Last week was the Year 6 camp held at the Palm Grove campsite, up in the hills of Paraparaumu.

 

We engaged in lots of challenging activities over the three days.For some children it was the first time they had stayed away from home overnight.  There were various cabins and bunkrooms where everyone did (or didn't) sleep.  

 Exploring the camp site and the boundaries.

Archery involved shooting at balloons and there were big cheers every time a balloon was popped.

Anais lines up on the target.

 Learning teamwork

Jessie, playing games in the homestead, a large old farmhouse on a wet afternoon.

One of the most challenging activities was the low ropes course.  While from the name it may sound easy, once you scrambled and climbed up up on the starting platform it looked a long way down.  Thank goodness for our safety harnesses.

We rotated around activities, and one of the most creative ones involved collecting natural items around the camp to make Crazy Critters

Some of our critters are on display in the school library.

Other activities included camping skills, making bivouacs, Chase the light, Orienteering and games in the gymnasium.

One of the most exciting activities was a GIANT waterslide.

Children race down the chute, squealing  and laughing as they zoomed down, to land up in the pools of water at the bottom.

It was a great camp that we all enjoyed.

Thank you to Mrs Fearon who did a great job of organising the camp,  Brandon and Helen who hosted us, and our parent helpers who took on the challenges along with the children.

Te Aramoana EOTC   Year 5's

The children of the Te Aramoana syndicate have had some great learning experiences outside of the classroom.

While the Year 6's were at their camp the Year 5s had a trip up Hemi Matenga.  It was a chance to check out the vegetation including making leaf rubbings and noticing interesting landmarksWe are fortunate to have such a great resource on our local doorstep.

 We found cicada cases.  The cicada's grow too big for their skin and so have to discard them and have a bigger one.

The water tanks supply water to the Waikanae Community and so serve a valuable service.  The water is gravity fed to all the houses and fire hydrants.

Waikanae School Flag Voting Day

On Thursday the 10th of March, Room 18 organised a voting day for the students in Years 5 to 8 to make their own choice about which flag should be our official flag. Some of the officials on the day are going to be sharing their views on the day, but here are some photos of the event. (Results are at the bottom!)

Vote counting commences! 

Current flag = 135  Proposed new flag = 56  Informal votes (not valid) = 6