Koru Art

We created this awesome Koru Art using good old coloured pencils.  We learnt about shading and blending and made careful choices about what colours we chose to use.  If you'd like to see a bigger version of our art, please check out our blogs.

Halcombe School Gutterboard Champs

Gutterboard is a very popular lunchtime activity for our senior students.  So, we decided to find out who the best players are - once and for all!  We've started up the Halcombe School Gutterboard Champs, where our places were drawn at random.  This is a elimination-style competition - if you win, you move on, if not, you're out!  We've almost finished the first round of games.  Exciting times!

Flippaball

Here are some more photos of the intense competition in the Interhouse Flippaball Challenge!  With one round to go, things are getting very serious!

Photographer:  Hannah

10 Photo Challenge

We had heaps of fun with another 10 Photo Challenge last week.  We had to work as a team, and take photos of these things:

• a photo of your group posing on the bars
• something with stripes
• a photo of at least two group members hanging upside down
• something funny
• a group selfie
• #roomsixisawesome
• a jumping OR handstand pic with at least two people
• something blue
• an extreme close up of a foot
• one group member giving another group member a shoulder/piggy back ride

We then used Pic Collage to make a display of our photos.  Check it out:

Poetry - 'Have You Ever...?'

We've been writing poetry this week!  Using a very old poem (above) from a school journal as inspiration, we each wrote a poem about an 'extreme' activity we've done.  These poems are AWESOME, and you can read them on our blogs.  Here are some great examples:

Have you ever been on top of a wild calf, with just a rope to hang on to?

And the gate fly’s opens to let the wild calf loose, and it runs and bucks to try and throw and kick you off?

And you’re hanging on for dear life, so you don’t hit the ground hard,

And eventually you come off and hit the ground and it usually hurts really bad?

And at the end of the day you always go home with some injuries and bruises, but that’s the thrill of the game?

CODY

Have you ever been on the Lego ride in Singapore?

And while you’re waiting for something tremendous to happen, your heart is beating a million miles an hour?

And then you drop?

And it feels like your stomach is inside out and your cheeks are stretched right to your ears?

And your Mum is embarrassing you with her ear-busting screams.

SINEAD

Have you ever been down the bright, yellow Speed Slide at the Lido?

And it’s so fast that there’s no point in staring down to see where the end is?

And you’re worried that you might come off at the side or at the end?

And you hope that it will be over really soon… so you can go on it again?

GEORGIA

Have you ever been nearly run over by a massive sheep?

And the colossal creature looks you in the eye?

And it makes you wish you were anywhere but right there?

And as it charges, it strikes fear into your bones?

HAMISH

Have you ever been on the ‘Very Extreme Stratosfear’ at Rainbows End in Auckland?

And it is tremendously windy and makes your face go all numb?

And you feel like you’re going to tumble out of your seat?

And it’s the biggest, most thrilling, most electrifying ride ever?

LEAH

Have you been shot with a paint ball gun?

And it feels like it paralyses your bones?

And it hurts and bruises you?                       

And it is impossible not to get hit?

HEATH

Making A Contribution

Today we spent nearly two hours working at the domain in Halcombe.  We had volunteered to help the Halcombe Community Development Group with any jobs they needed doing.  So, we laid weedmat and stones in a new garden, pulled out around 17,000 weeds, and painted the back of the rugby grandstand.  It was an awesome example of 'many hands make light work', and we're sure the people who spend time at the domain will appreciate our work.  Thanks to Mrs Turner for giving us a hand too.  Well done team!

Interhouse Flippaball

We have started our first interhouse competition of 2016 - FLIPPABALL!  We had two games today, and people who are normally mates, became fierce rivals!  Totara won their first match against Rimu, and Matai bet Kauri.  Bring on the rest of the competition!  Check out the action shots:

Photographer:  Emma H

A Visit From Mayor Margaret

Today we had a special visitor in Room 6 - the Mayor of the Manawatu District Council - Mayor Margaret.  She talked to us about a lot of important things, including information about her job, and how we can be awesome young people in our community.  Here are some key messages we took from what she had to say:

• Respecting others is very important.  Catherine.
• Always make your own wise decisions - you don't have to agree with everyone else.  Greer.
• Everyone can be a leader in their own way.  Willow.
• Make good choices about what you want to do in life.  Leah.
• Even though we are young, we can still get involved and be awesome people.  Emma H.
• Be what you want to be.  Lydia.
• Always make sure other people have a chance to have their say.  Cody.
• Life can be really hard, but even good things can come out of bad situations.  Georgia.

Dealing With Challenges

Things don't always go exactly according to plan in our lives and we'll face lots of tough times and challenging situations in the years ahead.  The trick is knowing what to do if we're faced with one of these challenges.  Today we wrote down a list of ideas - strategies we can use to help us deal with the problems we're going to face.

Student Leaders

Congratulations to those who have been named in our Student Council for 2016.

Well done to Mya, Emma, Greer and Lydia - our house captains.

Diving!

Today we started working on our diving skills in swimming time.  Some of us are BRILLIANT at diving... others need to do a lot of practice!  There were certainly loads of different techniques on display!

