Soccer

Today was the last day of our Senior Sport Rotation. We had a go at practising some soccer drills and then put those skills together in a game.
Here are some photos of our afternoon ...

The Wahine

We have been learning about disasters at sea. We have been gathering and watching information on the Wahine disaster that happened in Wellington Harbour.

Netball Skills

Today we learnt some Netball skills with Miss Main. We practised having turns at shooting the ball in the hoop. This was tricky for some of us, but we persevered!
We practised passing and catching, and then put those skills together into a game.

Thanks for teaching us Miss Main!

Rippa Rugby

Last week it was Room 3's turn to have a go at playing Rippa Rugby.
We played a game called Last Man Standing. We had a space to run around and try to take the tags off other people. If you were the last one left, you were the winner!

We had relay races and practiced moved the ball around our waist and under our legs.

Then we got to play a game of Rippa Rugby. Some of us got muddy, but this was all part of the fun!

Thanks Miss Simpson for teaching us some new skills.

Stay tuned for Netball photos!

PJ & Burger Day Coming Up

Basketball Fun

Today was the first day of our Senior School large ball skills rotation. Room 3 children kicked off with Basketball.

We practiced dribbling the ball, turning out back while dribbling to evade others and we also tried 'lay ups'. That's when you aim for the backboard so the ball rebounds into the net. Tricky! But some of us got it in.

Then we had a couple of games.
Here are some photos of our afternoon ...

Pirate Day

Ahhhh! Ahoy there me hearties!
(That's pirate language meaning ' Hi there, friends'.

Today was Pirate Day at Halcombe School. The whole school got decked out in some pretty awesome-looking pirate costumes.

When Room 3 children came into class, the first thing they had to do was work out their pirate name. There was an alphabetical code, and each person was assigned their name for the day. Miss Jeynes was Captain Tinkerbell Swab. Others had names like Two-Toes Penny, or Stinky Sharkbait.


We had a lesson on "How To Speak Pirate". Here's a few important tips:
1. Always exaggerate your vowel sounds.  Arrrrrrr.
2. When you greet a friend - you say "Ahoy me hearty - or matey". But if it's your enemy, you say "Avast, ye scurvy dog!"
3. When you address people - use the correct terms: An older person is a 'Salty Seadog'. A young pirate is 'Jim Lad'. A person of a higher rank than you is 'Squire', and the captain is called 'Cap'n'.

Practice those for fun! And for some reason, it sounds better if you use an Irish accent!

We had fun acting out pirate plays, and at the end of the day, we all got into groups in the hall for some fun group challenges.

Here are some photos from our day ...

WHEELS DAY!

We had a 'wheely' fun time today, because it was Wheels Day!

The juniors and seniors had turns at riding our wheels around the school, jumping ramps and sometimes falling off !

There were scooters, rollerblades, heeleys and drift trikes. It was exhausting after a while, but everyone had loads of fun.

Here are some photos of Room 3 kids ...

Measuring Volume

Today we learnt about estimating and measuring using mls.
We got into groups and arranged 3 containers into order of what we thought would hold the LEAST through to what would hold the MOST amount of water.

We drew the containers and wrote our estimates in  millilitres. Then we had turns at filling up each container and tipped them into a measuring container. We compared our estimates with the actual measurements. Some of us were quite close with our guesses!

Estimating and Measuring

In Maths, Room 3 are learning to make sensible estimates and measure accurately. We started off by estimating and measuring objects around the room using our hand spans. We worked out that not all our hand spans are the same size, so our answers were not all the same.

We have learnt the meaning of words .... 'length' and 'width'. The length of a rectangle is the LONG side, and the width is the SHORT side.

Then we learnt to estimate and measure objects/distances in cm and metres. We have learnt that Perimeter means distance around the edge, and Area means the space inside a shape. We have been learning to calculate perimeter and area of square and rectangles.

We are now starting to learn about measuring volume (or capacity). We are learning to measure water using millilitres (ml) and litres (l).

Stay tuned for more photos ...

Can you work out what the PERIMETER would be of a rectangle that had a length of 5cm and a width of 2cm?

Do you know what the AREA would be?
Leave a blog comment!!!!

Feilding Garden Show

This Saturday is The Feilding Garden Show. Lots of schools are entering displays and you can vote for the best one. Of COURSE you will vote for the marae that the Halcombe School Green Team and some R6 children have created, won't you!?

Check it out!

The first prize is a $500 book voucher which will go towards buying new library books.
PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE vote this Saturday/Sunday

Wheels Day and Pirate Day

Planting In Our Class Garden

Welcome back to term 2!

Now that the weather is cooler, and our school water tank isn't dry ... it's time to plant in our garden.
Today the whole class went out and we had turns planting leeks and broccoli.
We're looking forward to gobbling these up in term 3.

Here are some photos of us in our garden...

What's YOUR favourite winter vegetable? And how do you like to eat them? Roasted? In a soup? Please comment.

Colour Day

Today was COLOUR DAY at Halcombe School. Everyone came dressed in their favourite colour.
There were green dinosaurs, black All Blacks, pink princesses, yellow flowers, and much more.

Lots of us brought a donation which goes towards buying sports balls for schools in Fiji.

We were lucky to have 'spiders' at lunchtime. Yummo!

Dancing With Our Buddy Class

Today, (just for fun), the wonderful children from Room 8 came to our class to show us a dance they have been learning.
Some of us knew the song. It goes a bit like this ...
"E oma, e oma, tamariki ma ... E oma, e oma, tamariki ma"
(That means 'Run, children")
We sang and danced and did the actions.

