Seniors

Kayaking

Our Grade 5/6 students had a fabulous time kayaking at Doon Reserve last week. It was wonderful to see them demonstrating our school values of resilience, respect and kindness throughout the experience. They supported one another, challenged themselves and represented our school with pride. 

Here are some of the students’ reflections and thoughts from the day:

On the 24th of February, we went to Doon Reserve’s caravan park to go Kayaking. I HAD to wear older shoes, as these might get trashed. Anyway, first, we jumpstarted ourselves into the water to catch some parts of a pool noodle (I forgot the name of the thing). Secondly, we ACTUALLY went kayaking. I tried but kept crashing into multiple trees. I had to get a new paddle! Lastly, we laid out on our backs and floated all the way to the bridge. As a fellow who can’t lay properly, I couldn’t do this on my own. I needed something to sit on. It was a great experience to be had!

     Steven

At Kayaking we had to first be split up into teams and then the instructor put little bits of pool noodles into the river and the winning team was the one who collected the most bits of pool noodles. My team won two times in a row so the instructor moved me (and some other kids) to the other team. So then my ‘new’ team won. After that we got on the kayaks and floated around up and down the icy cold water. Then we did the little circuit you would usually do there. Then we had to do this weird thing called ‘river floating’ where you lie on your back and slowly float down the river. It was much easier to float with a lifejacket on because I usually sink to the middle of the middle of the earth. My friend and I thought it was way too cold to do that. So we took our soggy lifejacket off before anyone else. I love kayaking. 

     Raven

At Kayaking we did fun stuff like getting small bits of pool noodles, riding kayaks and laying down in the water. For the pool noodle part there were 2 teams and one of them had to collect the most and for 1 round we could rob and steal the other teams. For riding, we hopped on the kayak and paddled. When I first did it I had some trouble and then one of the helpers used a rope thingy to pull me and after some training we went from where we were to the bridge. I did crash into a prickly bush. Jake wanted to help me, but he could not, so he yelled to one of the helpers to pull me out of the bush and then for the rest of the riding I was with him. After we stopped I carried a blue boat with my brother who kept dropping it. After that we went back to where we were and we laid down. It was called the river float but it was laying down on your back. The water was moving and cold. I got to have 3 goes and after we had to say goodbye. We went for a short time but I loved it.

     Jack

Kayaking was awesome for the 5/6s! Firstly we were told instructions about safety and listening to instructions, then we headed to where the lifejackets were located. We did a small activity which was getting the cut pool noodles from the river. The water was really muddy so it was hard to walk in the water. Then it was the time to get in the kayaks and I didn’t even fall once! My favourite part was laying on my back and drifting through the water.

     Jake