Garden to Table session #2

 Wednesday, 17 March - Soup and Scones

On an autumn morning, homemade soup and scones has just that lovely nostalgic ring to it, invoking the flavours of the season. 

The Seniors at Howick Primary enjoyed the day immersed in hands-on learning. With the help of our volunteers, pumpkin from our school garden was harvested by the garden team and kitchen team sliced and diced and pureed away making super yummy soup for all to enjoy. 

Parsley from our garden provided that X factor to the cheese scones the children mixed, kneaded, shaped and baked to accompany the soup. All enjoyed together at the table - a perfect reward for the awesome effort!

Thanks so very much to our volunteers -  well schooled children and full tummies, thanks to you giving us your precious time!

HPS Garden to Table launches!

Session #1 

Session #1 Wednesday the 10th of March saw our seniors immersed in the first day of the much awaited HPS Garden to Table programme.

The gardening team and parent helpers worked hard in term 4, getting our planters ready and sowing the seeds for the beautiful harvest that was on the inaugural menu.

What a scrumptious difference sunshine and care makes!

The Seniors were split into two groups one taking the morning rotation and the other, the afternoon. The garden was harvested for the meal they were going to make while also preparing it for future harvests. Guided by our awesome team of volunteers (thank you!!) , it was off to the hall to prepare and serve & eat ( Yummy!!!)

Kitchen safety and hygiene were at the forefront of the guidance from the volunteers and teachers, 

while the children explored their culinary potential in this nurturing environment. 

Bon Appetit!

Let's go wrapper free!

 We were very excited to finally be able to host the Clean Plate Less Waste workshop last week on Tuesday 23rd February. 

This complements our school-wide vision to be a 'wrapper free' school.

The workshop is aimed at parents and caregivers with a focus on:

*  Information on how lunch box food choices impact our health as well as the planet's

* Hands-on cooking and tasting of easy, nutritious and budget-friendly recipes that children can make too! 

* Suggestions on how to make lunchboxes environmentally friendly and reduce food and packaging waste

  

All ready to go with healthy, wrapper free food! 

 Everyone getting involved in the food preparation.

          Activities were practical and easy to follow.                    

  

Looking at the ingredients of pre packaged snacks.         

 How many ingredients do we actually recognise as food? 

This activity was a real eye opener! 

Time to sample the delicious food! Yummo! 

Recipes can be found HERE or in the RECIPE IDEAS section of this blog. 

ACTIVITY TO TRY: Making Decoy White Butterflies

A fun craft activity to do, suitable for all ages.

✓ helpful in the garden

✓ uses recycled materials

White butterflies are a pest in the garden this time of year.

They lay eggs on vegetables like kale and broccoli. When the eggs hatch the caterpillars eat all the leaves!

By making a decoy (pretend) butterfly, the real white butterfly leaves thinking there is already a butterfly laying its eggs there.

Step 1: 

Get an empty milk bottle and draw the image on it using a vivid.  

TIP: Use a template made from cardboard if you find that helps.

Step 2:

Carefully cut it out (you may need an adult to help you) and tie thin cotton (I used dental floss) around it.

TIP: Make the thread as long as your arm so the butterfly can 'flutter' in the wind.

Step 3:

Now tie it to a stick and place it in your garden.

Hopefully the butterflies will stay away!

TRAFFIC LIGHT BINS

GOAL: To further reduce our school waste going to landfill 

We have adopted the TRAFFIC LIGHT bin system to try to help us with this.  

This system is seen in households, businesses and attractions all over New Zealand. 

RED: LANDFILL BIN

• STOP! Re - think - can the rubbish go somewhere else? 

• This is the last resort! Mainly broken, snapped things.

• NO FOOD in this bin - take lunchbox items HOME or compost

         

ORANGE: RECYCLING 

• Things must be CLEAN and DRY

> Paper or cardboard 

> HARD plastic numbered 1 - 6 

> Metal or glass 

• NO FOOD in this bin

• NO soft plastic in this bin

        

     

GREEN: FRUIT & VEG SCRAPS 

• Fruit and veggie scraps for the worms!

• Paper towels, tissues & paper bags can go in here too

• NO sandwiches, cake or pies - take these HOME! 

      

Prize Giving 2020

 

On Thursday the 10th of December Howick Primary School had their 2020 Prize Giving. 

