Visit to the Taieri River - Outram Glen

We went to Outram Glen to walk by the Taieri River. We could see where the river had been flooded a few weeks ago. We took flat stones from the river bank and tried to skim them across the top of the water. Some people were very good at skimming and could get the stones to bounce along the top of the water and reach the other side of the river. Others of us found it really hard to do and the stones just plopped into the water.

We had to wear our coats and jackets to keep warm because the wind was very cold.

Han Byeul enjoyed collecting all sorts of different stones from the river bank. She found different coloured stones, different sized stones and different shaped stones, She gave away the stones she found. People liked their present of a stone.

We took a group photo of us together on the river bank. Can you see anyone you recognise?

We went to the Taieri Museum picnic area and had a picnic afternoon tea. We all brought some food and shared it and we had some tea from a thermos flask. The tea was nice and warm. It was sheltered from the wind at the picnic place and we enjoyed the view over the Taieri Plain. We had fun watching some waxeyes and fantails fluttering around in a tree. When we were in the car we saw some harriers hovering over some prey.

We travelled around Saddle Hill and into Brighton where we had an ice cream at the dairy and watched the ducks on the creek by the bridge. After this we parked on the Brighton Domain and walked down to the beach.

We found dog tracks in the sand. They look like the tracks of a fairly big dog.

We also followed Mrs Probert's foot prints. She was wearing her walking boots and they made a clear footprint in the sand.

There was a lot of foam on the beach. Look at all the bubbles and the interesting patterns they make.

Farewell to Han Byeul

Han Byeul came to North East Valley Normal School in February 2010. She came from Korea with her parents. We were very lucky to have Han Byeul come to our school and we are sad that she has to return to Korea. Han Byeul learned a lot of English this year and made lots of new friends. Her friends and class mates helped her to learn English and it was not long before she was able to speak to them in English.

Han Byeul likes writing and drawing and whilst at North East Valley Normal she started to learn how to write in English. She wrote a lot of things in English in her writing book.

We had a lovely dinner together to farewell Han Byeul and her father before they returned to Korea. Sarah and James invited us to their home and Sarah prepared a wonderful dinner with sushi and sashimi. We all brought some different food to share.

We had some delicious stuffed mushrooms - they were stuffed with cream cheese and lemon juice.

There were several kinds of sushi. Some were vegetarian, some were chicken and some were tuna.

We also had some delicious kumera fritters and some very tasty prawns.

Han Byeul looked very beautiful in her hanbok, her traditional Korean costume. She wore it specially for the occasion. Her hanbok was so lovely and was made with very bright coloured material and pretty embroidery.

Look at Han Byeul. Doesn't she look beautiful in her hanbok ?

We were so lucky that she wore her hanbok to school so that we could all see how beautiful it is. Thank you Han Byeul and have a safe trip back to Korea.

We all learn together - we teach our teacher

Taiwanese dumplings

A lesson: how to eat them

A wonderful display of steamed Taiwanese dumplings ready to be served and eaten. Yum yum!

A delicious dumpling meal. One natural chopstick user and another who needs to give their full attention to using them!

Mrs Probert was concentrating very hard. Look at the serious expression on her face. She did not drop the dumpling though.

Taiwanese dumplings in the bamboo steamers. We had to use our chopsticks to lift the dumplings out of the steamers and onto our plates. We had to be careful not to drop them. If we dropped them they burst open and the hot stock squirted everywhere.

More delicious dumplings.

We had fun eating Taiwanese dumplings with Mrs Probert. She knew how to use chopsticks but we taught her how to use them to eat dumplings that contained stock - not such an easy thing to do! We had to hold the dumpling with our chopsticks and then bite a small hole in it. Next we had to suck the stock out of the dumpling before eating it.