Term One Highlights

Term One has nearly finished.... it has been a SUPER busy 9 weeks.  Take a minute to skim through our blog, right back to Week 1.  This will help you to remember some of the awesome things we've done.  Decide on your two favourite moments/events and add a comment on the Padlet below:

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Solar System - Cinquain Poems

We wrote some cinquian poems with Mrs Bowles - they are AWESOME!

Jupiter

giant, stormy

orbits the sun

is the biggest planet

gassy

Danielle

Sun

hot, large

heats the solar system

will die out eventually

SOL

Tyler

Comets

ice, rock

fly in atmosphere

bright, beautiful flying rock

shooting-star

Grace

Sun

gigantic, blazing

heats our planet

will die out eventually

bright

Jack

Earth

super intriguing

full of life

home of the homosapiens

great

Jed

Pluto

tiny, cold

orbits the sun

is a dwarf planet

icy

Jensen

Pluto

far away

orbits the sun

is a dwarf planet

round

Jordan

Star

burns constantly

far, far away

burning out very slowly

bright

Josh

Neptune

bright azure

slowly orbits sun

it has thirteen moons

icy

Leah

Sun

bright, deadly

lights up earth

is main heat source

untouchable

Madison

Meteorite

rocky, metallic

falls to Earth

fragment of a meteor

deadly

Sophie

Jupiter

gas giant

orbits the sun

biggest planet in solar system

planet

Ffion

Solar System - Eight Planets

We've learnt HEAPS about the planets in our solar system.  Working with a partner we had to find out lots of facts about each of the planets (Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Neptue, Uranus and Pluto), and display them using Coggle.  It's a bit hard to read because the text is so small, but Jade and Catherine did a great job of this activity:

Solar System - Celestial Bodies

We've been learning all about some of the celestial bodies found in our solar system.  We concentrated on asteroids, comets, meteors and meteorites.  After reading lots of information in books and online, we used Comic Life to display our learning.  Check out these cool examples by Jed and Sophie:

ANZAC Poppies

This year ANZAC Day (25th April) is going to be extra special.  It will mark the 100th anniversary of the Battle of Gallipoli, one of the worst events for ANZAC soldiers in World War One.

In preparation for ANZAC Day, our class has been really lucky to be able to make pottery poppies with Mrs Henderson. 

In our first session, we had to mould the clay into the right shape - this was tricky!  The clay was sticky and we had to use a bit of water to make it easier to manipulate the clay.  Some people used too much water and ended up with a soggy mess!  Next we had to gently poke a hole in the bottom, and make the 'disc' that will sit inside the poppy.  Mrs Henderson then took the clay away to get fired in the kiln.  This means they are cooked at half a million degrees!

Today was round two.  This involved threading the poppy onto a steel hook and dunking it into a bucket of glaze - pink liquid glass.  Mrs Henderson will then take these away to be fired in the kiln again - at 1 million degrees!  This will make them turn a bright red colour.  Next term, we'll assemble the poppies, all ready for ANZAC Day.

This Is Sand

While lots of kids were away at the Weetbix Triathlon yesterday, we had some fun exploring the 'This Is Sand' site - it allows you to make cool sand pictures.

HAVE A GO: CLICK HERE

Gala Awesomeness!

Wow, what an awesome gala!  This event was a massive success, and the result of a lot of hard work by a lot of people - including all the kids in Room 6!  The magic carpet ride was awesome.  The thunder run was awesome.  The food was awesome.  Dunk the teacher was awesome.  The entertainment was awesome.  EVERYTHING WAS AWESOME!  The exact profit is still being calculated, but it will turn out to be nearly $19,000!

Thank you to everyone who contributed to making our gala a success, your support is very much appreciated.

Interschool Swimming Champs

Great news!  Our school swimming team (Willow, Jade, Lydia, Greer, Mya and Ffion) won the Country Schools relay at the Feilding Interschool Swimming Champs.  All the girls swam superbly well, and we had a clear victory.  Ffion and Greer made it to the final of the 100m freestyle race too.  Greer came fifth and Ffion won!  What an awesome effort.  Mya and Georgia represented our school in the Penhey Cup (based on swimming technique), and Mya came second.  Congratulations girls - a great night for Halcombe School!