Congratulations to all students that received a certificate, were nominated for a trophy and a big well done to trophy winners!

The Environment and Sustainability award

was very difficult to choose a Year 6 winner for

as they have all done such wonderful work with our waste minimisation programme, composting, gardening, school blog and Enviro Art this year!

A big well done to Manroop Sandhu

for receiving the Environment and Sustainability award!

Enviro Holiday message

 After a challenging year with Covid-19 and lockdowns it has brung us to the end of 2020!(Thank goodness!)

But there has been things that some people are proud about; one of those things for the enviro team is helping our school reach enviro bronze.

We are not the only ones that did it… YOU guys did lots of it!

Many of you had a wrapper free lunch and some people volunteered to help with the waste wizard bins at events.

So we want to thank you guys for helping us including all the wonderful parents for encouraging your kids and the staff!

We would like to say a big thank you to all the year 6's especially that helped us. We wish you a great time at your new intermediate and hope you keep up all your hard work for the environment.

Remember that keep up the hard work for saving the environment in the holidays and have a great holiday and a great 2021.

THANK YOU!

Jackson Barker (Room 3)

Enviro Round up 2020!

WELL DONE and THANK YOU!!

This year we have been blessed to have the most amazing team of Enviro students who worked passionately and tirelessly all year long! Their commitment has seen us accomplish so much.

I am sad to say farewell to 3 of our team members but excited for 2021!

Here's to the HPS awesome Enviro team!

Happy Holidays everyone :)

Gardening Time!

Wednesday 3rd December, a lovely sunny afternoon, the gardening team met after lunch by the gardening shed wearing our sunhats and sunscreen slip, slop, slapped on! 

We split into teams and received our tasks from Miss Long.

At first I was teamed up with Roman and Malu. We had to fetch some cardboard boxes, remove the Sellotape and then give it to Charlie and Noah to line the new planter box. 

Then I joined Charlie and Noah’s team with my mum, Anita who was a parent helper. Our task was to line the new planter box and to fill it with vegetable mix. Noah scooped the mix in with his spade and I flattened it with my trowel. The box took about five big bags of vegetable mix. The bags were very heavy and my mum had to open them with my trowel because the bags may have gases inside that can be harmful. We got a bucket to keep the empty bags in so that we didn’t have to make endless trips to the bin.

One of the other teams, with Jackson, Karen (another parent helper), Anushka and Kaitlyn planted several herbs in one of the old planter boxes. Karen chatted to us about herbal tea and how to make it and also what herbs we can use when cooking various dishes, yum! 

Another team, with Kayden, Roman, Malu and Miss Long, took soil from the compost to help us fill the new planter box.

Caelyn harvested some of the parsnips. She and Harriet watered the plants in the boxes where the herbs had been planted and then all of the other boxes as well so that all of the plants got an equal share of water.

Some students found a millipede in the compost box. They picked it up and held it before putting it back, gently.

I am looking forward to seeing how our new herbs grow and excited to see what goes into our new planter box!

Kieran 

Year 4, Room 6

Waste Minimisation Events

 This is our November update.

In this part you will find:

1. The School Disco

2. The Family Fun Night

3. The Waste Expo

Hope you enjoy!

Manroop Sandhu (Room 2)

SCHOOL DISCO

At this one and only school disco on the 19th November we collected a total of:

• 8.64 kg of waste

•  7.87 kg was diverted from landfill.

• This means that 91% was diverted from the landfill altogether. 

It was so shocking to us that we saved 91% of waste going to landfill that was put into the compost, recycling and even people putting things in the soft plastic bin!

FAMILY FUN NIGHT

On our annual Family Fun Night on Thursday 25th November we collected :

• Total of 7.95kg of waste

• 7.44kg was diverted from landfill

• 7.44 / 7.95 = 94% diverted from landfill altogether

So now in total we saved 94% of rubbish going into landfill and going into the other categories like the soft plastic, food scraps/compost and recycling!

Waste Expo

On the Tuesday 24th of November 2020, the Waste Expo took place in our school hall. Since the year 5 and 6’s were at Rainbows End, the very kind Juniors decided to take our place in the Waste Expo which was a huge success. The Waste Expo was a group of companies like "Love Food Hate Waste", Compost Collective, "Clean Plate Less Waste" and many more. At this event we shared our waste minimisation successes which took a lot of effort!