Tech ICT - Time Lapse

It was a windy day and we knew the clouds would be doing interesting things in the sky!  Jorja had the idea to make a time lapse movie, which we did between 9-10.30am.  It's pretty cool!

Tech Update

As you can see from the pictures, it was all go again in Tech today!

Interhouse Patter Tennis Finals

In the first match, Matai faced Totara in the playoff for 3rd and 4th.  It was a close game, with excellent hitting from both teams.  In the end Totara, managed to beat Matai.  This game was followed by the final, between Kauri and Rimu.  Both teams were very evenly matched, and gradually players were eliminated from both sides.  In the end Kauri just managed to beat Rimu.  Well done to all teams, and a special congratulations to Kauri.

The winning team:

Wednesday Sport - Soccer

Today we completed our Winter Sport rotation - soccer with Mr Ricketts.  There are lots of keen soccer players in our class, and we were all looking forward to learning new skills and getting stuck into a game.  It was great fun!

Photographer:  Grace

Basketball - Round 2

This afternoon we braved the freezing temperatures and had another go at basketball.  We were divided up into our usual four sports teams, and everyone played everyone in a series of short four minute games.  There was some awesome talent on display, and there were even a few 3 pointers!

Interhouse Patter Tennis

Today our annual Interhouse Patter Tennis Tournament started.  This is the perfect activity for when the grass is too wet to play on!  Each house played two matches today, and there were some wonderful skills on display.  There were one or two awesome rallies too!  The competition will continue over the next few days.  Good luck to all teams!

113 Cup Challenge

We've been waiting for AGES to do this challenge... finally the time was right!  This activity was all about teamwork and creativity.  We had to work together to create a structure using 113 plastic cups - and we only had 15 minutes to do it! Most groups spent the first few minutes experimenting, before constructing their final design.  It was very hard to keep building without knocking the cups over, and some groups found this out the hard way!  In the end, it was awesome to see the variety of each design.  Everyone worked pretty well together too!

Flood

Check out this photo that Mrs Simpson took of one of the streams up Reu Reu Road!

Flood Pics - Madison

Madison sent through these pics of her house:

Rain!

Our whole district is having a bit of trouble with the weather this weekend!  Hopefully everyone is safe and well and dry! If you have any pictures of the flooding around your house, email them through to Miss Simpson and she'll put them on our blog - dsimpson@halcombe.school.nz.

Have a look at these photos that were taken around Halcombe a few hours ago - courtesy of the Halcombe Community Facebook page.

Dance Fun

Here is the special project we've been working on.  We know how important it is to be able to work in a team, and this was the major focus for this project.  It is also important that we push ourselves outside our comfort zone and try new things.  Oh, and it's pretty important to have fun too.  Enjoy!

Tech ICT

Today the ICT Group made animations - check it out!

Make-A-Wish Foundation

Today we received a wonderful thank-you gift from the Make-A-Wish Foundation - a big pile of chocolate bars, a cute cuddly kiwi, some calendars, and a lovely card.  We recently donated $200 to them following our Superhero Day, and our contribution was obviously much appreciated.

National Young Leaders Day - Guest Speaker Summary

Chris Jupp – Summarised By Madison

Chris Jupp is one of the New Zealand managers of the 40 Hour Famine.  Growing up, he always felt small, like he wasn’t important. When he got to high school he wanted to be noticed and decided to do the 40 Hour Famine. After this, he became a school leader and he lead the whole school during the 40 Hour Famine, raising $44,000. He started to speak in assemblies a gradually felt bigger and more important. His message was that, because you feel small and less important than everyone else, doesn’t mean you can’t make a difference. Chris Jupp also said that your amazing journey may not be about changing your future, but changing other people’s lives.

Jamie McDell – Summarised by Jorja

Personally, singer/songwriter Jamie McDell was the most inspirational person at Young Leaders. Jamie talked about how she got into music. At first Jamie didn’t know what she wanted to be when she grew up. At the age of 16 her mother told her that she had a good voice and Jamie took her advice and sent in a CD of her singing to a record company. A few weeks later she received a letter saying they wanted to hear her perform. After Jamie was signed she did lots of amazing things like, become the ambassador of Surf Lifesaving New Zealand.  She also became passionate about ocean conservation.  Jamie said that she that she doesn’t wear makeup in her music videos to spread the message that girls don’t need to wear makeup to be pretty. She also talked about not being too young to achieve your dreams.

William Pike – Summarised by Sophie

William Pike is a mountaineer and outdoor enthusiast who survived an eruption at Mt Ruapehu in 2007. His leg from the knee down had to be amputated and he had many serious cuts and bruises.  It took many months of long, hard work to be able to walk again and it was 18 months before William managed to climb Mt Ruapehu again. Throughout his recovery, William was grateful to still be alive and to be able to do what he loved.  William believes the values of courage, teamwork and resilience are very important values we all need to have. One of William’s favourite quotes is ‘THINK: ALL PASSION, NO LIMITS’.  He talked about never giving up, especially if it’s something you love!

