Student Council Fun Day

Aerial Photos

Here are the photos from Molly's special flight with her dad.  She was even allowed to fly the plane by herself for awhile!  They flew right over the top of our school on the morning of our school gala.  Thanks for the photos Molly, looks like you had an awesome time!

Poi Making

Today we made poi with Mrs Langtry.  Some parts of the process were pretty challenging but most of us got it sorted in the end.  The boys were great helpers too!  Now we'll be able to practice for our poi display at the Celebration of Learning night at the end of the term.

Technology - Build A Whare Challenge

Over the past couple of weeks, we have been working on an epic technology challenge.  The task: to build a whare!

Criteria:

• must be able to sit on an A4 piece of paper
• must be as realistic as possible
• must be made from natural materials - sticks
• must be aesthetically pleasing
• parts must be in proportion (eg. window should not be bigger than door)
• must be sturdy/strong
• must be able to be carried around
• whare must be given an appropriate name: Te Whare 0 _________

The whare must have:

• tekoteko
• koruru
• maihi
• raparapa
• matapihi
• pare
• whakawae
• paepae
• amo

Equipment/Tools:

• sticks
• secateurs
• ruler, pencil, pens, scissors etc.
• hot glue gun
• tools: sandpaper, hacksaw, files etc

Process:

• learn about whare
• draw a labelled diagram of a whare and learn the correct terminology and meaning of each part
• allocate partners
• plan whare (sketches and diagrams)
• gather materials and equipment
• build whare
• evaluate success

While this has been a really challenging task - we had to do a LOT of problem solving and critical thinking along the way, we are really proud of our finished whare.

Here are photos taken during the construction of our whare:

And, here are the finished products - you can have a close-up look at our work, which will be displayed in our school library:

High School Writing Project

We have been working on our replies to Mrs Casey's Year 11 English class.  They wrote to us, giving us some advice about high school.  In our letters, we introduced ourselves and talked about what we've been up to school recently.  We are also sending along some of our writing (personal experience recounts about swimming), and are hoping to receive some feedback from our older, wiser friends from Feilding High School!

Here are our letters, ready to go!

Special Visitor From Japan

Today we had a visitor from Japan.  His name was Masaya.  Masaya is Isaac J’s cousin. We started by introducing ourselves in Japanese.  Masaya was very impressed with our pronunciation.  We taught Masaya, 'Heads, shoulders, knees and toes', in English then we did it in Japanese. Next we learnt how to form three more sentences:

1) My favourite food is...
2) Food I dislike a lot is...
3)  I like (type of sport) a lot.

Masaya enjoyed a performance of Haere Mai which we gave to welcome him to our school.

It was a great opportunity to ask Masaya all of our questions about Japan and Japanese life. We were very thankful to have Masaya visit our class on his short trip to New Zealand. We also thank him very much for the gifts he brought us.

Cricket - Round 5

Today we had our second-to-last session of cricket.  We had a chance to play a couple of our favourite games, No Man's Land and Non-Stop Cricket.  Tammy and Daniel were the stars of the day, with awesome batting performances from both!

We also received our final goodies - a totally fabulous drinkbottle!

Buddy Class - Rakau

Today we taught our buddies to do a traditional maori activity - rakau stick games.  The aim is to come up with your own sequence, and to be in perfect timing with your partner.  It is great fun!

Harlem Shake

Boy, did we have fun making this movie!  We hope you like it...

 



Japanese

Miss Campbell has been teaching us Japanese - she is a real expert.  We have really enjoyed our sessions so far and look forward to learning more.  We have learnt how to introduce ourselves in Japanese - have a listen!

 



Water Safety

Earlier in the term, we did some great work with Miss Humphrey around water safety - an important issue for us all to be aware of.  We made posters to share our water safety information.  Here is Tyler's poster - isn't he a fabulous artist?

Whanganui Museum Acrostic Poems

Following our trip to the Whanganui Museum, we wrote acrostic poems about our experience.  This forced us to be creative and think hard about our writing, because we could not change the letter that the first word in each sentence had to start with.  Here are some great examples:

Survey - Round Two

Mrs Simpson's maths class has made a few adjustments to the survey we completed a couple of weeks ago.  Please complete the both the surveys below:

SURVEY 1

SURVEY 2

Statistics Assignment

In maths, we have been working on our Statistics Assignments. 
WALT:

• answer questions in a survey.
• analyse, make statements about and discuss data.
• use ICT to create simple pie and bar graphs.
• label graphs correctly (title, x axis and y axis).

