Today, Tuesday 15th of August the Harinui Syndicate went for a walk to the Papatoetoe Train Station.
Before we left Mrs Bucheler asked us some questions, and encouraged us to tell her all the safety rules we already knew about crossing the road, and walking along the footpath.
We used pedestrian crossings when we could, and took care as we crossed the roads. We stood in the right place waiting to see that the road was clear. We looked both ways and then crossed the road.
The parents and teachers made sure we followed the safety rules and that it was safe for us to cross the road. Mrs B stood at the top of the road to make sure cars knew we were crossing. We looked at all the signs on the road side. We also looked up the ‘sneaky driveways’ before we crossed over them. We looked to see if there were any cars coming down the driveways.
We saw the wheelie bins out ready for the recycling to be collected. We talked about the types of things we should put into the recycling instead of throwing them away in the bin.
We walked towards the railway station, and up the pedestrian ramp. It took us high over the railway lines and then down onto the railway platform. We saw all the things put there to keep us safe. There were signs, rails, and smooth wide walkways.
While we were standing on the platform we saw several trains go by. They were electric trains which moved very quietly. There was a lady at the station who was a helper and a guard. She could show people how to use the ticket machine before they got onto the train
Next we walked back up to the road from the station and down Station Road, Along Shirley Road and back over the zebra crossing, to get safely onto St George Street again. We walked to the old Train Station and compared it to the new one! On the way we saw a goods train go by. it was pulled by a noisy diesel engine. It needs to be powerful as the containers on the carriages are so heavy.
When we were walking back from the Old Train Station we hear a siren. As we stood and watched we saw a police car zoom by with it’s lights flashing blue and red. We walked along the street, heading for school and looked at the renovations to the Papatoetoe Mall. We saw workiers wearing lots of safety gear. Hard hats, steel toed boots, fluro-vests and safety glasses too.
We stood at the lights and waited until the red man on the lights turned into a green walking man to say that we could cross the road. Then we headed back to school. It was a good day, and we saw lots of interesting things and talked about them together.
When we got back, we just had time for writing a story about our journey. We told Mrs B the words to write and helped her to spell them too. Tomorrow we will read our story again.
.
