Special Visitor

Today we had a visit from Professor Williams from Massey University.  He came along to share his knowledge of the universe to help us with our learning about What's Out There?

Here are some of the things we learnt:

• when stars collapse, they turn into black holes - Dylan J
• scientists have discovered 4000 other planets (so far) that orbit other stars in the universe - Ashlee E
• all living things on Earth need water - Mitchell
• there is an eight minute delay in what we see when we look at the sun - it takes eight minutes for the light to reach Earth - Briar
• dying stars can make a pulse that can be detected by radios on Earth - Dylan P
• during a Transit of Venus, you can see the shadow of Venus as it passes across the sun - Lila
• light travels at a set speed, no matter where you are in the universe - Rhianna
• you can shift objects with light - which is what scientists are doing to help explore the universe - Ryan
• the Earth is definitely NOT flat - everyone!

Rockets!

Mu Torere Championships 2019

Congratulations to Rhianna for winning the Mu Torere Tournament!

People Savers First Aid Course

Today we learnt how to save a life!  Thank you so much to Shelly from the Red Cross who taught us so many first aid skills - everything from how to deal with someone in shock, to what to do if someone is poisoned to how to bandage a wound.  We learnt heaps and even though we'll hopefully never have to use these skills, at least we're a bit more prepared if we do!

Tech 2019

We were very excited to start our Tech programme last week.  Our activities are CO2 Cars, Robotics, Food Tech (cooking) and Hard Materials (woodwork) - we have five weeks of each.  So cool!  We are looking forward to learning loads of new skills, and making some awesome stuff!

The Cup Tower Challenge

While the actual reason we completed this challenge was to test our ability to be a great team member, you might be interested to know how your team stacked up (!) against the others in terms of your Cup Tower.  Well done to the two teams who made a ten-high stack - you win!

Reading Reading Reading

Each group has now finished their second novel for the term, though lots of people have read lots more books in their own time.  We had to push ourselves to get a lot of reading done in the last couple of weeks, but we did it.  Our final discussions and debates focused on the following questions:

• who was your favourite character and why?
• name a part of the story where you were like, "Whoa!"
• if there was another chapter, what might happen next?

We also shared our opinions and ratings for each book.

Wheels Day & Sausage Sizzle

Well done to the Y8 students from Rimu who organised a great day today.  We had loads of fun zooming around the school, and racing our mates.  The sausage sizzle at lunchtime was pretty good too!

Interhouse Patter Tennis

Congratulations to Rimu - the winning house!

1st - Rimu

2nd - Matai

3rd - Totara

4th - Kauri

EPro 8

Well done to those students who competed in the Feilding EPro 8 Challenge!  Teams have to solve problems by building structures and using electronics.  You need to be pretty good at creative thinking too!

Interschool Athletics

We had a number of students from our class competing in the Feilding Interschool Athletics Champs today.  There were some very impressive individual performances, and quite a few people achieved personal bests.  Well done!

Athletics Sports

What an awesome day we had at our athletics sports this year!  We LOVED all the crazy activities, and had loads of fun and loads of laughs!  We put our game faces on for the sprints and blasted down the track as fast as we could!  We supported those who had made the final of the 400m, performed our house chants in the only way we know how - loud and proud - and represented our houses well during the relays.  What a full-on couple of hours!  Congratulations to our champions for 2019:
Girls 400m - Ruby
Boys 400m - Caleb
Girls Athletics Champ - Rebekah
Boys Athletics Champ - Caleb
Junior House Relay - Matai
Senior House Relay - Kauri

Good luck to those who are competing at the Feilding Interschool Athletics on Monday.

FUN ACTIVITIES:

SPRINTS:

HOUSE CHANTS:

RELAYS:

Rippa Rugby

Team Halcombe - Rippa Rugby 2019!

Student Council Event - Coming Soon!

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!