Our New School Gate

Wow!!! The school frontage is complete. In keeping with our beautiful school fence, we have had a new gate created which is covered in titoki (cabbage tree) and kowhai flower designs.

Nelson Arts Festival Red Square

Every year at Arts Festival time, a huge stage is erected at the top of Trafalgar Street. This is called The Red Square and is used by hundreds of primary and secondary school students to perform. Our Hira School group comprised of some Room 3 and 4 ukulele players and singers. We performed 8 pieces including our Hira School Song. People were singing and clapping along to us and we had a very appreciative audience who were enjoying listening to us as they ate their lunch. Since then we have had lovely comments given to us about how great we looked and sounded and even an email sent from a man in Collingwood who said his wife was over in Nelson for a hospital appointment and by listening to us she was cheered up! The 'Red Square' group are so proud of themselves they are going to stay together as a music group and learn more pieces with Pammie for performing in the future. Congratulations you all - you certainly did us proud!!

Kidpower

Last term Room 3 did the Kidpower training. This is a programme that teaches us strategies for keeping ourselves safe when verbally or physically threatened by others. We learnt assertiveness skills and ways to respond to another when being spoken to in an inappropriate way or when being bullied into doing something we don't want to do. We have found many of these strategies useful in our everyday life at school and we all feel stronger and safer with our peers as a result of completing the programme.

Ukulele Hoolie

A bunch of great ukulele players from Hira School attended the first Ukulele Hoolie recently held at Richmond School. We got together with many other ukulele players from several Nelson schools and played and sang together. We all had so much fun that we're going to assemble and perform again next year.

BFF (Best Friends Forever)

When Room 3 were creating books for Hira School Book Week, everybody took photos of themselves with some of their friends to make up one of the pages in these profile books. We chose 3 or 4 friends and proceeded to do a photo shoot with them somewhere around the school. Here are some of them. If you want to pop into Room 3 and read the books in their entirety - please feel free - they are on display and are beautiful. We are very proud of them.

The Lambs

Hi my name is Grace.I have two lambs Bambi and Angel they lived

with us for four weeks now they are up at the farm in the Glen . They are very cheeky

the first night they ran away only down to the gate I LOVE BAMBI AND ANGEL

By Grace

Our Beehives

I am standing next to our beehives. We get 8kgs of honey from each hive. We pay $150 each year for the beekeepers to care for the hives. My mum and dad love honey but I dont really. We keep the hives at the place where we walk down to the toilet on the flat area. You are not allowed to put your hands in the hole but they won't sting you unless you try to attack them. They just fly around you and don't even get distracted by you.

My Cat, Camo

Hi it's Emma and this is my cat Camo.To me she is the most adoroble thing ever. She gets the name Camo because shes a tabby and ''camo'' from camouflage.The coolest thing about her is she has a white heart right where her heart would actually be.We got her from our friends the Harvey family which is Stephianes cousins. By EMMA ROSE PHILLIPS

My Cat, Yoda.

My cat Yoda is part of the family. He is soft and cuddly. He loves me and I love him too. He some times gets up on my bed to sleep. I am his best friend and I show him that by protecting him from my dad. He tries to kiss Yoda a lot and Yoda hates it. By Cody

My Dog, Toby

Toby is sitting on the couch and watching a tv show it is a bad show. If we leave the house and we leave Toby inside he gets crazy. If we leave the tv on he likes it. Toby likes people next to him and sitting in between people legs. He is brown and white and big . When we let Toby out and we are going to leave Toby runs up in the trees and stays there. He will come down when the car starts. Toby comes everywhere with us and he is 7 months old. Toby will be my favourite and my best pet by far. By Chani.

Our Rat Artemis

The rat on the screen is my brothers rat called Artemis.I know most people do not like rats because they are smelly and their tails are scaley.But Artemis is a very very kind rat he likes people holding him.Pammie has put a photo of Artemis on her computer so she could begin to like rats. By Meg.

The Skate Park

Hi, my name is Logan and this is a picture of me,Harry and Josh at the skate park. I'm on a Ripstick, Harry's on a scooter and so is Josh. There is a guy on a BMX bike who can 360 over the spine and tail whip it. I got my ripsick from my dads friend and you ride it by wiggling the back of it and the front if you want to.

The Pig Hunt

My dad, Wow, me and of course the dogs went pig hunting. Wow had a tracking device to track the dog . It tells how far away the dog is and it can track where the dogs are.I think it is $500 for the.... well I will just say that it is a telephone because I don't know what it is called and it is $800 for the collars. Then the dogs caught the pig and i gutted it. By Kaine.

My Friend Jonty

Hi, my name is Ruby and I'm going to tell you about my friend Jonty the pony. Jonty is such a trustworthy pony. He taught me how to ride even though I was riding before I started riding him. I have been riding Jonty for three years !! Jonty is a grey pony and he is 12 hands high. He has been my best friend and I would like to say thankyou to him for helping me get confident enough to get used to another pony - Honey. By Ruby

Me In The Goal

The goal that I am sitting in was made for us by our grandad. It s so cool. It took him a week to build and me and my brother - Johnny use it all the time. We put it on the front lawn . The soccer balls that I am by are ours - the red one is mine and the yellow one's my brothers. I love soccer - it is such an awesome sport. I watched all the FIFA World Cup 2010 games. I am a fan of the All Whites, Argentina and Spain. SOCCER IS AWESOME ! By Nathan.

