Drawing Scientifically

We have continued to learn more about the wonderful bugs we share the planet with. 

We searched around our compost area and found LOTS of different invertebrates!

We watched a video that told us all about the different body parts that insects have; such as a thorax, antenna and compound eyes. 
After that we had a go at drawing insects and spiders. 

Aimee visited Totara Park recently and was very excited to find a leaf vein slug - just like the one we saw in the video! 

Walking School Bus

 Today we had some special visitors in our school assembly - Danni from Auckland Transport and HAPPY FEET! 

They came to talk to us about how great it is to walk or bike to school. 

You get to be with your friends, be outside and do some exercise. 

AND less cars on the road is great for the environment too! 

We currently have one walking school bus running every morning down Patons Road and into school via Juliet Avenue. 

We are hoping everyone will be encouraged to walk now and we can start more walking school buses. 

Incredible Invertebrates

 This term the year 3-6 students are spending time in the garden finding out what INCREDIBLE INVERTEBRATES we share the space with! 

We brainstormed what we already knew (quite a lot) and jotted down what we wanted to find out...

* WHO are the bugs living in our garden and how many of them are there?

* HOW are animals grouped? 

* HOW do bugs help us? (Ayla) 

* WHY did some bugs come to New Zealand? (Ashlee) 

* WHAT was the first bug ever on Earth? (Tyler) 

We learnt:

 - Spiders are NOT insects! 

- Invertebrates is the science name for the big group that all our garden 'bugs' belong to. 

- Without insects the planet would not be very healthy

- We have lots of different creatures in our compost...

 

  

Rongoā and kawakawa balm

To continue our theme of how nature can help us, we have learnt about the many healing properties of kawakawa leaves. 

Some students tried chewing a leaf! 

'It makes your mouth feel a bit funny and doesn't taste that good!'

Miss Long talked us through how she made kawakawa balm and we all got to try some. 

 

'This will be good for my cuts' Sienna

'I'll use this on my bruises'

'I like sticking it on me' (as a plaster) 

'This will be good for my dry hands' - Miss Long

The recipe used is HERE 

Rongoā and more tea!

This term year 3, 4, 5 and 6 have been learning about how nature can provide for us and heal us. 

Session 1: We looked at all the herbs we had in the garden. The students then helped make the 'morning wake up' tea with lemon, lemon balm and mint.  We all tried some! 

'It was really lemony' 

'It tasted plain but healthy!'

'I loved it... can I have more'

 

While looking at the other kinds of tea we could make, students in Room 2 spotted a herb that was familiar to their cultural - gotu kola - something used in Sri Lankan cooking. 

We then used this to make 'brain tea'. 

* Ingredients: gotu kola, rosemary, lemon zest  and hot water (and extra lemon juice for good measure!) 

You can find the tea recipes HERE. 

We also spotted that South African Day was coming up in the holidays so some classes tried Rooibus tea aswell! 

Session 2: We thought about which native trees we have at school and how they can help us. 

Firstly we visited the native garden and went on a hunt for mānuka, kānuku and pūriri. 

We studied the leaves and drew them. Then we listened to 'Koro's Medicine' to see how Maori use native trees and plants for healing. 

We then tried to match up the pharmacy medicines with the Rongoā. 

SWAP-tember

Each term we have an enviro themed activity for all students to take part. 

We checked the calendar for the different  national 'enviro events' in term 3 then voted for our favourite - 'Second Hand September' was the winner.  

We organised a 'SWAP-tember' event! 

The students brought in clothes, shoes, books and toys they no longer wanted. They got swap 'tokens' to spend the following week and earned enviro points for their class. 

Some of the year 5/ 6 students did a reading activity thinking about HOW 'swapping' clothes and toys is good for the environment. 

DID YOU KNOW... 

...40% OF CLOTHING MADE GLOBALLY IS NEVER SOLD! (What a waste!)

... BY 2050 THE AMOUNT OF UNWORN CLOTHES COULD STRETCH TO MARS AND BACK!

Our 'SWAP-tember event was a big success!

-> LOTS of families supporting this initiative by sending things in 

 -> the students were excited for the anticipation of getting things that were 'new'

-> LOTS of students visited to the stalls to use their swap tokens and get some fantastic 'new' books, clothes and toys!

This cute teddy is sure to find a new home!

Collecting everything in...

...let the sorting commence!

LOTS of clothes!

...and lots of shoes!

Day 1 of SWAPS... books, clothes & shoes

Day 2 of swapping made it outdoors!

Lots of awesome toys! 

Adopt a Park visit

 This week our year 3 / 4 enviro group visited our 'adopted' park - 
William Green Domain. This is our third visit this year. 

During our visit we...

* learnt about the different shaped leaves and what plants or trees they come from

* discovered some interesting wildlife - a red dragonfly, a skink, woodlice, a shiny ladybird bug and some green leaf bugs

* found an awesome 'canoe' - part of a fallen nikau leaf 

* helped the environment by picking up rubbish. 

Happy green bugs!

shiny ladybird

Whose footprints are these? 

spot the lizard!

 

We found lots of plastic - including 5 plastic bottles. We talked about how we can help the environment have less plastic in it by having a wrapper free lunch. 

John - I liked helping the environment

Piper - the most interesting thing I found was the giant canoe (leaf) 

Ayla - I liked finding 2 dragonflies

Ella - I enjoyed picking up rubbish

Aimee - It was very exciting to find a mysterious rucksack (rubbish) I think it might belong to my favourite book character - Wolf Girl (- I love the imagination!) 

Luka - I enjoyed the rubbish hunt

 

Next time we go we will have a closer look at the native trees and plants we planted and see if we can do some weeding around them.