Surf Sense Trip to South Brighton

Today, in a cold southerly wind, Rooms 13 and half of Room 11 went to the South Brighton Surf Club to learn about safety at the beach. We learnt about safe swimming between the flags, slip, slop and slap, how to identify rips and what to do if you got caught in one. In the afternoon some children were dressed as lifeguards and had to "save" some people who were caught in a rip.
A sand castle building competition was held where Seamus, Isabella G and Neo won first prize, The "Trump Towers" made by Connor, Daniel and Ben were second and Jayden, Tai and Frank were third with a sand castle body.  Most children braved a swim in the sea in the afternoon, although a brief one.
Some photos of our day are below.

Don't pollute our rivers. Save the whitebait.

Josh, Fergus and Neo made this video and devised all the little rhymes. The children in our team are keen to stop river pollution so the fish and creatures in the river, particularly the whitebait, don't have a polluted environment.Well done boys.

Stop Cows Polluting Rivers

Seamus and Priya made this video to get the message across to farmers.

Whaka Inanga

Last week Navigators 11, 12 and 13 went down to the Heathcote River to study the spawning grounds for whitebait. The children had to check the habitat where the whitebait lay their eggs. Some factors needed for ideal whitebait egg conditions were the slope of the bank, height of the grasses there and the density of the roots of the plants. Our children were great scientists and measured and checked all the criteria needed.

Michele McConnochie - Author Visit

Today we had a visit from Michele Clark McConnochie, author of the Sabrina Summers series. She kindly donated the series of books to our library.

The Whitebait are running!!

We have had an injection of whitebait into our tank and at this stage they are surviving well. They are swimming in a school and are facing the current in the tank. They are great to watch.

Whitebait Frenzy

There are  actually 6 whitebait in the tank and they are LOVING the blood worms. Mrs Dalley said they were frantically eating the worms after the weekend.

Update on our Whitebait

There are 5 whitebait still alive. Many of them found it difficult to survive the transition into our tank and died. However, the 5 hardy ones are swimming, playing and enjoying life in Navigators 12 fish tank.