Month: August 2022

On the 27th of June the first day of swimming I was really excited, we needed our swimming gear which was a swimming bag or a bag that can fit your swimming gear, a towel, some goggles if you want to use them, our jumpers to keep us warm after and our swimming caps. Some girls didn’t have or like swimming caps so they had to tie their hair in a bun, the Year 6 girls would go to Room 6 and the Year 7 girls would go to Room 8, us Year 6 and 5 girls would have to wait for the Room 6 boy’s to get changed, once they were done us girls would go into the classroom and get changed, and after we got changed the Room 6, 7 and 8 boys would go on the bus and the bus would take them to SwimMagic school. The year 6 girls would use the Room 6 ball and the Year 7 and 8’s would use the basketballs and play.

Then when our bus would arrive the Room 6 would go first then the Room 8 would go after them, the Room 6 would take the front seats, the Year 6 and 7 would take the middle seats and the Room 8 would be at the back. Then when we arrived at the SwimMagic School we’d always for the boys to finish their lessons with the Coaches, when their done we’d put our towels down on the bench and get into our lanes. I forgot which lane I was in but the coach was really fun to have, her name is Coach Seb she was fun.

On the last day of swimming I was really excited to go on the boats again but this years one was different, before we got on the boat one of the coaches gave some of us some life jackets, that was the first time I wore a life jacket it felt really uncomfortable at first but then I got used to it. Later on we got to go on the boat, it could only hold 4 people at a time,  when we got on the boat we had to fall backwards it was fun.

When all of us had fallen off the boat we got seperated into 3 teams then we had to race eachother to the end It probably doesn’t really matter who won but it was really fun. After that we had to climb out of the water and face the wall, one of the coaches pushed someone at a time then we fell into the water, after we fell into the water we had to take off our life jackets, climb out of the water, grab our stuff and say goodbye, when we got back from swimming I quickly got changed, went to my classroom, said karakia and went home. I loved to do swimming it was really fun and the Coaches were fun too, im really excited for next years swimming.

Pests like possums, stoats and feral cats hunt other animals to survive, some of those animals can’t defend themselves. Some of the animals that get killed by pests are endangered animals.

So I ask you this question, “Why should we learn to control pests?” We should learn to control pests so we don’t have to kill them and have to be worried about them killing animals.

We should learn to control pests so other animals  don’t get hurt or killed and so the endangered animals don’t become extinct like Kiwi’s or penguins.

But pests aren’t the only problem, plants are like pests. Some plants are toxic and poisonous like Oleander or Rosary Pea, some of the toxic plants cause humans and animals to get sick, and some plants carry diseases and viruses.

Stoats are a carnivorous animals there favourite animal to eat are rabbits, feral cats are more healthier than pet cats you can even tame some feral cats, hedgehogs have 5000-7000 spikes all over their body, a group of hedgehogs is called an array, possums can live up to 11 years, possums play dead so predators won’t eat them.

We should control pests so we don’t have to kill them, so defenceless animals don’t get harmed, hurt or killed even the endangered animals.

On Friday the 5th of August, Room 7 got to go on a trip to Cornwall Park, but before we went a man named Chris taught us about predators and how to set up traps, after that we left school and got on our bus.

When we arrived at Cornwall Park Chris introduced us to Charlie and Lisa, we split up into two groups Mr.Bell’s group went with Chris and Mrs Yumals group (the group I was in) went with Charlie and Lisa. Charlie and Lisa taught us about trees and nature meanwhile Chris was also teaching his groups about nature. 

Then when were done we switched leaders then later on we came back and had lunch together outside in nature, Later on we went into our original teams and played games together, then when our bus arrived we went back to our classroom and Chris handed us worksheets and trap tunnels but the trap tunnels weren’t built yet so we had to build it ourselves (the trapping tunnels were made out of black construction paper) when we were done we were allowed to put our trap tunnels anywhere in our school. 

After that Chris had to leave, everyone said their goodbyes then Chris left. I had lots of fun. My favourite part was when all of us had lunch together outside in nature.