Mihi

We've been working on our mihi (a short speech to introduce yourself in Te Reo) for a week now, and today it was time to present them to the class.  This was nerve wracking for some people because not only did you need to stand up in front of everyone, but you had to speak in Te Reo!  Everyone did really well and faced this challenge like pros.  You can hear our mihi on our blogs.  Well done to Levi and Jensen, who did a particularly good job with pronunciation.  Check it out:

Fun Day Friday

Sausages For Lunch

Today the students in Rooms 4, 5 and 6 had a special treat for lunch - sausages!  Thanks to Sinead, Cody, Jensen and Emma for cooking the sausages - they did a great job and only dropped one, and burnt five.  Being able to cook the sausages was their prize for winning Room 6 Survivor at our camp to Sixtus Lodge earlier this week.

Sixtus Lodge Comic Life

We have created camp photo displays using Comic Life.  You can check these out on our blogs.  Here are some pretty cool examples by Marie and Willow:

Speeches

We have completed our first public speaking exercise of 2016!  Being able to speak to our peers with confidence is an important skill - one that many of us need to practice.  While we were at Sixtus Lodge, we each presented a short speech to the class that showcased our talents, hobbies and interests.  Most students were very well prepared and it was really interesting to learn more about our class mates. Well done Room 6 - you did good!

(apologies to Alyssa B... her photo was accidentally deleted)

What Makes A Great Role Model?

While we were at camp, we did a lot of talking about what it really means to be a role model.  We had a pretty good idea already, but it was interesting to share, discuss and debate ideas.  We worked in teams to brainstorm ideas, then came up with 28 qualities that a great role model has.  These turned into a display for our classroom wall.

Sixtus Lodge Camp

We have had an AWESOME three days at Sixtus Lodge in the Ruahine Ranges!  We have had a very busy time, and have had loads of adventures and fun.  This has been a wonderful foundation for 2016, and we're starting to become the class we aspire to be.  Highlights included spotlight, speeches, rounders, and lots of team challenges and games such as Room 6 Survivor, hut building, a tech challenge, jockey's up, 'shoe the horse' and ladders.  Having fun around Cone Creek has been fun too - we've been swimming, built rock towers, had boat races, tried to dam the creek, and made spa pools.  What a cool camp we've had!

Thank you to Mr and Mrs Bartlett, Mr and Mrs Rutherford, Miss Lord, Mrs Alcock, Mrs Lewis, Mrs Mudgway, Mrs Coad-Drayton and Mr Pickford for looking after us.  Thank you!

Created with Padlet

Fun Day Friday

Today we enjoyed our second Fun Day Friday.  We competed in some different challenges, including Triple Human Towers, Tennis Ball Catches and Peg Hunting.  #sogladwehaveapool

There is only one way down after making a Triple Human Tower:

Photographer:  Alyssa B

Buddy Class

We are VERY lucky to have Room 2 as our buddy class for 2016.  Today we met up for the first time and went swimming!  We played around and had shoulder rides and did some underwater tricks and made rafts.  It was awesome!  

Foxton Beach Trip

Today all 175 students from Halcombe School visited Foxton Beach - and what an epic day it was!  We spent the day enjoying lots of awesome activities, paddling in the water and having fun with our friends.  The weather was magnificent and you'll notice from the photos, there wasn't a cloud in the sky.  We loved it.

Well done Room 6 - lots of people have commented that you were wonderful role models, and did a fabulous job of looking after the younger kids.  Good work team!

Thank you to all the parents who provided transport and helped out today too.  Your support is much appreciated.

Art

We've worked hard to complete two pieces of art this week - it looks awesome on the wall, so feel free to call in and have a look.  You can see larger versions of our work, and read our reflections on our blogs too.

Circle Art
We spent a lot of time sharing ideas and planning our art before sketching out our designs.  Next we outlined our work with vivid, before using pastels to colour our work.  We had to blend pastels in some areas and we talked about how to do this well.  Finally, we cut our work into four sections before framing it.

Hand Art
Using all our creative powers, we had to design funky patterns and choose effective colours to match the backgrounds we had chosen.

Fun Day Friday

We had loads of fun in the pool for Fun Day Friday today - check out the action shots!

RELAY RACES:

HUMAN THROWS:

TEAM CHALLENGES:

Sidestroke

Lots of people have commented that they have no idea what to do in sidestroke, or they have forgotten what to do!  Remember, you're aiming to swim 50m non-stop!  The video below will help you improve your technique:

Day Two

We had another busy day in Room 6.  We had a maths test and went swimming and did handwriting and had a team quiz and set up our blogs and started reading our shared novel.  Good times!

Class swimming has started well - check out the rain clouds above the pool this morning:  (only had a few drops though!)

Congratulations to Georgia, Lydia and Sinead - today's quiz champs!

Day One

What an awesome first day we've had!  It has been busy, sorting out our stationery and swimming and going over our emergency procedures and having assembly and finding out about life in Room 6 and starting our first piece of art and more swimming at lunchtime and visiting the library!  Great work Room 6 - you survived!