E.O.T.C WEEK

Last week was E.O.T.C. Week! A whole week where we do our learning outside of the classroom!

Our focus this year was how to keep safe in the water. This is so important given that we are a country surrounded by water!

All the Year 3s were put into groups called "The Swimmers", "The Divers", "The Surfers" and "The  Paddlers". We all met in our room every day and listened to some wonderful beach stories before we split up and did activities with our group throughout the days.

There were 2 real highlights of the week.

The first one was learning about boat safety. We used the school pool for this. The instructors spoke to us about why it is important to wear a life jacket whenever you are on a boat. In an emergency it will save your life! We then practiced putting one on and learnt how to float in the water with it.

It was so much fun. We didn't realise how effective a life jacket is to keep you afloat in the water.

We also got to go in the inflatable boat. It was important for us to practice rescuing someone from the water. We had to pull them up into the boat by putting our hands underneath their armpits and pulling them up and over the edge of the boat. It was hard work though.

Later we got to capsize the boat. That was fun. The instructors told us about the special pocket of air that remains underneath the boat. We were really brave and went underneath the boat to confirm this and they're right there is air under there! We then had to hold our breath and come back out from under the boat. Mrs Dobbie was so proud of us! She said she would be scared to do all that!

Our third activity in the pool was how to use things that float to help us keep safe if we were ever thrown into the water. In this instance we used the pool noodles. Look at us go!

The second highlight of the week was going to visit the surf lifesaving club at Mairangi Bay. The surf lifesavers were so cool. They told us all about what they did and how the majority of  them were volunteers meaning they don't get paid for all the good work they do keeping us safe on the beaches around N.Z. during the summer!

We didn't realise that the life guards do so much more than just patrolling the beaches. Did you know that surf lifesaving is a growing sport in N.Z, and that there are competitions around the country all summer?

They also play a huge part in educating school children and adults about how to be safe in the water. Here are some of the things we learnt that day:

This diagram describes how a rip works. The sea comes into shore in waves but of course it also needs to go out. 

This octopus diagram shows how water is pulled up through the neck of the octopus to the head of the octopus. Once in the "head" the water circulates back around and comes in as waves again. 

A rip happens where the water looks the calmest, so be very wary of areas like this.

If you do get pulled out to sea in a rip DON'T PANIC! STAY CALM and raise your hand straight up for the lifeguard to see or if you can, relax and swim parallel to the shore until you get out of the rip zone and the waves will bring you back in again.

   

Raise your arm straight up in the air if you need help! 

After our beach education lesson we got to go for a swim! Look at us on our boogie boards!

Ride that wave Omar!

Some of us didn't go in the water so we made a wonderful sandcastle. Can you see what it is?

Isn't she lovely?

Throughout the rest of the week we created posters illustrating what we had learnt about beach safety....

... and made our own surf lifesavers complete with surf boards. 

We made a really neat beach mural too!

The last thing we made was a jellyfish. It was quite tricky trying to collage the bowl but we think the end results were worth it.  

To celebrate the end of EOTC Week we had iceblocks. What a great week! We had so much fun and learnt so much about how to keep safe in the water. 

 WE CAN'T WAIT UNTIL EOTC WEEK NEXT YEAR!!!!!