Beach Clean-Up, EOTC Part 2

Another great day at Haumoana School.  The day dawned sunny and warm as we prepared for our big walk through Elephant Hill winery all the way to the sea.  We were met by Damien who looks after the vineyard side of things.  He escorted us  down the hill in his van, finding the least muddy pathway, until we got to the bottom. He then opened the gate and stopped the traffic so we could cross the main road.  We were then met by Sally from the Regional Council and Sonya, our Enviro-schools facilitator.  They had all the gear we needed so we could find the rubbish safely.  We had a chat before starting our clean-up and then we were off.

Here's some photos of the process.

Then came the surprise!!  We were invited up to the Elephant Hill restaurant foran ice-cream.  Andres the owner came out and greeted us and told us a bit about the history of his winery.  Sadly his father, who had founded Elephant Hill, had passed away suddenly last year.  He then told us how his father last year had suggested we needed an ice-cream after all the hard work picking up rubbish and how he would now carry on the tradition.  It was a lovely gesture and appreciated by everyone who sampled the delicious treat. We enjoyed sitting and relaxing before the big walk up- hill back to school.

Then to finish off another fantastic day we had a fish n chip lunch back at school.

WOW our EOTC week was AWESOME

A BIG thankyou to everyone who helped make our week such a success.

Education Outside The Classroom - EOTC

What a week! No wonder we were all feeling pretty tired by the end of Friday.  For those that don’t know what EOTC means its Education Outside the Classroom, and we certainly did just that. There was so much fun interspersed with fantastic hands-on learning, it had us all buzzing.  Sharing that with so many family members is a powerful combination and so much fun.  The weather looked favourably on us which definitely makes a big difference.  Altogether we had 52 children from our 3 youngest classes and they were all great.  So interested in everything we did and appreciative of the little treats (ice cream) along the way. A big THANKS to all of you that helped with supervision, I hope you enjoyed it as much as we did.

We had been thinking and learning a lot about the sea since we heard about the plight of all the Pilot whales at Farewell spit a few weeks ago and then had continued to extend our interest and our knowledge during this year’s Sea Week. We shared all our work in the assembly last week, and even with all the technological glitches, we were very proud of the reports, the art and the writing we could share with the rest of the school. Unfortunately our big finale –Lava Song- wouldn’t work either, but we got to sing it on Friday afternoon in our Junior Syndicate assembly, and it was FANTASTIC.  We will get another opportunity to perform it to the school because we have done a considerable amount of practice and it is just wonderful.  You can watch and sing it online just put in ‘Lava Song’- and it will pop up for you to sing together. Liam’s Mum told me they sing it together at bedtime, what a lovely way to say good-night to someone special.

Back to our AWESOME EOTC week.  Our first trip was on Tuesday to the Rocky Shore in Ahuriri.

  Here are a selection of photos that say it all…

Yummy scrummy Cool Cat ice creams to finish off a great day

Here are a couple of great Recounts to share about the day

Rocky Shore

Yesterday after morning tea we went by bus to the Rocky Shore.  I smelt the Moana.  It smelt salty.  I saw seaweed and heaps of hermit crabs.  I found a sea slug that sucks all of the stuff off the rocks.  It felt slimy and slippery.  I loved the Rocky shore.

Maggie T

Yesterday Room 1, 7 and 8 went to the Rocky shore.  We learnt about sea animals.  We met Jacquie, she works at the aquarium.  You need to have wet hands before you touch the sea creatures.  If you don’t have wet hands you will burn them and you are not looking after the sea creatures. I felt a sea slug.  It was gooey and slimy. My Dad put in our container so we could look at it.  I had fun at the Rocky shore.

Charlotte