WHAT MAKES NZ UNIQUE?

We have been learning about 'kiwiana'.

We have found out that 'items of kiwiana are generally unique to, or particularly common to New Zealand' (Wikipedia, 2011) and they may also be 'quirky things that contribute to a sense of New Zealand's nationhood (TeAra, 2009).

We have been creating graphic designs. Our graphic designs combine pictures and text to convey a clear message. Here are some of our finished designs:
(click on the picture for a larger view).



These graphic designs belong to Frazer, Arizona, Jordan and Victoria.

We would like to thank Frazer. He is our graphic design 'expert'.

Click on the link below to view more of our graphic designs:

GRAPIC DESIGNS

WHAT MAKES NZ UNIQUE?

We are trying to improve our writing, so we've been writing captions for a variety of NZ photographs. We are working on using more descriptive verbs to describe what we've been up to. We are eliminating 'went' from our writing - it is now a banned word.

fhunter

NZ Captions by fhunter | Make your own at www.toondoo.com

FUN SWIMMING SPORTS

By Catherine

WOW! I couldn't believe it. It was fun swimming sports day. Yahoo! My first race was the lemon race. You swim with a lemon in your mouth. The lemon was yuck like grass. My next race was the piggy back race. I was Emily's piggy and she went as fast as the speed of light. We won! Next is was the crocodile race. I thought you all had to go under the water and all flick your feet together, left - right and left - right, like soldiers. But that wasn't right. There were four people in each team and you had to join together, by holding the ankles of the person in front of you and then you just had to swim. Then my last race was the boogie board race. I was so fast, it was like I was swimming humongous waves in the ocean. It was a fun day.

Watch Catherine's Movie Below:

GALA DAY PREPARATIONS

Did you know our Gala Day is fast approaching?
Following yesterday's learning we decided to investigate what it means to be a Halcombe Kid. We found out there's not many differences between 'being Kiwi' and 'being Halcombe'.
Halcombe kids are proud of their school - kiwis are proud of their country.
So today we 'mucked in' getting ready to show off our amazing school on Saturday. We all worked hard, we were pretty good behind the brush and shovel!




Even our amazing student teacher, Miss Croasdale. Thanks Miss Croasdale, we look forward to dunking you on Saturday (did we say that?)
Our camera skills are improving too. These photos were taken by Daniel.

WHAT MAKES NZ UNIQUE?

A key understanding of our Inquiry Unit is 'We have our own unique identity as New Zealanders'.

Yesterday we investigated the question 'what does it mean to be kiwi?' We created a short movie to answer this question.

Click below to go to our 'Inquiry Learning' page to see our work.

'BEING KIWI'

FUN SWIMMING SPORTS

On Friday Year 4 - 8 students at Halcombe School competed in our annual 'Fun Swimming Sports' and fun it was.

View the house chants below and then keep watching this space to view movies and stories about the fun swimming sports as they are posted.

RIMU



TOTARA



KAURI

MATAI

PORTRAIT PHOTOS

We are getting better at taking photos. We have learnt about the 'rule of thirds'. Sophie took many of these photos. Isn't she a great photographer!



View more great photos below:

KORU ART

We have been busy creating. Here is Jade's finished art -

To see what we were learning and to check out the rest of our art, click on the link below:

KORU ART

WAIRAKEI SCHOOL - CHRISTCHURCH

We have been in contact with a class in Christchurch. They are a year 1 /2 class and their school has been closed until at least Friday this week. We have been reading their stories and posting comments to them. You can look at their blog too, by clicking on this link:

WAIRAKEI SCHOOL

Today we brainstormed using the YELLOW HAT. These are the good reasons about communicating with Room 10:

1. They are not in the Manawatu, so we are learning about other people
2. We are checking to see whether they are keeping safe
3. Because it is a sad time for them and we want to cheer them up
4. They were in the earthquake and we want to see if they are OK (we are all one family - Aotearoa NZ)
5. We are new friends to them and they probably need lots of friends at this time
6. We want to get knowledge about what people are doing in Christchurch, because we want to make sure people are OK and safe
7. We care about Room 10 alot now, they're our new friends
8. The Christchurch earthquake was massive and we want to learn about it and from it
9. We are keeping in touch with our new friends