Here we are working with our partners on our assignments:

Here are some of our completed assignments:

Te Reo Kori - Skipping

Today we started our Te Reo Kori rotation.  First up was skipping.  Most of us are pretty good at skipping on our own.  Some people found it a little challenging to 'run in' to skip with a partner, or in to a long rope.

Class Challenge:  No more patter tennis until you can do double dutch AND eggbeater!  If your old teacher can do it, so can you!

A Reply From Mr Kereama

Not long ago, we wrote letters to Mr Kereama to thank him for welcoming us to Taumata O Te Ra Marae.  Here is his reply:

RAIN! RAIN! RAIN!

We haven't had any rain for weeks and weeks.  Today it poured with rain, so hopefully this will help things to grow and help to fill up our water tanks too!  Phew!

Gala Time!

After weeks of anticipation and preparation, the day of our school gala finally arrived.  It was awesome that so many people from our community came along to support Halcombe School. 

There was a lot of delicious food to eat - hamburgers, hotdogs, popcorn, hangi, hashbrowns and candyfloss.  The cold drinks, spiders and juicies were very popular - they went down well on another hot day!

Our day started with a 'fly-by' from Molly and her dad:

There was loads of entertainment including a police dog display, the Halcombe School Choir, the Idol Competition (massive congratulations to Molly and Sophie, our runners-up, and Jasmine, our winner), a Western Riding display, and a fabulous performance by Turakina Maori Girls College:

There were lots of fun activities to do, including target shooting, rides on the Bren Gun Carrier, a bouncy castle, splat the rat, ping pong plunk, face painting and of course, the Magic Carpet Ride was very popular again this year:

One of the highlights for Miss Simpson, was watching the Year 8 students get dunked.  It was hilarious!

This year, we had a hangi.  It was awesome to see the process of putting down a hangi, and preparing all the kai.  It was a massive job!

The good news.... a profit of approx. $13,000!  Thank you so much to all our wonderful helpers who put in so many hours to help make our gala a success.  Thank you to the wonderful students in Room 6, who have spent day after day preparing for this event - and get the fun job of cleaning up the hall on Monday!

Phew, what a day!

Created with Padlet

Gala Time!

Special Delivery!

Today we received a surprise delievery - letters from Mrs Casey's Year 11 English class!  They were given the task to write a letter to someone to give them advice on how to survive high school.  It was interesting trying to guess what the mystery envelopes contained.  We were very excited to read the letters!  Next week we'll have a bit more time to read them again and reply. 

Maori Art

We studied the different designs commonly found in maori art and carvings and focused on kape rua, mango pare, pitau and koru patterns.  Our task was to incorporate all four of these into our work.  Feel free to call in to our classroom and check out our work, it looks awesome on the wall!

Cricket Time

We had another cricket lesson today.  We had a game where we were able to practice all the skills we've learnt so far.  Here is what we had to say:

• I've become much better at throwing.  My technique has really improved.  OLIVIA C.
• I have enjoyed playing games like, 'No Man's Land'.  HOLLY.
• Learning how to bat is something I have enjoyed.  HANNAH.
• I've learnt how to bowl a ball properly.  ELEN.
• I have enjoyed cricket because I have learnt how to hold a ball and bat properly.  VICTORIA.
• I enjoyed the activity where we had to try to catch a really high ball.  BLAIR.
• In cricket, I have learnt how to bowl and bat properly.  MOLLY.
• I've learnt how to bowl properly and I can now hit the ball straight.  TAMMY.
• My catching has improved.  GEORGE.
• I am getting better at catching a ball and bowling.  QUAID.
• I have become better at bowling.  TREVOR.
• Catching a ball with two hands is something I have improved.  STEFAN.
• I have become more accurate at throwing and bowling a ball.  HILARY.
• I have really enjoyed our games of cricket, especially the non-stop cricket.  ALEX.
• I have enjoyed learning how to hold the ball properly and throw it.  TYLER.
• I have become much better at batting.  KYLE.
• A highlight for me was almost hitting the ball over the fence!  DANIEL.
• I have become better at bowling accurately.  AALIYAH.
• My small ball skills have improved.  JULIET.
• I have improved my catching skills.  LOGAN.
• I have really enjoyed cricket and I can't wait until our next session.  JAGO.
• I enjoyed trying to smash the ball over the fence during the cricket game.  CODY.
• I really enjoyed learning how to play lots of differrent cricket games.  JAXSON. 
• I have enjoyed improving my bowling technique.  NELLY.
• I learnt the proper bowling technique.  OLIVIA D.
• I have become better at catching the ball.  JASMINE.
• My batting has really improved.  GRACE.

We were also given our bats today - they are really flash and we're looking forward to playing with them at home!

