term 4 2022 What is orienteering? Year 5 students asked this question as they walked down to the College oval to meet John and Kath Potter from the WaggaRoos Orienteers , who also taught our Year 7 and 8 students last term. With John and Kath, students were led through warm-up activities learning how to hold and read a map, follow directions, and tell the time using the sun. Students put these skills to the test in short orienteering courses around the College. Students enjoyed using electronic sticks to track their times at each location. Favourite activities of the day were the spider relay, where pairs took turns to go to different locations and a long individual course around the College grounds. Battling strong winds, obstacles and muddy terrain, the students felt like true explorers! A game of bingo to reinforce map icons brought the activities to a close, with many students eager to continue their orienteering exploits, making their own orienteering maps to use! Adelaide D – I now know how to find North using the sun! Elijah – Here’s a tip for orienteering: It’s first about accuracy, not speed. Zara – Orienteering is fun because you can work together in teams. Daniel – Orienteering is a good challenge because maps are harder to read than what you initially think! There’s lots of detail on the maps! Mackenzie – I learnt that grass is deceivingly muddy after the rain! Izaiah – It was fun learning how to read the map to find the markers. Louis – I enjoyed orienteering because I loved running around the school getting muddy and completing a course. Adelaide X – I loved the warm-up activities we did! In one activity we learnt how to hold a map as we moved around a grid to spell different words! Chelsea – I thought it was fun that we had an e-stick attached to our finger that we used to measure our times. Hannah – I found the orienteering activities helpful in learning different ways of how to get around the school. Zan – I learnt that orienteering is different to scavenger hunts – it’s about using clues on a map to get around. Juliana – Orienteering was a good challenge because you needed to read a map quickly and accurately to get a good time and go to the correct locations. India – I learnt the skill of reading maps quickly to know where to go.