organizers of the even ─ Kevin Lo. His favorite part of the race is seeing all the teamwork effort. Lo told me that this was his fourth year being an organizer. “I first heard about this festival when I was a kid,” Lo told me when I asked him about his first experience.

After playing for several hours, it was time to head back home. I still remember the day I saw dragons on the river, and excited to see next year’s race.

Hi everyone, my name is Dea Yu. I am nine years old. My name is not popular; I only knew one girl whose name sounds the same, but it is spelled differently. My Mom told me she found it on a website called babynames.com. It is a Greek Goddess name who was in charge of beauty. I go to Bronte College which is really close to Voice K. My favourite classes at school are Drama and Music. I love playing acting games with my Drama teacher. I live in Mississauga, Ontario. I like reading and all kinds of arts. I am a Ballet dancer; I had my fourth recital this year. I really enjoy putting on a new costume each year and dancing on the stage. That is it, so far.

Hi! My name is Emma Zhang. I was born in the year 2005. I like art, skiing, drama, bears, dogs, Prince Edward Island traveling and Voice K! I love playing little tricks on my family. I am also a nerd and I love to be on my computer. I am a fan of nature because I like camping in the wild. When I grow up, I would love to be an actress. I was inspired by “Annie”, a live musical show. Sometimes, I may use big words like moonshine (nonsense), cataclysmic (mega jumbo), pondered (thinking), and more. Well, that’s all you need to know about me!

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Sultans of the Street

6/18/2014

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This nominated show brings a treasurable moral to everyone. This show is about four children from different social classes, two who want to fly kites, and two in the desire to go to school. They are trapped in a world of begging on the streets of Kolkata, India. On their way, they try to escape the lives of begging for the mysterious ‘Aunty.’

Everyone knows begging isn’t something good. Everyone also knows that boys don’t go in disguise as girls or gods. Well, in that logic, the mysterious ‘Aunty’ was doing something terribly wrong. But why don’t the kids refuse and stay away from Aunty? Everyone knows dreams are your path, and people tend to follow them. As the four kids were approaching their dreams, they had a powerful obstacle – Aunty. The children were manipulated into begging for someone they didn’t like due to their needs, and mistakes. Fortunately, they found their solutions by trusting people who would do anything to protect you. Unfortunately, the kids found out the hard way, and paid the price. There were many moral lessons from this play. For example: whatever life gives you, never give up your dreams; never trust strangers; don’t beg; don’t steal; and don’t start something you will regret. The story is a great way to learn about honesty. If I were to judge the story, I would’ve given it 5 stars.

It is already be hard for me to do a short skit, never mind a stunning performance like the actors in this play! The actors made it look easy, and that would take much practice. All actors in the play were adults, playing the role of children. I couldn’t believe how the adults were able to take the role of young kids, while making it both humorous and emotional. In my opinion, the actors who played the 2 younger boys, Chun Chun and Ojha, were slightly better at acting than the other two. Because of this play’s creative organization and communication, I will give the acting 4 stars.

After the show, the actors were surrounded by big crowd. I went to interview Richard Lee, the actor for Chun Chun. When I finally got my turn, Richard knelt down to hear me clearly. He is such a nice person, rather than the immature Chun Chun in the show. Lee told me that he has participated in around 60 other stage shows.

He also told me that one of the difficulties he experienced while training is to help changing the scenes. “We had to move the heavy boards to change the scenes, and that weighed a ton.” Lee said.

I was curious about how does the youngest boy in the show, Chun Chun, run the fastest. When I asked, Lee laughed and said, “He was the street boy, and street boys have to be fast, or they would be caught.” I wanted to sit and chat, but that was impossible due to the crowd.

This show was an awesome memory. The acting was interesting and educational. The story was simple, but there was a great moral. I’ve noticed how it was well organized. I truly stand on the supporting side of ‘Sultans of the Street.’ Therefore, in general, I’d give it 4.5 stars. Which side do you stand on?

Hi there! My name is Raymond Qiu. I’m 10 years old and go to Vista Heights P.S, which I’m really proud of. My favorite sports are swimming, skiing, and volleyball. I also enjoy playing Chess and Lego with my friends. On the breaks, I love to travel to cool destinations to take pictures and enjoy the delicious food. When I’m tired of homework, I like to create random pieces on the piano and be my own audience. I admire those who can speak many different languages, and I wish I could learn more too. This great skill can help me communicate and make friends when I travel, and also support me become a businessman with a global business in the future. Let’s start from VoiceK.