Marcus Winter – Summarised by Ffion

Marcus Winter is the famous ‘Sandman’.  He wowed us with his amazing artistic skills. He talked about his art and using his art work to encourage himself and others to become a better artist. First he talked about ‘setting a mountain’ which meant to challenge and push yourself to do your best. Then he talked about ‘finding your flow’ which meant to find things you’re good at and working hard at it. Finally there was ‘surround yourself with support’ which meant to surround yourself with people that encourage you to do your best. I learnt that you can take something that you love and turn it into a life passion. Also I learnt that you need to make a clear goals about what you want in life.

Paul Blackwell – Summarised by Miss Simpson

Paul is one of the owners of the New Zealand Breakers Basketball Team, as well as the biggest Pak ‘n’ Save supermarket in the country.  He shared his life journey with us and spoke about how the Breakers have been transformed into a championship-winning team.  It was interesting to hear his thoughts about the importance of establishing a good team culture.

Burger Day AND Wheels Day

Special Netball Match

The 'A' netball team played a special match at school today.  This was a catch up game against Te Kura Kaupapa O Manawatu.  It was a really tight match, with amazing skills shown by both teams.  The final score was 16-11 to Halcombe - well done team!  After the match, we had a shared afternoon tea, which was delicious! Thanks to all our supporters who came along to watch today, and to Elen, our referee.

Photographer:  Ben Langtry and Mrs Langtry

Buddy Class - Dodge Ball

We had a great game of dodge ball with our buddy class today.  It was awesome to see the teams working together to try to get the opposition out.  You had to keep your eyes open - there were balls flying everywhere!  Thanks Room 3, we had heaps of fun!

Wednesday Sport - Basketball

Basketball is a very popular sport in Room 6, and today we had the opportunity to develop our skills with Miss Jeynes. It was awesome fun, and we're definitely going to play again soon!

Photographer:  Mya

Bibliography

Today we learnt about how to write a bibliography.  This will be an important feature of our inquiries into Antarctica.  We will be creating a simple bibliography to acknowledge our sources of information.

National Young Leaders Day

Today Sophie, Jorja, Madison and Ffion attended the National Young Leaders Day in Palmerston North.  They will tell you a lot more about the speakers and what they learnt, but in the meantime, here is a quick look at who the guest speakers were:

William Pike
Lost his leg after being caught in an eruption on Mount Ruapehu.

Chris Jupp
Is one of the managers of the New Zealand 40 Hour Famine campaign.

Marcus Winter
The amazing 'Sand Man'.

Paul Blackwell

Owner of the New Zealand Breakers basketball team.

Jamie McDell

New Zealand musician.

Phoenix Pule'anga

This 17 year old is one of the best hip hop dancers in New Zealand.

Big Game Book Trailers - You Tube Hits

It's early days yet, but you can see how many views your book trailers have had on You Tube!  

Netball - Round 2

After playing netball last week, most people agreed that we needed more practice!  So, today we split up into our four sports teams and had another go.  Lots of people had never played netball before, and so they did well to pick up some of the important rules quickly!

Big Game - Dan Smith Replies!

We had some questions for Dan Smith, the author of Big Game - check out his responses below. Make sure you take note of what Dan says about the importance of reading!


Hello Miss Simpson and Eager Readers of Room 6

I’ve now had a good chance to look through all your questions so . . .


1. Did you always want to be an author? How long have you been writing for, and what made you want to become a writer?

No, I didn’t always want to be an author. In fact, most of the time I had no idea what I wanted to do when I was older. Mind you, when I was seven years old I saw Star Wars for the first time and decided I wanted to be Han Solo (well, he is very cool). Sadly, that job was already taken. But, in a way, Han Solo helped me become a writer because after I saw Star Wars, I developed a huge interest in stories – books, films, comics, video games, everywhere you find stories, you’d find me! I first started writing stories when I was a teenager, and I read A LOT of books. My favourite author back in those days was Stephen King, and I decided I wanted to be a writer like him.


2. What inspired you to write Big Game and how long did it take to write?

Ah, now this is a great question. You see, my publisher, Barry Cunningham from Chicken House, sent me a film script for a movie that was being shot. The movie producers thought the story might make a good book, and Barry agreed so he asked if I would be interested in writing it. Usually it works the other way around – books being made into films – but this would be a film made into a book. At first I wasn’t too sure about it, but when I read the original script, I loved the story and I loved the character of Oskari. I really wanted to write the book but asked if I would be allowed to change the story. The biggest difference was that I wanted to tell the whole story through Oskari’s eyes. I wrote a first draft of the book in just a couple of weeks – which is really fast, but I had the advantage of already having the story. After that, though, there’s lots of editing and copy-editing to do!


