Sea Turtle Art

We have just completed a piece of art that we are super proud of.  After reading about how plastic kills hundreds of thousands of marine animals each year, we were inspired to find out more.  

We learnt that there are seven species of sea turtles, and six of these species are endangered.  Turtles can become stuck in ghost gear (fishing equipment), caught as bycatch or can choke on plastic bags.

First we sketched our turtles, after watching a 'How To Draw A Turtle' tutorial on You Tube.  Next we outlined them with vivid before painting the body, shell and background.  We used pastel to add detail to the shell and body to make our turtles look more life-like.

This art is dedicated to these beautiful creatures that grace our oceans:

Rakau

Today we finally had a chance to get stuck into some rakau!  We practiced a routine we have used in Room 6 before, and BOOM, Blake and Kane mastered it immediately.  Check it out:

Goober Of The Week

Here is the evidence.... a gumboot became STUCK on Jessie's foot today.  Wow.

Learning From A Little Kid!

This video gave us a real giggle yesterday, but actually, we can learn a lot from this cool little guy!

Keep trying!

Don’t expect others to clean up your mess.

Don’t rely on others, you can do it!

Don’t let the hard knocks get you down.

Don’t waste food or drink.

Don’t be a halfa (do half the job). Do a good job the first time around.

Sometimes things don’t go according to plan.  That’s life!

When you fail, just get back in there and give it another go.

Kahurangi Performing Arts Group

Today we had a visit from the Kahurangi Performing Arts Group.  This group travels the country, sharing their love of performing and Maori culture.  We were super impressed with their skills, and really enjoyed the show.

• I enjoyed the stories, because they were interesting.  My favourite one was 'Pania Of The Reef'.  Mitchell.
• It was funny watching Josh trying to do the moves with the taiaha.  He was shy at the start, but became more confident.  Rebecca.
• I enjoyed the story about the woman swimming across the lake.  The way Lucky and Toots told the story was really funny.  Finlay.
• The end part was cool, because they were awesome singers, and sang loud and proud!  I also enjoyed watching the girls do the poi.  Freda.
• The whole show was really funny, and they were good at making the audience laugh.  Hollie.

Tech - It's Go Time!

We were very excited to start Tech today!  We will spend the next 20 Friday mornings rotating around five different activities:  Food Technology (cooking and baking), Hard Materials (woodwork), Soft Materials (sewing), Hand Craft and Digital Technology.  We had lots of fun in our first session, and learnt plenty of new skills.

Tech Group C made some cool movies today, check it out!

Te Reo Kori - Mu Torere

We learnt how to play Mu Torere (a board game that requires strategic thinking and a bit of luck), during our visit to Taumata O Te Ra last year, and it is now one of our favourite Te Reo Kori games.  After a quick refresher on how to play, we launched into the Room 6 Mu Torere Championships today.  Our opponents have been drawn at random, and the winners of each round will progress through to the next round until we finally have a winner.  Good luck everyone!

Art - Sea Turtles

We've been learning about how plastic bags kill hundreds of thousands of marine animals each year.  We know one of the reasons for this, is because, when floating in the ocean, a plastic bag looks very similar to a jellyfish.  Unfortunately, turtles love to eat jellyfish, and they end up choking on the plastic bag.  We have begun a piece of art dedicated to these beautiful sea creatures.  

After drawing an outline of a turtle (thanks You Tube!), we painted them.  We reckon they are going to look pretty cool when they're finished.

Here are some pictures of us painting our turtles today:

Maths - Statistics

For the next few weeks, we're going to be concentrating on Statistics in maths.  First we learnt all about how to find the average, mean, median and range.  This is a really useful skill when it comes to making sense of data.  Today we spent time learning how to interpret graphs.  We worked with a partner to select a suitable title for the graph we were given, before we had to make statements about what information the graph was showing.  We learnt that it is really important to give specific information when you're making these statements!

Term One - DONE!

Crazy Day!

