Sunday, April 23, 2023

Garden to Table - end of Term 1

As Term 1 comes to a close, Room 17 and 2 have their final Garden to Table sessions for the summer. 

They have cooked up many fantastic recipes and done amazing work clearing, composting and planting up the garden. Ka pai!  All the recipes we have made this term can be found HERE. 










Saturday, April 1, 2023

Moth Plant - a pest weed

What is it? 
Moth plant is an invasive weed that wraps around and strangles other plants. It grows really fast and you can find it growing everywhere! 

                 

Why is it a problem?
X it can kill native plants
X it is poisonous
X it is an irritant if the white sap goes on your skin (and it stains clothes) 

         

How can you help? 

YES you can help! 
✔️ help the environment 
✔️ help our school win a prize
✔️ win prizes for yourself! 

Our school is part of an annual  'Pest Free Howick Ward' competition to collect as many moth plant pods or the seedlings growing with the roots attached.  Whichever school collects the most wins $1000! 

If you bring 10 pods or seedlings into school you earn a gold token, 20 would earn you 2 gold tokens and so on. If you bring in 100 or more you win a mystery prize! 

Our school has already collected nearly 6000 pods and seedlings! Last year we came 4th in the competition, we hope this year to place higher, maybe even win! 


Bring any pods or seedlings you find into school but be careful when you pick them; wear old clothes, gloves and safety glasses if the pods are up high.  If you spot some at someones house make sure you ask permission from the householder before you take them. 

Alternatively you can tell Miss Long in person or email b.long@howickprimary.school.nz 

Saturday, March 25, 2023

2023 Garden to Table

 Our Year 5 & 6 students from Room 17 and Room 2 have made a great start to our Garden to Table programme for this year.

The gardens are looking tidy, mulched and plentiful already and it's only March! Wow! 





In the kitchen the students have been cooking up a range of delicious recipes including Japanese pancakes (Okinomiyaki) flatbread,  savoury scrolls and bliss balls. I was amazed how easy the scrolls were to make and feel inspired to have a go at making these at home. 










The recipes are below. 



 













Monday, February 13, 2023

Enviro Games!

 

These activities are great fun and educational! 


Heaps of fun games to learn while you play!



Are you an expert on putting the right things in the yellow bin? Try this quiz to find out! CLICK HERE


Find out more about recycling by watching a video HERE. 



Enviro Kaitiaki 2023

 It's only the second week of term 1 but we are already thinking about lots of fun, rewarding ways we can help the environment.
We are looking to set up our ENVIRO KAITIAKI team as soon as possible and would LOVE you to come and join us! 

WHAT is the Enviro Kaitiaki team?

A groups of students who meet weekly to work on projects to promote helping the environment and educating and empowering others to do the same.

2021 Enviro Kaitiaki reaching Bronze level award

WHAT are the Key Qualities of Enviro Kaitiaki?

 ✔️ A role model of the school value ‘Respect for the Environment’. (E.g wrapper free, pick up rubbish)

✔️ Responsible monitor

✔️ Willing to step up and help when needed 

✔️ Confident speaking in front of others 

✔️ Enjoy learning and sharing new skills and information (e.g. Traffic Light Bins)

2022 Enviro Art team painting the food scrap bins 

WHO can be in the Enviro Kaitiaki team?

✔️ Year 3,4,5,6 

✔️ Anyone passionate about helping nature 

✔️ Anyone passionate about being wrapper free and reducing waste

WHAT kind of things do the Kaitiaki do?

This year you can opt into different ENVIRO projects depending on your interests. 

  • Monitors - for the compost bins or Traffic Light Bins. 

Responsibilities: checking and, where necessary, emptying bins weekly. 


  • Waste Minimisation - Wrapper Free Project (Year 5/6) 

Responsibilities: supporting & educating classes and whanau to reduce the amount of soft plastic in lunchboxes. 


  • Adopt a Park Project (Year 3/4)

Responsibilities: visiting a local park (in school time) to tidy it and monitor the stream


  • Moth Plant Pod Project (open to everyone) 

Responsibilities: collecting pods in school time and out of school hours, educating classes, counting pods.  


  • Trees for Survival  (Year 5/6) 

Term 3 - more info to come later in the year. 


  • School Native Garden  (Year 3 - 6) 

Term 2 - more info to come later in the year.


2022 Tree Planting Trip

2022 Enviro Art group decorating a whale tail for an Auckland art trail

HOW do I sign up to be part of the Kaitiaki?

Collect a form from Miss Long, your class teacher or download one HERE.


Monday, December 12, 2022

Water Tank & Garden to Table Round up.

As we head into the hot, dry months of summer we are extremely happy to have our own sustainable supply of water for our school edible gardens. 

New water tank - in place for the winter rainfall

                                                 

A huge thank you to Auckland Council for the grant to make this happen and to the school PTA for purchasing the water tank initially. 

Gardening in progress!


The garden beds still need nurturing and watering over the school holidays to maintain good soil quality for next year. We still have things growing too! 

We will be back into our Garden to Table programme in Term 1 2023. 

When surveyed, 95% of students who took part in this programme rated it very highly for how much they enjoyed it. 

The majority also commented that they felt it had many real life learning benefits. 

I know they all enjoyed the kai! 

Vegetable risotto, kale chips and fruit muffins

If you are keen to help out with watering or weeding in the holidays please email me: b.long@howickprimary.school.nz 






Friday, December 2, 2022

Garden to Table Working Bee

On the morning of Saturday 12th of November there was a Howick Primary School working bee!


For a start, my mum drove me there I had to wear old clothes so it wouldn't matter if they got dirty.


Once we got there I said “hello” and asked for a job, my first one was scooping the compost into a bucket. I did that for a while, then I asked for another job and it was taking staples out of cardboard so it could be recycled and we put it on compost, surprisingly we had enough cardboard to cover all the compost.


My next job was shovelling bark into a wheelbarrow to then put on the cardboard. It took a while but we did it! While we were doing that we stopped for a food break and then we kept going after that. My mum came to pick me up but I asked if I could stay longer? And she said YES!

My mum also said I could go home with one of my friends, for the rest of the time I kept on shovelling bark.

By Sophie Kealey Room 2. 

Before...
   
...After! 


Work in progress! 





Snack break! 

Re-purposing lots of cardboard to suppress weeds 





Ready, Steady GO! Active Travel

We are gearing up for better weather and getting active by walking, biking and scootering to school.  We are now focusing on a new enviro to...