3. Does Oskari ever get to go to the White House and play video games and eat pizza with the President?

I love this question, and I’ve thought a lot about what might happen if Oskari were to go to the white House and play video games with the President. Perhaps something dramatic? I reckon it would make a fantastic story don’t you?


4. What was your favourite part of Big Game?

There are lots of thing I love about Big Game. I like the part where Oskari fails to pull back the bow at the beginning – because he then proves everyone wrong. I love the fire arrow at the end because I think it shows how clever Oskari is and how brave he has become (this is quite different from the ending in the film), and I had a lot of fun writing the scenes in the plane when Oskari gets to have his hunt after all. Then there’s the exciting plane crash, the moment when he meets the president, the swim through the plane . . . I love it all!


5. Are you writing a book at the moment? If yes, what kind?

Ooh. Good question. Yes I am writing something at the moment. I’m working on another book for younger readers, and it will be an action adventure/survival story in a similar style to Big Game. DAN WROTE MORE DETAIL HERE, BUT HE HAS ASKED US TO KEEP THE DETAILS OF HIS NEXT BOOK A SECRET!


6. What is your favourite book you’ve written so far?

This is such a difficult question to answer. The first book I wrote for younger readers is called My Friend The Enemy - it’s set in England during WWII, and is about two friends who discover a German airman who has crashed in the woods near their village. The two main characters are called Peter and Kim, and they become such good friends. They’re brave and loyal and try to do the right things, so I can’t help how much I like them. My second book is about two brothers growing up in Nazi Germany, and I love the way the rebellious older brother sticks up for his little brother. There’s always a really horrible baddie, the local Gestapo officer who’s mean and cruel, so he was a lot of fun to write about, and then there’s brave Oskari! I don’t know! I love them all!


7. Did you get to meet some of the famous actors in the Big Game movie

Unfortunately I didn’t get to meet any of them. It might have been fun to meet Samuel L Jackson, though, eh? I did get to meet the producer of the movie, but that’s all.


8. We noticed the movie is different from the book (we watched the movie trailer). For example, Oskari and the President eject from the cockpit of the plane. How do you feel about this? Did the movie makers ask your permission to do this?

This is an interesting question. You’ll probably notice from one of my earlier answers that I based the book on the film. So what happened was that the producer sent me the original script (even that turned out to be different from the finished film) and I wrote an outline of how I planned to tell the story in my book. At first the director was a little unsure about my ideas because I wanted to change a few things – I wanted to tell the whole story through Oskari’s eyes which meant cutting out all the stuff back at the Pentagon in USA, I wanted to change the beginning, the end, and I wanted Oskari to know about the terrorists much earlier on in the story. In the film, Oskari and the President meet and are together for quite a while before they realize they are being hunted, but in the book it happens much sooner because Oskari witnesses Hazar kill Patu (this doesn’t happen in the film). As you have noticed, there is a moment in the film when Oskari and the President eject from the plane, but this doesn’t happen in the book. It’s a great scene towards the end of film, but I thought it would be too far-fetched for the book (Air Force One doesn’t have ejector seats etc). Also, I wanted Oskari to hunt Morris through the plane (to prove he’s a hunter) and I wanted him to do something clever with the traditional bow, his knife and his fire kit, so I came up with the idea of the fire arrow instead of the ejector seat. Another big change was that in the film there is never any mention of Oskari’s mum, of Mount Akka, of the waterfall, or of the mythical monsters that Oskari is afraid of. It was all really interesting to me because it taught me that while some things look good on film, they are almost impossible to make believable on the page! Things have to be treated differently in a book, because readers have time to think about them, but in a film the images are there and gone so quickly! Also, a character in a book can have more layers to their personality because we can see what they are thinking.


9. If you weren’t a writer, what job might you have?

In my last job I worked for a design company, working out how much projects cost. It was pretty boring but maybe I’d still be doing that. I don’t really know. What I do know is that I love writing and wouldn’t want to do anything else. I’m also really lucky that I have a hugely supportive family. Sometimes I just disappear into a world of my own – my daughter (13) and my son (9) call it Danworld!


10. Other than writing, do you have any hobbies?

Ah, well of course writing isn’t a hobby for me, it’ my job, so it takes up a huge amount of my time - not that I’m complaining! I’m very lucky to have a job that I enjoy so much. When I want to relax, I usually do something else that involves stories. I read, watch movies, play video games, make cool things with my children, go to the beach or the park with my family, or you might find me in the gym with the music turned up loud!


Thanks for all your fantastic questions, I hope I’ve answered them well enough for you. And, keep on reading because reading makes you smart!

Mural Time

The first two murals are done.... we're onto number three.... it's taking awhile....

Tech Update

Big Game Book Trailers

Student Leaders

Congratulations to Jed, Daniel and Joshua, who have joined our Student Council. Below are the updated photos of our House Leaders too.

Wednesday Sport - Netball

Today we had netball with Miss Fleet.  Some people had never played netball before, so they had to learn the rules quick smart!  It was great fun.

Photographer:  Joshua