What a fantastic day we've had today!  The sun was shining, the music was pumping and we were all smiling!  Well done to Elisabeth, Regan, Ashley, Bethany, Lucy and Jack (the Year 8 students from Rimu), who did an awesome job of organising the parade and cooking up 141 burgers for lunch!  What a great way to end the term.

Weather Diary

Over the past few weeks, we have been learning all about weather!  We have done loads of different activities that have helped us to understand more about how and why weather 'happens'.

One of the things we've been doing is keeping track of the weather in a diary.  We certainly saw a fantastic variety of weather during this time!  We measured the following things on eight different occasions:

• temperature - how warm was it in degrees celsius?
• precipitation - how much rain did we have?
• cloud cover - what percentage of the sky is covered in cloud?
• cloud type - what kind of clouds were in the sky?
• wind strength - how hard was the wind blowing?
• wind direction - which direction was the wind coming from?
• comfort level - how comfortable were we?

Here is Bethany's weather diary:

Today we interpreted and analysed all the data we have gathered, and made the following statements:

EPro8

Well done to Finlay, Lila, Milla and Emily for a solid performance in the Epro8 semi finals last night.  They had to complete a range of challenging problems using their problem solving, creative thinking and construction skills.  Well done team!

Interschool Athletics

Lots of students in our class competed in the Feilding Interschool Athletics today.  There were some outstanding individual performances, and everyone represented our school well.  The conditions were a bit tough - wet (to start with) and windy, but we didn't let that stop us from having a great time and trying to win!  A special congratulations to those people who achieved placings or PBs.  Well done team!

Athletics Sports

We had an awesome time at our Athletics Sports on Friday!  The activities in the morning were super fun, and we all enjoyed trying out lots of different things like gumboot throwing, relays, three legged races, and tug of war.  After morning tea it was time for the sprint races.  It was hard work running into a head wind, but we all gave 100%.  The house chants were a highlight, and most people managed to remember the words!  Well done to Kauri, who blitzed the competition in the house relays.

A special congratulations to the students who received trophies today:
Eric Judd Cup - Girls 400m - Lucy
Ian Fergusson Cup - Boys 400m - Blake
Parsons Cup - Girls Athletics Champ - Holly
Humphrey Cup - Boys Athletics Champ - Blake

Jump Jam!

Rippa Rugby

This week, we entered three teams into the Mark Donaldson Cup, a rippa rugby tournament held in Palmerston North.  We represented our school with pride, had lots of fun, and scored loads of excellent tries.  Unfortunately none of our teams made it to the semi-finals (though the White team came VERY close), but we still had a great day.  Thank you to our coaches and supporters, and thank you to Manawatu Rugby for organising the tournament.

Photographer:  Mr Blanchard

Room 6 Gutterboard Championships

Over the past week, we have been competing in the Room 6 Gutterboard Championships!  Not only does this game help to develop superb ball skills, but it's good fun too!  Positions were drawn at random, and then each game was played in a 'best of three' style during break times.  Congratulations to Holly and Blake, the finalists.  We all watched the final, which Blake won.  Well done Blake!  Check out his road to the final:

Rippa Rugby Training

On Thursday, we had a visit from Mickey, Nick and Hamish from the Manawatu Turbos.  They came along to run a rippa rugby training session, ahead of our tournament next week.  It was loads of fun, especially the rippa bullrush!  Thanks Mickey, Nick and Hamish!

Novel Studies

This week, each of our reading groups is coming to the end of an in-depth novel study.  The students have been reading these books over the past month, and every few days, the group met to discuss and analyse the part of the text they had just read.  We have all had MANY interesting discussions and debates about ideas.  Here, the students will share their final thoughts about the book they have just read:

New Discus Record

Congratulations to Holly, who set a new record for the girls discus today!  With a throw of 24.45m, she bet Olivia's 2017 record by over a metre.  Well done Holly!

Fun Day Coming Up!

Mr Clement - The Weather Guy

Today we had a visit from Mr Clement, a lecturer at Massey University.  He taught us lots about clouds, the water cycle and how rain happens.  He was very interesting to listen to, and we learnt heaps!

• I learnt how warm water can become colder as it reaches a higher altitude.  AH
• I learnt that when the sea water evaporates, the salt crystals don't evaporate with it.  RJ
• I learnt the names of clouds, and the different types of clouds.  RD
• I learnt that the higher the altitude, the colder the temperature.  For example, it would be colder at the top of Mount Ruapehu, than in Halcombe.  TO
• I learnt how clouds are made.  HP
• I learnt what transpiration is.  BC
• I learnt that humans actually breathe in water vapour.  MB
• I learnt there is the same amount of water on Earth, as there was 6 billion years ago.  FW

Wild Weather - Wonderings

We have launched into a new science topic - WEATHER!  We're going to be learning all about the science of weather - how and why does weather 'happen'?  We have listed some of our wonderings, which are things we want to know more about or questions we have.  It looks like we're going to be learning HEAPS over the next few weeks!

Interschool Swimming

A huge congratulations to our swimming team for their awesome performance at the Feilding Interschool Swimming Champs last night.  Our top relay team of Kane, Rebekah, Blake and Finlay came second in the Country Schools Relay.  In the 100m, Rebekah, Kane and Blake all made the finals.  Rebekah and Kane both placed 4th, and Blake placed 7th.  It was fantastic to see all members of our team give 100% and represent our school with pride.  Well done team!

Interschool Triathlon

Eight students from our class competed in the Manawatu Interschool Triathlon in Palmerston North today.  They had to run 1.5km, bike 4km, and swim 150m.   It was hard work in blustery conditions, and everyone performed really well.  A special congratulations to Jack (2nd) and Lucy (3rd), who achieved outstanding results.

What's Gonna Work? TEAMWORK!

Thank you to all the students who helped out with loads of jobs around the school today!  You worked hard and did a great job.  Thanks kids!

Swimming Sports

Wow, what a morning we had at the Senior Swimming Sports!  Congratulations to all the students for giving 100% in your races.  You should be proud of yourselves.

A special congratulations to Rebekah, who won the Senior Girls Championship, and Jack, who won the Barnett Cup, and the Senior Boys Championship.

Photographer:  Mr Blanchard

Optical Illusion Art

When we suddenly had an afternoon to fill in due to the postponement of our swimming sports, we smashed out this awesome Optical Illusion Art!  Be warned... don't stare directly at our work unless you want to be hypnotised!  This art looks really effective on the wall in our classroom, so call in sometime and have a look.

EPro 8

We entered two teams in the Feilding EPro 8 Challenge this year.  They had to compete in a range of science and technology challenges, where the focus was on problem solving.  Both teams performed really well and had lots of fun.  A special congratulations to the Halcombe Hawkes team - they won the competition!  Well done Finlay, Milla, Lila and Emily.

Staff vs Students - Flippaball

This afternoon the staff faced the Year 8 students in flippaball.  We have never had a match quite like this before, and everyone was very excited before the game!  The staff took awhile to warm up, and the students scored two quick points.  Once the staff got going however, they were unstoppable!  It was loads of fun, and an awesome way to finish the day.  Thanks to Mrs Lynch for reffing the match!

Photographer:  Miss Carey

L4 Swimming

On Friday, we traveled to the Makino Pool to be 'tested' on our swimming skills.  This assessment is all about our technique, and our ability to swim certain distances.  It is not about speed!  At our level, the expectations are pretty high, and we were tested on the following:

• 100m freestyle
• 100m backstroke
• 100m breaststroke
• 50m sidestroke
• diving
• floating on our backs for 3 minutes
• treading water for 3 minutes
• swimming 50m in our clothes

It was fantastic to see everyone trying their very best - well done team!  After our assessments, we had a bit of time for some crazy fun in the diving pool...