We had the best time at our outdoor day at the Dunedin Botanical Gardens and our sleepover and surprise back at school on Monday night.

Thank you so much to Mrs Cotton and Mrs Simpson for making the day possible with all your planning and support and of course our amazing parent helpers. We could not have done it without you!

We started the day off with a bus ride to the Dunedin Botanical Gardens where we were split into groups and we were off on our way for our adventures. Some of us started with orienteering and the others started with a lovely walk up to the bird avery. After the avery, we walked down to the amphitheatre and we used it as our frame to look out and draw all the things we could see. We were very lucky having Anya Sinclair and Becky Lazarevic who are amazing artists, there to support us.

Next, we each had some duck food to feed the ducks. This was the ducks and pigeons first feed of the day so they were very happy to see us as you can see from the photos below.

Once we had finished feeding the ducks and pigeons, we met up with the other groups to share lunch. After Lunch, we swapped groups.

The bus came at 2pm to pick us up and take us back to school. There were some very tired eyes but after some afternoon tea and a wee break, we were ready for the afternoon of hut building, putting tents up and games on the court.

When 6pm struck, it was time for pizza for dinner and we got our torches out for some running around in the dark.

Finally, it was time for the big surprise we had been waiting for. A magician! Jonathan Usher came and showed us some awesome magic tricks and even taught us how he did some of the tricks. It was amazing! Some of us even got to help him with his tricks. 

We were all very tired from the huge events of the day. At 7.30pm we got our pyjamas on, got into our beds in the classrooms and we had a movie on and some of us read books. The night time was a very big challenge for lots of the children and they all did such an awesome job at showing respect to people who went to sleep earlier than others. 

The next morning, we were up for breakfast and getting ourselves ready for a normal Tuesday at school.

Ka pai to all the children!