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The TIFF Kids Jump Cuts Film

6/12/2014

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The TIFF Kids International Film Festival
Attending Journalists: Dea Yu, and Michelle and Amelie Zhou, Sunni Zhou, Edward Wang

By Edward Wang (Age 9)

The TIFF Kids International Film Festival has been running for 17 years. This year, the festival had 112 films from 31 different countries!

On April 19th, 2014, Voice K got a great opportunity to send four journalists to attend this event. Luckily, I got to be one of those journalists. Along with Amelie, Michelle, Dea and Sunni, we got to watch a lot of different short films. We also got to interview these kids that tried very hard and made films to the best of their abilities.

There were a lot of events going on in the TIFF Bell Lightbox Building. When all Voice K journalists finally gathered together, we went straight to cinema 1 to see the short films the kids made.

I had to say, all the films were funny and enthusiastic. If I were the judge, it would be very hard to crown the winner. In my opinion, the top three films they would be:

1st Place: Spaced Out

2nd Place: The Dam Keeper

Last but not least: Regret.

At the end of the screening, it took us five seconds to figure out that it was time to go, but our adventure wasn't over yet. We still have the Award Ceremony for Jump Cuts Showcase to attend. We had a while to rest our eyes before the Award Ceremony started.

Remember how I organized the winners? Well, the TIFF kids program has organized the winners way differently.

First, there were a lot of different categories and there was only one winner for each Category. Secondly, the categories were sorted by AGE! I thought that age didn't matter! Did you think so too? Well, that's how they want to do it, and that’s fine with me as long as I still get to interview and write this article.

At the end, I did get my chance to interview winner of the Grade 4 to 6 Category ─ Morgan Brown. The film was called Tango Vibes, it is about clay sculptures dancing around the school. I got to admit it was fun to know how it felt being a winner out of so many people who had worked so hard.

When I asked if she ever wanted to give up during filming, Brown smiled and said “ No, I didn't.” I was so surprised. I was even more surprised that Brown did not want to become a film director or actress in the future. She said, “I want to be an archeologist.”

Thanks for hanging out with me and hope you liked this article. If you have questions or concerns, please tell me. So I guess this is THE END

By Dea Yu (Age 9)

On April 19th, 2014, the Voice K journalists went to the TIFF Kids International Film Festival. When I walked into the doors of TIFF Bell Lightbox building in downtown Toronto, I knew it was going to be a fun day. According to Elizabeth Muskala, the organizer of TIFF kids, this is its 17th year and it is the first time partnering with StoryMobs-a flash-style book reading-who held their April edition at the TIFF Kids Festival with a reading of “Cloudy with a chance of a meatballs” and it was a lot of fun!

As soon as I pushed open the heavy glass doors, I was hit by a loud volume of noise. Then I saw lots of kids and volunteers with painted faces and cardboard signs. On my left, was a big screen with pop-out circles that light up and changing colours. Beside it, was the digiPlaySpace and the TIFF Shop. Wow, this is going to be a highlight of my life, I thought.

After we got our tickets, we went to the theatre to line up. Just then, a magician passed by. “Hi guys!” He said cheerfully, “Do you want to see a couple magic tricks while you’re waiting to go in the theatre?”

After magic tricks, we went inside to the cinema, and chose one of the upper rows to sit. Just as I was going to ask my dad how many more minutes until the movie would start, a person named Spencer Butt, the coordinator for Jump Cuts Showcase, came up on the stage and said a few things about the movies we were going to see. The movies were all made by kids in Grade 4 to Grade 6.

The first movie was called “New Genre” and it was about 3 objects that were going to make a movie but they didn’t know what it was going to be about. The second movie was called “Tango Vibes” and it was about 2 clay sculptures dancing around a school and doing their own little thing. My favourite one was “The Missing”. It was about 2 boys who had lost their dog and then they found out that they weren’t the only one that had lost someone or something.

Right after we watched all of the movies, we had to go to the awards ceremony. First, they announced the grades 4-6 winner, which was “Tango Vibes”. They called the directors Morgan Brown and Nathan Wood to come up to the stage and get their $500 check from RBC bank and their RBC bank doll. Then, they announced the grades 7-8 winner which was “Call of the Dead.” It was about zombie who bit other people and they became zombies too. The message was smartphones can change you.

After the ceremony, we went to a place with couches and tables to do our interviews with the winners. I did my interview with Morgan Brown.

“I felt happy and I had butterflies in my stomach.” Brown said. “The movie wasn’t really my idea because I had no idea what to do, so it was more like my teacher’s idea.”

Brown thinks that her film was chosen as the winning piece because it contained a great message. Brown has no idea what her next film is to be about.

When a journalist asked her if she would like to change her film, she simply answered, “no.”

From the Jump Cuts organizer, Spencer Butt, we learned that The Jump Cuts showcase was only open to residents of Ontario. They got a lot of attention from word of mouth promotions. A student filmmaker will participate and have a great time and they’ll tell a bunch of their friends who then submit the following year.

“One of the most challenging parts of organizing Jump Cuts is narrowing down to the finalists. We get a TON of amazing submissions every year but we can only pick about fifteen to actually show on the big screen.” Spencer said. “To help with this process, we get a team of people who work in the film industry to watch every single entry and then, based off some criteria I give them, we slowly figure out which ones really stand out to us.”

After we did all the interviews, it was time to go. I felt like this was one of the best days in my life and nothing could be more exciting than this.

A review of Grade 7-8 Category
By Sunni Zhou (Age 12)

On Saturday April 19, 2014 there was an exciting event at the Toronto’s TIFF Bell Lightbox called the TIFF Kids International Film FestivalThere were many kids and parents all ready to watch the films some of these people have put together.

When my dad and I got there, we saw the TIFF Shop and digiPlaySpace.After my dad and I got the tickets and we made our way to the snack shop and got a bag of popcorn and 2 cookies. Suddenly a magician came and asked for a phone so my dad gave him his blackberry. The magician blew a balloon and the phone somehow was stuck in I the balloon. “Does your dad have angry birds on his phone?” the magician asked me. Of course he did and the magician pulled out the toy birds from the phone! He also told us and if we ever got lost in this humongous building, go to the first floor and look for the teddy bear. It was going to help you.

For the jump cuts 7-8 showcase there were 14 films in total. It was really amazing how the films were put together. The 14 films were

-    A Ruff Expedition
-    Dreams of the Past
-    Flat
-    Lucky
-    Man vs. School
-    McKenna’s Dream
-    Precious Cargo
-    Terre
-    Think Inside the Box
-    Call of the Dead
-    Follow
-    Rexy Troubles
-    Safety Man
-    Over One Million Ways to Live

All these films were amazing and they all showed a lot of hard work. But there was one winner “Call of the Dead!”

The film was about a zombie girl arriving at school attacking everyone. Anyone that got bit was turned into a zombie. After everyone was turned into a zombie there was a very important point, kids with the obsession with and overuse of technology are like zombies.

The film’s idea was by Alice Irving Hughes for her class project. She thought of what the modern society likes and decided that zombies were “cool”. “We decided that zombies will attract more kids” said Alice. She got a lot of help from Grace Irving Hughes, Elizabeth Elliot, Finn Hourihan, Max Lafferty, Derrick Price, the secretary of their school and their whole class. They decided the film was for awareness to people who are always on the computer playing games and using electronics. At the same time everyone liked it.

Another film that I liked was, Safety Man. It was about this boy who had to make decisions and there was always safety man and a Mr. Danger. He had to choose who he would listen to, but always messed up and listened to Mr. Danger. I found it super funny.

The whole event was really fun and I really enjoyed it. I bet all the other kids were so inspired they want to make their own video because I sure do. The clay figures, makeup, acting, drawings and cooperation really made this event a great success. I can tell the kids have put a lot of effort into it. Hope to be back next year!

My name is Edward Wang. I am in Grade 3 now. I go to Edenrose Public School. My favourite food is pizza because it is so yummy. My favourite sports are soccer and hockey, because they allow me to play with team members. If you want to be the winner, you have to work hard and smart together as a team. I also like to read interesting books and watch TV when I finish my homework

Hi everyone, my name is Dea Yu. I am eight years old. My name is not popular; I only knew one girl whose name sounds the same, but it is spelled differently. Guess how I got this name, my Mom told me she found it on a website called babynames.com. It is a Greek Goddess name who was in charge of beauty. I go to Sommerville Manor School which is really close to Voice K. My favourite classes at school are Drama and Music. I love playing acting games with my Drama teacher. I live in Mississauga, Ontario. I like reading and all kinds of arts. I am a Ballet dancer; I had my fourth recital this year. I really enjoy putting on a new costume each year and dancing on the stage. That is it, so far.

Hello, my name is Sunni Zhou! I am 12 years old and go to Tomken Road Middle School. I really like singing, dancing, cooking, travelling, and everything related to art. A very special thing about me is that I am a journalist and I do lots of thinking, writing, exploring new places, meeting new people, and learning new things. If you love having fun, exploring, writing, and learning, come to Voice K! I wish I could say more wonderful things about myself and Voice K but I really need to go. BYE!

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Toronto International Dragon Boat Race Festival

Sultans of the Street

The TIFF Kids Jump Cuts Film

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