Room 4 2019 @ Ruapotaka School: May 2019

Thursday, May 30, 2019

Term 2 Week 5 Part B

There was so much to see at Kelly Tarltons that we

needed an extra blog to show it!

It was AMAZING seeing the animals up close!

Even a baby dinosaur! (Tuatara)

Then we went back on the bus and drove to Panmure Basin which is just down the road from our school.

We are very sad that this area has an F rating for the

quality of its water :(, very sad. We are going to

think of some ways that we can all help to make the water

clean again.

There is still lots of plants and birds living here. We want to help them have a clean habitat to live in.

Those binoculars really helped us to see the bird life!

We learned a lot today, thank you to everyone who

helped make this possible!

Have a great weekend Whanau, remember you get a holiday on Monday for Queen's Birthday!

Term 2 Week 5 Fishy! Fishy! Fishy!

Kia Ora Whanau and Friendly Viewers!

Another fabulous week with Room 9!

This time we were supposed to be going to

Goat Island near Leigh for snorkelling, and

to check out how clean the water is in

a marine reserve. BUT. The weather was

just too stormy for it to be safe for us

so we went to Kelly Tarlton's and our very

own Panmure Basin instead.

BIG THANK YOU goes to the Mazda Foundation and the Maungakiekie-Tamaki Local Board who sponsored our trips

with Auckland Zoo Staff leading us all the way!

We started by looking at how clean the water is for

the penguins to live in.

Look at them go! They look like they are flying!

It smells pretty fishy around here!

The water is so clear we can see the lady's legs through it!

There's a rescue turtle under there! It was found out at sea in a bad condition and was brought here to recover. It will stay for about a year and when it feels strong enough it will go back to the sea.

It really likes swimming in that clear water!

We had fun in the rock pool touching some of the marine life. The starfish was hard like a biscuit!

Wednesday, May 22, 2019

Term 2 Week 4 "We are sailing! We are sailing!"

These little boats are called Optimists.

Kia Ora Whanau and Friendly Viewers!

Lucky, Lucky, Us!

This week we had a simply AMAZING time

on the sea of the Waitemata Harbour

learning to sail Optimist boats!

We all wanted to say a really BIG THANK YOU!

to The Lion Foundation, Auckland Sailing Club, St John's Rotary, Zhik wetsuits and Volvo for making this happen for us!

No one in our class had ever sailed before so it was a lot to learn.

Our instructors, JR, Justin and Steve, were very patient and

they gave really clear instructions and they didn't

mind repeating things a few times till we got it.

Are you all ready to learn to sail and have some fun?

This is called the sail and you need a pole to push it all the way up.

Who wants to try to tie an '8' knot?

The part that swings around at the bottom of the sail is the boom.

Does everyone have their life jacket?

Line up shortest to tallest please, so you can get the right size wet suit.

We started from Okahu Bay by the Auckland Sailing Club

and then we went out beyond the barrier to where

the Waiheke ferries go! Sometimes it got a bit bumpy

but we felt really safe with our wet suits and

life jackets, (and our instructors and teachers

were right there in the inflatable boats to help).

Get ready to push your trailer with its boat into the water.

That's right use the tiller to steer your boat to the right, the left or straight.

Good job Kaulave and Aleki!

Let's make sure you are both in the boat first.

After we had lunch we went sailing again. This time we had to try to capsize our boats, that means to tip it over. We needed to see that our life jackets would hold us up and keep us floating. And they did!