Fun Swimming Sports

Today we had the final event on our swimming calendar - the much anticipated Fun Swimming Sports.  With events like the lemon race, noodle towers, golf ball and spoon race, peg hunt, tyre paddle, bodyboard relay and the clothing race, we were all super excited to get started.  We had practiced our house chants, all ready for the great chant-off too!  The noise was deafening as everyone cheered on their team mates, and the results were pretty even in the end!  Awesome effort team - a wonderful end to our swimming programme!

Photographer:  Jack

Swimming Sports

With more than 70 races, the swimming sports was an event of epic proportions!  We'd all signed up for the races we wanted to enter, and had been practicing hard in the weeks leading up to the swimming sports.  Even though it was nerve wracking waiting for our races, we all enjoyed the chance to find out once and for all, how fast we really were!  Congratulations to all students.  It was awesome to see you pushing yourselves and trying your very best.  Well done!  A special congratulations to Ffion and Luke, our 2015 senior swimming champions.

Photographer:  Jack

Staff vs Students - CRICKET!

It was game on.  The staff were pretty sure they had the skills to annihilate the Year 8 students in cricket.  Despite some 'unusual' batting techniques, the staff managed an impressive score of 104.  Then it was time for the students to bat.  In a great team effort, they chipped away at the total slowly but surely.  With one minute to spare, the students had to score eight runs.  And they did!  Well done students, you deserved to win.  But, you'll probably agree, the staff did alright - considering how old they all are!

Thanks to Jack and Jensen for scoring the game, and taking the photos!

Level 4 Swimming Assessment

Today we had our Level 4 Swimming Assessment, at the Makino Pool in Feilding.  We were being tested on the things below - everything we've been practicing for the past five weeks!  Unfortunately it started to POUR with rain half way through our assessment, and it meant not everyone had the chance to be tested in everything.

• perform a safe dive
• 100m freestyle
• 100m backstroke
• 50m breaststroke
• 50m sidestroke
• 50m fully clothed
• float on back for 3 minutes
• tread water for 3 minutes

It was great to see everyone trying their best, especially those people who find swimming a real challenge.  Well done! You can read our individual reflections on our blogs.

Jack and Madison did a great job of taking some action shots throughout the afternoon too:

FLOATING:

TREADING WATER:

PREPARING TO SWIM IN CLOTHES:

SWIMMING LENGTHS:

DIVING: (very interesting...)

Interhouse Cricket: The Final

Today was the day.  Students from Rimu and Matai had been talking a big game, and planning a strategy to beat the opposition.  The final of the Interhouse Cricket had finally arrived - and it was hot, mega hot!  Rimu went into bat first, scoring a massive 149 in an awesome team effort.  The top scorer was Luke, who had to retire at 50.  Matai started off well, but lost a few wickets for not many runs!  Some good bowling and fielding by Rimu had Matai bowled out for 95. Congratulations Rimu - Interhouse Cricket champions! Check out the action shots:

The winning team:

Sexuality Education

Over the past two days, we have had Sexuality Education with Rachel Hansen.  We've learnt a lot about our weird and wonderful bodies, puberty, gender bias, the impact of social media and how to deal with the pressures facing young people today.  Thanks Rachel, we learnt heaps!

Interhouse Cricket: 3rd / 4th Playoff

We have reached the final stages of our Interhouse Cricket competition!  Today Kauri and Totara faced off in the playoff for 3rd and 4th.  Kauri started well, scoring 108 in 12 minutes.  There were lots of fours and great running.  Totara went in to bat, but could not quite hit the big hits needed for victory, running out of time with 91 runs. Congratulations to all players for your excellent sportsmanship and never-say-die attitude!  Here are a few action shots from the game:

House Meetings

We held our first house meetings for the year this afternoon - it was time for our brand new house leaders to step up! They did a great job - taking entries for the Fun Swimming Sports and supervising chant practice!  Well done team.