Manawatu Interschool Triathlon

Well, what a day!  Our team of 21 triathletes (and future Olympians!) performed really well in tough, hot conditions at the Manawatu Interschool Triathlon today.  For some students, this was their first ever triathlon!  Our team achieved some awesome results - just finishing the race was an achievement.  Our best results were:  Alex was 6th, Elen 3rd and Ffion WON her race.  Thank you to our wonderful parents for providing transport and helping with our gear.  Congratulations on an awesome day team!

Feilding Interschool Swimming Competition

The Feilding Interschool Swimming Champs were held at the Makino Pool tonight.  Ffion competed in the Penhey Cup (a competition based around using the correct technique) and she came 2nd!  Alex, Elen, Molly and Ffion competed in the 100m.  Molly just missed out on making the final.  Alex came 5th in the boys race.  Ffion came 6th (not bad for someone who is only Year 6, swimming in an Intermediate race!) and Elen came 2nd.  What an awesome effort! 

We also entered a team in the Country Schools Relay and we won!  All the team members, Elen, Ffion, Alex, Molly, Jago and Stefan swam like Olympians, and blew the competition out of the water.

Check out the photos!

 

 

Whanganui Museum Trip

Today was the day of our big trip to the Whanganui Museum.  We had a really busy day and learnt a lot of new things. One highlight was learning all about taonga puoro (musical instruments).  Awhina, showed us a variety of instruments and played them all really well.  They sounded cool!  Margie taught us about harakeke (flax weaving).  She was a very clever weaver and helped us to make our own flax flowers.  We also had time to look around the other museum exhibits.  What a great day!

Photographer:  Mrs Walters

Swimming Sports

Our Swimming Sports were held today!  This event was all about competition, and testing yourself in a range of races.  It was great to see so many people determined to do their very best - we are very proud of you!  It is obvious that you have been working hard during our class swimming lessons - most people have really improved. 

Well done to Matai for winning the Junior House Relay, and Rimu, the Senior House Relay. 

Double congratulations to Ffion and Brett, our Junior swimming champions, and Elen and Alex, our Senior swimming champions. 

Here is a photo of these students receiving their trophies:

Photographer:  Mrs Te Whatu

Fun Swimming Sports

After a pretty cold morning, the sun came out just in time for the Fun Swimming Sports - an event that is all about having fun, getting involved, and trying hard to blow all the other house teams out of the water!  Events included the golf ball and spoon race, lemon relay, tennis ball throw, underwater race, peg hunt, piggy back race, noodle tower competition, running race, body board relay, clothing race, tyre paddle, doggy paddle relay and the final freestyle race.  Everyone had an awesome time, and the house captains did a fabulous job of organising their teams.  What a great way to spend a Tuesday afternoon!

Performing house chants is a tradition at our school too!

 



Flippaball

During our final two class swimming sessions, we held a mini Interhouse Flippaball Tournament.  We had a lot of fun - especially watching the epic battles between Molly and Juliet!  Rimu faced Kauri in the final, which Rimu won 5-3.  Well done!

Here is the winning Rimu team:

Mihi Presentations

Today each student presented their mihi (a traditional Maori greeting, done in Te Reo) to the class.  Some people had practiced a lot and worked hard to pronounce each word correctly.  Check out Aaliyah's and Cody's mihi - they did an excellent job!

 

Postcard

Today we received a postcard from Hannah, who has been on holiday in Australia.  She actually arrived back at school today.... the post must be very slow!  We look forward to hearing a little more about Hannah's trip tomorrow.

Cricket

Today our cricket lesson focused on catching.  We did loads of different catching drills and activities.  The three key points to remember when catching are:

• keep your eye on the ball
• make a cup with your hands
• bring your hands to your chest once you have caught the ball

We were also given a hat today (this was all part of the deal).  They are VERY fancy hats!

Survey Time

In maths this week, we will be focusing on statistics.  It is an important week for our country, because the Census is happening.  This is where the government gathers information from the people who live in New Zealand to help them make better decisions about our future.  We thought we'd have our own 'mini' census at school too!  We can then analyse the results!

Please complete BOTH surveys by clicking on the links below.  If you see this post before Monday 4th March, please do NOT complete the survey yet.

Survey 1

Survey 2

House Meetings

In preparation for the Fun Swimming Sports next week, we had house meetings this afternoon.  This was the first opportunity for our new house captains to be the leader of their house.  They did a great job, collecting entries and teaching house chants.  Bring on the Fun Swimming Sports!

Letter Writing

Today we published our thank-you letters to Mr Kereama:

WALT:

• write a formal letter
• include the key information (something we learnt, and a highlight)
• write in paragraphs

Have a read of these great examples by some clever Year 7 writers: