Response To Text

All four of our reading groups are now about half way through their second novel of the term.  We always enjoy the chance to discuss what is happening in the story, and debate ideas. 

Here we are looking at one event from the point of view of three different characters.  This is an excellent way to reflect on the deeper meanings within the text.

Discus - NEW RECORD

A huge congratulations to Ashlee who broke the girls discus record today!  It was a ripper of a throw - 24.90m, beating Holly's record (set in 2018) of 24.45m.  Well done Ashlee!

Interschool Swimming Champs

It was a fantastic night at the pool for Team Halcombe at the Interschool Swimming Champs! Everyone swam so well! Our top Year 5 & 6 relay team placed 3rd in the Fairs Cup, and our top Year 7 & 8 relay team placed 4th in the Country Schools Relay. There were some outstanding individual performances too. Like, REALLY outstanding! Millie won the Year 5 & 6 100m freestyle. Ruby placed 3rd in the Year 7 & 8 100m freestyle and Rebekah won this event! Awesome!

Dunk The Kid

Gala

Our gala was awesome!  Thank you so much to all the students who helped make our gala a success.  We really appreciate all the work you have done, and the way you worked at the gala on the Student Stalls.  We have raised over $21,000!  What an incredible effort!

Point & Flex?

That moment when you return to class to find a bunch of kids waiting to show you something...

Photo Competition

Got an awesome photo of a cool outdoor spot?  Feel like doing some drawing of your favourite place?  Go ahead and enter this competition - some great prizes are up for grabs!

FAVOURITE OUTDOOR SPOT COMPETITION - CLICK HERE

Triangle Dance

Last year we had the dab.  The floss.  Baby Shark.  And now the latest craze is upon us - the Triangle Dance.  Well, Room 8 has (mostly) aced this.  What's next?

Manawatu Interschool Triathlon

Lots of students from our class competed in the Manawatu Interschool Triathlon today, and they were AWESOME!  It's not an easy event, and you have to be pretty good at running, cycling and swimming - as well as being ultra-fit.  Great work everyone!

We have two special legends in our class - Abbie (3rd) and Ruby (2nd), who achieved a podium finish!  Well done girls.

Athletics

Now that swimming has finished, we're right into athletics already!  We have set goals about all sorts of things, as well as setting exact targets for how high/far we want to jump or throw.  We're going to spend this week practicing our skills, and next week, we'll get a bit more serious with using the 'real' equipment and measuring tape!

Here are some action photos from our high jump session today:

Reading - Reading - Reading

All four of our reading groups have finished (or just about finished) their first novel study of 2019!  How exciting!  It has been awesome to hear all the ideas, discussion and debates about what has been happening in each story.  Great work team!

Fun Swimming Sports

What a ripper of an afternoon we had at the pool for the Fun Swimming Sports today!  Everyone was in the mood to have fun, yell and cheer for their house, and join in some crazy swimming events.  What an awesome way to finish our swimming programme for 2019!

Swimming Sports

What a fantastic afternoon we had at the Senior Swimming Sports!  Everyone was very excited (and a bit nervous) about the events they had entered, and were pleased to finally get into it.  Many of our pre-race predictions came true, but there were some surprising results too.  It was awesome to see everyone giving 100%.  Some people have improved HEAPS, so it was great to see them racing down the pool.

Well done to our 2019 champions, Rebekah and Mitchell - ka pai!

House Points:
1st:  Totara - 244 points (yeet Totara!)
2nd:  Rimu - 221 points
3rd:  Matai - 192 points
4th:  Kauri - 173 points

Thank you to Mr Blanchard for the cool photos:

Special Presentation

As representatives of Totara and the student council, Georgia and Dylan had a very important job to do today.  They handed over a cheque for $200 to members of the Halcombe Community Development Group.  This money will go towards the ANZAC Service, being held in Halcombe on April 25.  Awesome!

Gutterboard Championship

Over the past couple of weeks, we have been competing in an elimination-style gutterboard event.  We were randomly selected to face our first opponents, and the competition became a lot tougher after round one.  Massive congratulations to Hollie and Machar who played in the final today.  They both won a game, and so had to play a tie breaker.  Machar won this, but only just!  Good work team!

