Monday, December 20, 2010

I'm in the Sunday Star Times!

On Sunday December 19th 2010, there I was in the Sunday Star Times - along with Chris and Kids from Pt England School.  Check out the article here:



swim2
Underwater adventure: Chante Filipo has some fun learning.





If schools can't get their students to a pool, why not bring the pool to the school?
It sounds far-fetched, but that's exactly what WaterSafe Pools2Schools programme is doing in Auckland.
Chief executive Sandy Harrop says schools face a lot of barriers when it comes to giving their students an aquatic education.
"These barriers are identified by schools as support for teachers and the cost of pool entry, tuition, transport [and] time out of school," she says.
Pools2Schools breaks down all those barriers by bringing the pool – and all that goes with it – to the school.
The programme was trialled at Papakura's Red Hill Primary school last year using a 10m by 5m vinyl portable pool borrowed from Premier Exhibitions.
Deputy principal Charlotte Castle said that when the school started working with WaterSafe, it realised a lot of its students didn't even know how to float. Now, thanks to $95,000 of KiwiSport funding, Pools2Schools has its own portable pool, water filter system, heat pump, scaffolding, marquee, security fencing and trailer.
It also comes with WaterSafe Auckland's aquatic education facilitator Chris Burton, who teaches the students and the teachers. Burton says Pools2Schools is not just about teaching kids how to swim 200m – a goal set out in the national curriculum.
"That's not necessarily going to help you in a rip," he says. "It's about building a knowledge base and decision making."
Decisions such as when to signal for help, how to fit a life jacket and how to duck-dive under big waves.
For the past seven weeks the covered pool has been at east Auckland's Pt England School. When the Sunday Star-Times visited, Year 5 students were learning how to use their hands like ice-cream scoops and how to stay warm and float in the water.
"I feel like a safer swimmer," 10-year-old Crusader Faletagoai says. "I didn't know how to do it properly before." Classmate Prince Scanlan says he's going to show his three and six-year-old sisters what he's learnt in the pool this term. Teacher Helen Squires says the students have also enjoyed lunchtime classes in the pool with Water Polo NZ, Surf Lifesaving and Olympic swimmer Hayley Palmer. Fellow teacher Jody Wild says her Year 1 students have "come along in leaps and bounds".

Sunday, December 12, 2010

What Am I?

What am I?
I have little pricks sticking out of my slimy sometimes sticky body. They help me to grip on to things and they also help me to dig into the dirt. On the inside of my body I consist of three main organs. The first one is my crop, which is the first place where my food goes through. The Crop is a bag like organ that will keep the food that I eat until my Gizzard is ready to chomp up the food that I eat. My next organ in line is the Gizzard which chomps up my food. “How does it do that,?” you ask. Well the Gizzard has stone like things on the inside of it to turn food in to a mulch like liquid.


Reflection for 2010

This year in year five I have enjoyed playing with my friends and learning new things like, Mighty Mariners because it has taught me that no matter if you’re big or small you can do anything you set your mind to. I have also loved learning about our earth and what it does and how it does it. The way it moves is really interesting. The best memories I have had this year would have to be having more opportunities in preparation for next year with getting netbooks.

Triathlon

Polynesians

Mighty Mariners - Cheng Ho