My Brother, Eytan.

My brother is called Eytan. He is a baby and he is very cute and funny. He loves playing tag with me and Nikau . He is one and a half years old and he has long hair with long eye lashes. I love him very very much. By Zoe

Our Dog, Sam

Sam is my family's dog he is very old and lazy. He takes up all the space on the couch and he runs diagonally -thats funny. He's like a guard dog because when a car is coming to our house he barks but sometimes he barks at birds and confuses us. Sometimes he gets a little grouchy because he is so old he no longer enjoys being cuddled. By Wesley Klassen-Ladd.

Custard

This is our sheep Custard.We got him as a lamb from some friends. We had to feed him powderd milk every morning and night .We have one more sheep called Pinky so we have now got two boys which eat grass and sheep nuts. By Bea

Harry's Jump

I go down to the car park and there are two jumps. I put a gap between them, I get a run up and I go up and jump over the gap and land on the jump. My friend Logan was going to have a turn but you can not see him in this photo. By Harry

Technology

From our visit to Te Hora Marae early this term, we have been doing a technology study called 'Containers For Precious Things'. We have all sewn a flax pouch for our bamboo koauaus (whistles / flutes) that we made at Te Hora. We designed and sewed them and then decorated them with a shell as a clasp to close it. Thanks to some of our parents and grandparents for holding several working bees in order to complete these stunning creations.

Here we all are settling down for the evening inside the wharenui. We were certainly very cosy. Once we were ready for bed and tucked into our sleeping bags, we all shared our mihi which is an introduction of ourselves in maori. We were very proud of ourselves and each other.

Wharenui Time

At Te Hora marae we spent a lot of our time in the wharenui which means 'big house' and is the meeting house at the marae. This is where we met, we learned and we attempted to sleep like a huge can of sardines - even though we were not allowed to have food inside this building!

Inside the wharenui are lovely carvings, many photos of members of the tangata whenua who have passed on or died and also some weaving and craft pieces - a sacred space indeed.

More Te Hora Joy

Nicki and Cindy from Nelson Provincial Museum joined us and shared some wonderful skills with us including singing, carving and playing the koaua or maori wind instrument. These photos show them playing for us and also Dhillon and Brendan having a go too.

The people of the marae who cared for us and made us feel so welcome were three elders or kuia called Nora, Chris and Hazel.

During the powhiri we sang songs, listened to speeches, gave a koha or gift to the tangata whenua and at the end did the hongi with many new people. The hongi is a way of greeting and means to shake hands, carefully press noses twice and say 'Kia ora' or 'Tena koe'.

Te Hora Marae

Last week the whole of Hira School travelled to Te Hora Marae in Canvastown and stayed overnight. We experienced a powhiri which is a maori welcome and met many people from the tangata whenua - the people who belong to the marae. We were the visitors - the manuhiri. When we arrived at Te Hora we gathered at the entrance way - waharoa and waited to be called onto the marae - this call is called the karanga.

More Glee With Lee

We were treated to an extra session with sports specialist Lee Corlett last week during which we had our usual half hour of fun and fitness with a challenge or two thrown in. We were required to cooperate in our groups of four at a very high level. The gear we were given to work with was a pile of hoops. First we had to create a free standing circle and then each climb inside it and stand up without tipping anything or anyone over. Some of us met with success while some of us totally collapsed into balls of laughter!! As if that wasn't challenging enough - we then had two groups place their hoop circles on top of each other and then...... yes you guessed it - climb inside and stand up. What skills do you think we needed for all of this - cooperation, listening, balance, steadiness and extreme care - oh and did we say cooperation, cooperation cooperation?

Life Education Programme

Our whole school has been enjoying the Life Education programme in the giant trailer this week. It is a programme about life skills and social skills and we in Room 3 have been learning about how special and unique we all are. We have also been learning about different parts of our bodies and how they work. Some of that is nice and some of it is a bit yucky! Victoria has been our teacher in the programme and she has an awesome friend called Harold - a giant giraffe.

Cool School Peer Mediators - 2010

On Friday the new Cool School Peer Mediators at Hira School for 2010 were commissioned at a special assembly. There are eleven new mediators who are about to start duties on Monday. Their proud parents attended the assembly along with the regional Cool School coordinator from Wellington - Lyn Scott. Even though Room 3 kids use some very sensible problem solving strategies when faced with tricky situations - they are looking forward to having the mediators support in the playground to help them solve their problems and deal with conflict.

Sports With Lee Corlett

Every week of last term we have been learning many new fundamental sports skills with sports expert- Lee Corlett. We have our final session with Lee this week. We learning balancing, running, jumping and manoeuvring skills that the All Blacks and the Silver Ferns have to do in their training sessions. Lee keeps telling us we are almost as good as those experts who represent New Zealand at rugby and netball!! We believe him!!!!

Fitness and Picnic - Term 1

At the end of Term 1 Room 3 students trekked up the hill at Laura's farm to the top where we enjoyed a magificent almost 360 degree view of the sea to the south and to the west. The trek was steep and interesting and the slide back down was fun. Thanks to Laura and her family for a great day out. We all felt fitter and more connected after having a picnic day out.