Do YOU know this song?

The Minstrel's Visit

Yesterday all of the school piled into the hall to listen to The Minstrel sing songs. He had very important messages to share about fishing and keeping safe when fishing.

Today we are going to write about his visit, and we will be sharing his messages with you in the near future.

Here are some photos from the Minstrel's visit yesterday.

Colour Day Coming Up

Small Ball Skills

Now that our swimming programme is finished, Room 3 are now practising our small ball skills.
Last week it was a bit wet, so we did this in the hall.

Firstly, we each had a ball and had a go at throwing the ball up with one hand and catching with two. Then we tried tossing it higher, and clapping in between. Some of us managed to throw it quite high and still catch it!

We practised using 'overarm' to throw the ball to a buddy so they could catch it, and then tried bouncing a ball to our buddy so they could catch it. As we got better, we moved further apart.

This week, we'll be practising on the field so we can throw the ball long distances using 'overarm' technique.

Senior Swimming Sports

Whoops! I forgot to add photos from Wednesday when the seniors had their swimming sports.
Six Room 3 children participated in this event.  Jock, Maggie, Kaleb, Ruby, Annabel and Abbie. We were so proud of all these children, but especially congratulate Abbie P and Annabel S for their superb results...
Abbie came second in the Junior Championship final, and Annabel came FIRST!
Well done all our Room 3 children for competing in the senior sports.

Junior Swimming Sports

Today was the last day of swimming, and our Junior Swimming Sports!
Because it was a bit windy and cold, we did our class events one at a time, and waited in the classroom until it was our turn. Luckily the water was lovely and warm even though it was windy.

Here are some photos of us ... please leave a comment.

Home Learning In Room 3

Room 3 are now in the full swing of Home Learning. Every Monday we take home some spelling words to practice. For most of us, these are high frequency words that we're spelling wrong in our writing. We practice them in class on Mondays, and then at home.
On Friday, our Learning Buddy tests us on these words.

We also read a book each night.For some of us, this is a book we have read in class. For others, it is our chapter book that we got from the school library. When we finish a chapter book, we write a comment in a Reading Log at the back of our KIT books, and get to rate the book out of 10.

We also practice basic facts in Maths. This might also be Number Knowledge - eg: count backwards from any number within 100. We know we will get faster with practice.

Thanks parents for supporting our learning by giving us time to practice at home.

These children are testing their buddy on their spelling words.

Josh is one of the R3 kids who is great at filling out his homework chart and recording his reflections of his learning in Maths.

Foxton Beach Trip

Today all of the Halcombe School kids had a terrific day at Foxton Beach.
Room 3 kids traveled in a bus with others. When we arrived, we got into mixed age groups and played some fun games.
Later on, we got to splash in the water in the waves. Some of us got VERY wet!
After lunch, we split up into our class groups and did different activities. Room 3 created an obstacle course with driftwood - then we got to go through it! Under ... over... around...

Here are some photos from our day..

Friday Fun Day in the Pool

Today we had lots of fun playing games in the pool. It was very different to our normal swimming lessons!
We had piggy back races, played games like Stuck In the Mud and Dolphins & Sharks, and we did a fun obstacle course. We had to swim underwater to get through the hoops and 'dolphin dived' over noodles.

What a great way to build up our water confidence!

Learning Maths Games

Today we learnt how to play lots of new Maths games that help us practice adding and subtracting. We will be able to play these fun learning games when we finish our Maths early.

This is Room 3

Today was the start of school after the big long holiday break. Here are the COOL, KIND, CARING kids of Room 3.

We have a golden rule in our class. This is it ...

We would love parents and family to read our posts this year. We will be sharing a lot of the awesome work and fun we have during the year, and look forward to reading your positive comments.

Slippery Slidey Fun!

Today, as a special treat, everyone got to bring their togs to school.
Room 6 kids set up a couple of large sheets of plastic and paddling pools and WEEEEE! Slippery, slidey fun!




Thanks Miss Simpson for organising this awesome event

Fun Athletics Day

Today was the Halcombe School Athletics Day. Everyone headed out to the field for some fun games and challenges in group rotations.  One of the activities was the Egg and Spoon race. (Well ... actually, more like Tennis Ball and Spoon Race)...

Here are some pics (along with the Tug O War challenge from yesterday)

A Special Visitor

On Friday, Room 3 were very excited to have Mr Julian Atkins (a National Fingerprint Training Officer based with the NZ Police) to come and talk to us about his experience working in Thailand after the 2004 Boxing Day tsunami.

We have been learning about natural disasters, and Julian explained what his role was in helping identify victims of the Asian tsunami. He also explained how tsunamis are caused and how we can tell if one is coming towards a beach.

Did you know if the sea water suddenly recedes (goes back out to sea) really quickly - this is a sign a tsunami could be on its way?
Don't stand and stare!  Run away from the beach. Get to higher ground - tell others on the way.

Thanks Julian for your talk. We learnt a lot.

Discus training

Room 3 have been practising athletics skills. Today we were out on the field throwing the discus.
We are working on leaning back, and bending our knees, and to hold the discus correctly.
We have to throw with a straight arm.
It looked like flying saucers on the field today!

Wellington Zoo Trip

On Friday, Room 3 went to Wellington Zoo for the day. We met up with Thom, the zoo educator, who showed us around some of the carnivores. We got to see him feed Narla and Sasha - two of the lionesses. It freaked us out when one of them growled for her food!

It was a gorgeous day, and we got to explore all the animals in the zoo. Thanks so much to all our lovely parent helpers who provided transport.