Swim Saftey

On thursday the 25th of May 2016 Ses from swim saftey come to our school to teach us how to be safe around the water.

She taught us how to notice a rip while at the beach. You can tell a rip by looking at the colour of the water it will either be a lighter or darker colour then usual. You can also tell because it will be flat with waves around it. People always make the mistake of swimming in a rip because it will look safe but actually a rip will sweep you out to sea. Ses also taught us how to escape a rip by swimming to the side and to never swim against a rip because you will waste your energy.

To be safe while swimming at a river always go with an adult or a person that is older than you. Always hop in feet first and make sure to check the water for any sticks or anything that can hurt you.
Ses also us how to rescue somebody the is in trouble in the water. Firstly you can help by telling a parent then you can help by throwing something into them that can float.

In the afternoon we went into the pools and practised what we had been learning at school. We were put into groups of six and huddled in the water to keep together and to stay warm. We had to put the smallest of the group in the middle while we huddled. We then went into line formation and practiced swimming together.

It was a really informitive day.

Martin

John Parsons

On Wednesday the 18th of may John Parsons came to Ongarue School to teach the students of Ongarue, Mapiu and Tarrangower about internet safety.

He did three sessions. The first session was with the 5-7 year olds, the second session was with the  11-13 year olds and the third was with the 8-13 year olds.

John Parsons tought us how to be safe on the internet as well as being a responsible internet user. He gave us examples of when things had gone wrong for people our age. He also gave us tips so we don't  make the same mistakes.

John tought us how to watch out for strangers on the internet by keeping our personal information hidden. We could do this by using an avatar as your picture, using an internet name instead of your full name and keeping your personal info like your phone number and address to yourself.

He tought us how to be a responsible internet user. If you are going take a photo of someone you should ask the person in the photo first. If there is any personal information in a photo, such as your number plate or house number, you should crop it out.

It was really cool having him at our school and I really enjoyed it. Now I know how to be safe on the internet.

By Kahu 

Charlotte's Web

This is my drawing of Wilbur and Templeton, Wilbur is my favourite character and Templeton is my least favourite character. From Latisha

Chapter Chat

On Friday the 6th of May the year 5's took part in the first ever "Chapter Chat" on Twitter.
Chapter chat is a nation wide reading group that almost 80 schools from around New Zealand have asked to join. The man who runs it is a teacher from Palmerston North who made the Chapter Chat account for his class. He thought it would be neat for his students to share their reading time with some other students from around NZ. So he asked some teachers if they would be interested in joining - he was amazed by the result!

Chapter Chat takes place on a social media network called Twitter. Twitter is a forum where you can share thoughts,  photos and ideas with people all over the world - but the catch is that your messages can only be 140 characters long (characters include letters and punctuation). This term the Chapter Chat is focused around Charlotte's Web, a book written in the 1950's. Even though it's old, the book is a classic, and it is especially good for us because we come from farms just like Fern in the story.

Chapter Chat was lots of fun! We had to work very fast to keep up with the questions; as soon as we had posted an answer the next question would come up. It was really exciting when students from other schools liked our tweets. So we decided to look through their answers, choose the ones we liked, and replied to them.

This week we are getting back into Charlotte's Web. We need to read chapters 5-8 before the next Chapter Chat this Friday. We can't wait!