More than 50 pupils were absent from Keith St School in Whanganui on Monday as children recovered from shock and sleep deprivation following a 7.5 magnitude earthquake in the early hours of Monday morning.
For those who made it to school, there was drop, cover and hold drills as well as writing exercises to describe what the earthquake felt like.
Unique Moana 10, had caught up with the latest news updates on the earthquake and all the subsequent aftershocks.
"I watched the TV news before school and I have been looking up information on the internet as well," she said.
Some of Unique's classmates had written about their personal experiences of being woken by the tremors shortly after midnight.