Earthquakes happen every day in New Zealand due to how we lie over the boundary of the Australian and Pacific plates. Approximately 14 – 15 thousand occur in an around the country each year. Most earthquakes are too small to notice but between 150 – 200 are reported each year.
It is important that our young children know what to do in the unlikely chance that they experience an earthquake so last week our junior school children joined thousands of other people around the country and took part in The Great New Zealand Shakedown.
This is a chance to educate and practise what to do. The teachers created interesting and important lessons around earthquake safety through songs, poems, reading and writing.
All of the junior classes practised how to drop and get safely under their table, they were shown how to hold tight onto a table leg or cover the back of their head. They also learnt what to do if they were outside by “being like a turtle”. This is the link to a great song to help young children remember what to do: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0L-YAIjkhJo