Staff vs Y8 Students - Flippaball

Today we kicked off one of our favourite Halcombe School traditions - the first of our Staff vs Year 8 games.  Some students have been waiting patiently for years, just itching for their chance to take on the mighty staff.  Unfortunately the students were well beaten today - but they were definitely enthusiastic and energetic during their game!  Bring on the next event, patter tennis!

Photographer:  George

Team Challenge

Today we participated in another team challenge.  This was designed to test our team work, leadership, and problem solving skills.  Most teams were able to complete the challenge with not too many problems, while others had a wee bit of trouble...

Level 4 Swimming

Over the past five weeks, we've been swimming every day.  We've been working hard to improve our technique, swimming fitness, water confidence, diving and lots of other things.  Today we had a chance to show off our swimming skills.  We were tested to see if we could do these things:

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

Well done Room 8 - you were awesome today!  The Year 8 students also had time for ONE dive from the boards in the diving pool.  A special congratulations to the people who did this for the very first time.  Nice!

Spider Day

The Totara Year 8 students hosted a very successful Spider Day this week.  It might sound simple, but managing the icecream in warm weather is very difficult!  Georgia, Machar, Dylan and Amelia did a fantastic job of organising everything, and making sure everyone enjoyed their spider.  They have decided to donate the money raised to the Halcombe Community ANZAC Day Fund.  Great work Totara!

Interhouse Flippaball

The 2019 interhouse competition has begun!  In keeping with tradition, our first event was flippaball.  Everyone was very excited to see how each house would shape up after loosing such a big group of Y8 students last year.  

Everyone was keen to start of the year well, so there were some mighty battles in the pool.  Totara and Matai faced off for 3rd and 4th, with the game ending in a 4-4 draw.  In the final, Kauri played Rimu in another tight game.  Rimu stepped it up in the second half though, and were convincing winners in the end, 4-1.  Congratulations Rimu!

Fun Day Friday Highlights

Triple A Values

Our Triple A Values are an important part of our school.  They help us to be so super awesome and cool.  Over the last few days, we've been thinking about what the values really mean - and we've made a video... please enjoy!

Dry Weather

We had the drone flying around the school today - it sure is dry at the moment.  We need some rain!

Yummy Yum Yum!

Diving

To see where you need to improve your diving, watch the video and replay the part where you're in action.  What do you need to improve?

Kawhatau Camp

We have just spent a fabulous three days at the Kawhatau Outdoor Education Centre, which is inland from Mangaweka.  We did loads and loads of fun and exciting activities, which all helped to establish our class culture and allowed us to learn more about each other.  The weather was fantastic, and we certainly enjoyed the chance to swim the river!  You can read more about our favourite camp moments below.

Thank you to the parents who came along to help - you were awesome!

Here are our favourite moments from camp:

Fun Day Friday - Week 2

Today it was time to really test ourselves - could we catch the ball?

Totara Reserve Trip

What a cool day we had at Totara Reserve in the Pohangina Valley today!  We joined in some fun games with our buddy class - relays and playing on the playground and a bush walk and playing with the parachute and even a scavenger hunt!  It was very hot, so we were all looking forward to a swim in the mighty Pohangina River after lunch.  And it was worth the wait - it was 100% awesome!

Thank you so much to all those parents who came along - we hope you had a great day too!

Fun Day Friday

Our awesome swimming tradition of 'Fun Day Fridays' continues!  After swimming lots and lots and lots of lengths during our daily swimming lessons during the week, we were able to enjoy some crazy-fun activities on Friday.  This included Human Towers - well done to Rebekah, Rhianna and Abbie for being the first (and only) group to successfully make a triple tower.  Also, the Human Cannonball was back in action!

Buddy Class

We are very lucky to have Room 4 as our buddy class this year - we think they are a cool group of kids!  On Friday, we joined them for swimming.  After introducing ourselves, the Room 4 kids showed off their swimming skills, and then we made a massive whirlpool!  Fun times!