The StudentsThe StudentsThe students of Kakanui School have been in a very busy and productive year of 2008 with lots of exciting events and challenges. CHALLENGE has been Kakanui Schools topic for the whole year. Here are some of the great highlights of 2008.
Early this year lifeguards visited as and challenged us to be safe at the beach. We had a fun morning learning about beach safety and an afternoon at the beach to practice our skills.
Our major fundraiser for the year was our successful BIG DAY OUT at Campbell's Bay featuring a market, surf competition and beach games and activities. It was great to see so many people enjoying themselves on the beach and supporting our school.
As an extension to our classroom learning we went on two trips to our local rocky shore areas. It was great to find and research the many fascinating creatures plants that live almost in our back yard.
In March we spent an exciting night at the Otago Museum. We slept that night on the floor in Discovery World. This included particularly scary walk in the dark to the animal attic. We really enjoyed visiting various parts of the museum including after hours access to the tropical rainforest.
The senior class has enjoyed several opportunities to visit McKerrow's Pond for yachting and kayaking. We appreciate the efforts of the Waianakarua Lions Club in making this facility available to us.
In term 2 we took part in various technology challenges including building a new bridge for Kakanui and an entertainment centre for our pet rats. It was great to see all the creative thinking going on. we also took part in the BP technology challenge with other local schools.
We challenged ourselves to learn a new skill and wow what fun we had zooming down the slopes on our skis. By the end of the day it was hard to tell most of us had never skied before. Thank you to our Home and School who fundraised to allow us to go with minimal costs to families. We are looking forward to next year already!
The end of term two marked the official re-opening of our fire damaged hall. We have thousands of brand new library books and a great hall space back in action. Our hall was officially opened by our special guest children's author and illustrator Robyn Belton.
The students hosted a mini Olympics complete with opening ceremony and torch relay. The children participated in activities ranging from archery to equestrian. Kakanui School was represented in the Beijing Olympics by an old Kakanui School student who managed to stay with the NZ rowing team. It was very exciting getting emails, photos and gifts from the athletes themselves. We followed this up with a trip to the Oamaru rowing club to see how hard rowing actually is.
In spring the junior room visited the Ludemann's farm to see the new baby animals. we had a wonderful afternoon feeding the animals and also sitting in the tractor and on the motorbike just like a real farmer.
Our school musical this year was little red rocking hood and we really rocked the Kakanui Hall. We are proud of all of the students efforts.
We are proud to receive first place in the newspapers i education front page competition, especially this has been a unit of work taken by our student teacher.
The senior room enjoyed a four day long adventure at Camp Columba at Pukerau near Gore. The camp fitted in well with our theme of challenging ourselves as the children experienced activities which included rock climbing, abseiling, confidence course, snorkelling, ice skating and raft building.