Zone Swimmers from Te Kauru

Well Done Team

Congratulations to our Te Kauru swimmers for your participation and effort you put in at the recent Zone Swimming sports day in Kaitaia. You all are amazing and did very well.
Te Kauru swimmers -

Congratulations to Damon and Donnie from our class, who are going on to represent Paparore School and our Zone, with Charlie, Riley, Tyson, and Lara from Te Puawai at the Far North Schools event in Kaitaia.

Games in the pool

Today we played a ball game in the pool. The aim was to play just like netball, where you have 3 seconds to pass and you can't move with the ball. To score you had to hit the cone down with the ball.

The kids had a great time.

Surfing at Ahipara Beach

On Tuesday, our two senior classes, Te Puawai and Te Kauru, went to Ahipara beach to participate in the 'Have a go' surf day.  When we got there, we piled ourselves into 'Sup Bros' headquarters for a safety chat. The students were great and knew all the answers for keeping themselves safe in the water and in a rip.  They were also able to identify the parts of a surfboard.  Our instructors were great. They each had a 'superpower' which they shared with the students. These ranged from being able to share their 'stoke', punching sharks, lightning-fast swimming and more.

Top and bottom left: Te Kauru and Te Puawai crammed in the Surf Bro's headquarters.
Both right: Our surf instructors sharing their superpowers.

After our safety briefing, our classes were split into three groups. We rotated around three stations for the day; snacks and games at headquarters, games on the beach and surfing.

On the beach we played frisbee, bat down and the hose game. Some students were building sandcastles and others were being buried. 

Top left - Oscar, right - Gemini
Bottom left - June, right - Oscar

Top left - Frano, right - Manaia
Bottom left - Group 2, right - Tristan

A huge thank you to our lovely whanau who are always there to support our outdoor excursions. Without our parents, we would not be able to provide our students were experiences outside of the classroom. 

A shout out to our very patient, amazing surfing superheroes. They were able to help all our students get up on their boards and achieve that feeling of 'stoke'. Thank you!

Beach Education Day @ Ahipara Surf Rescue

Beach Education Day @ Ahipara Surf Rescue

On Tuesday, Te Kauru Students attended Beach Educations session which is a full day surf safety course delivered at the beach by surf lifeguards. Beach Ed is age-appropriate learning for school year levels 1-8.

The day was organised into modules. Below the modules are set out into different headings.

Tour of club

The first activity was to have a tour of the club. We got to touch all of their equipment and ask lots of  questions.  We learnt about the different equipment they use for saving lives, including the use of the RB boats, jet-skis, paddle boards and rescue tubes. The lifeguards explained that quite often, paddle boards are faster to respond compared with the RB boats or the jet-skis. This is because it takes a while to prep the motorized equipment for rescues, where the paddle boards are quick and easy to get into the water.

Beach Safety

Next we learnt all about beach safety, how to identify a rip, keeping ourselves safe in the sun and they showed us their first aid kit. Each life guard needs to be able to perform first aid.

We even played a game to help us remember the 'Slip, Slop, Slap, Wrap, Slide' rules of being sunsmart.

Water Activities

The next module was by far to the most exciting. First we had to make sure that everyone was safe on the beach, but drawing a large square in the sand. Everyone had to stay in the square. We used all our parent helpers to do the same in the water. This was to ensure that everyone was visible in the water, and didn't go to deep.

In the water, the students experienced mock rescues. The students were in pairs, and had to save their friend. Students had to make sure that they clipped the flotation device around the buddy, and ensure the strap was around their own shoulder before swimming back to shore.

A HUGE thank you to Liam, Val, Emma, Ariana - our very helpful and supportive life guards.

Seniors to the Town Pools

Today our two senior classes, Te Puawai and Te Kauru, went to the town pools. This was to provide students an opportunity to experience swimming in a larger pool (since we have a small school pool), and to select the students that would be going through to Zone Swimming.

The students had their normal swimming lesson at the town pools, followed by everyone attempting to swim the whole length of the pool, and finally being able to enjoy a free swim.

And then of course the teachers had to have a race. Who would win, Mr Masters or Mrs Davan???

Swim Safe with Whaea Ronda

Swim Safe

For the first four weeks of Term, we have had Whaea Ronda in to teach our kids about swim safe.

The children learned about the different floats - starfish float (on your front and back) and the mushroom float; and the purpose of these floats.

They also underwent life jacket training, and how to keep yourself save when overboard.

Starfish Float

Listening carefully to instructions

Side stroke - This is important when you are too tired to swim

Children's Writing

The mushroom float is a swimming technique to use when you have sunk below to the middle of the ocean, lake or pool . To float back up to the top , you would need to cross your legs, cross your arms and tuck your legs. This technique will help you float back up to the surface .
~Aanaiah~

Sidestroke is when you are getting tired of swimming and running out of breath. 

What you have to do is rest your arm out long in front of you and then lay your head on your arm then move your legs like scissors to cut water.  With your second arm try to act like you are grabbing an apple from your hand in front and bring it back and then the second hand rests on your hip. 

~Yug~

The mushroom float is a technique that might save your life when you have fallen in the water and you don’t know which way is up or down. How to do it is you curl into a ball and you will float to the surface. That is how you do the mushroom float.

~Darius~

With the technique of sidestroke I would be able to breath easily because I am lying on my side and still be able to move through the water fast enough. The position for side stroke is really easy, all you have to do is float on your side and rest your head on your arm that is stretched out in front of you.

You also need to bring your arm towards the arm in front and back towards your legs that would be doing the scissor kick, so that you don't get tired.

~Elly~

EMR - Experiencing Marine Reserves

Our class was fortunate enough to participate in the EMR programme this term. A qualified expert came to our classroom to teach us about the importance of Marine Reserves and the different species we would find in our local protected area - Matai Bay.

Classroom Based Session

The students worked in pairs to match the species they would encounter.

Fitting Our Snorkeling Gear

The students were then taught how to fit snorkeling gear and were given a practice snorkeling session in our school pool.

Add a small amount of toothpaste to your goggles to stop them from fogging up.

Test to see if your snorkel fits by placing it on your face and sucking in through your nose, it should then stick.

Aria's mask fits perfectly.

After rubbing toothpaste on your goggles, be sure to rinse them clean.

Pool Based Session

Ready, set, snorkel.

The students were taught to dive under the water, through the hoop, and then blow all the water out of their snorkel instead of coming back up for air.

Each group will have a body board with them for safety reasons.

We are ready, and look forward to our real snorkeling session at Matai bay towards the end of March. Yeehaw!