Adopt a Park Term 2 visit

 Last Thursday we braved the ever-changing weather to head back to WILLIAM GREEN DOMAIN - our adopted park. 

This term our focus was on tree planting.  After Anna, a park ranger, had shown us how to plant trees and talked about WHY it's good to plant them we got started! 

During the afternoon we planted ti kouka (cabbage trees), harakeke (flax) and a native grass. We had about 150 trees to plant! 

We worked in twos or threes to plant in a very muddy area by the stream edge. Unfortunately it started to pour with rain after about 20 minutes so we all had to run for cover!  After the rain had stopped Ranger Anna and her colleague quickly finished planting the rest of the trees. 

    

The best things about the trip were...

digging (Ayla) 

planting the trees (Blake, Mason, Lucas) 

when it started to rain! (Harper) 

being out in the environment (John) 

Playing in the rain and getting muddy feet seemed to be popular too! 

                                                 

We walked back to school taking another enviro action - picking up rubbish -  as we walked.  

We found a few interesting treasures! A brand new looking bouncy ball and a tasty looking grapefruit! When we got back to school we washing it, sliced it and tried it. It was pretty sour but still many were keen to try it. 

Garden to Table Room 1 & 2

 Last week Room 1 & 2 had their last Garden to Table session for this block. 

We have had another busy '6 week block' acknowledging both Samoan language week and international language week through our cuisine!  

For Samoan language week we made: chop suey, Suafa'i - ( a kind of tapioca) and coconut macaroons. 

For international language week we 'visited' Italy, Australia and USA - risotto, pumpkin scones and choc chip cookies! 

lots of greens in the garden

coconut macaroons for Samoan language week

enjoying some excess citrus

making posies for the tables

washing up crew!

collecting browns for the compost

The favourite activities over the last few weeks have been...

*  Hunting for snails and slugs in the garden

* Measuring the temperature of the new compost system

* Practising chopping skills

* Making posies to decorate the tables with

* Learning the names of different vegetables

* Trying new food we wouldn't eat at home! 

* Planting up our own bean plant to take home 

... and, of course EATING! 

A list of recipes we have made is HERE. 

Walking & Wheels Week

Each term we have a different enviro themed week. 

This term the kaitiaki voted and we choose to have a 

WALKING & WHEELS WEEK. 

This idea came from the fact it was WORLD BIKE DAY last week. 

                                 

During the week we had 3 main focuses: 

1)  Have a 'Wheels Day' at school - a chance to ride bikes, scooters, roller-skates and skateboards at school.

2) Have some FUN learning activities linked to walking to school and biking.

3) Trying to re-establish a walking school bus. 

Our trial of the walking school bus was great! We had 9 passengers one day and 11 the next.  We enjoyed walking down the hill and spotting different birds along the way. 

Walking School Bus

Spotting the infamous 'Stormy' as we go in the back gate 

Collecting passengers for our Walking School Bus

Bike & scooter fun in the kea classrooms

Tui cyclists and scooters

Trees for Survival Planting Day

 Last week thirty year 5 and 6 students attended our annual tree planting day. 

We returned, for the third year running, to McDonalds farm in Brookby. 

It was great to see how much the trees had grown over the years. 

                             

Sam, the farm manager, talked to us about how planting trees near a stream is really useful because: 

a) it stops soil eroding - and falling into the stream which would pollute it

b) the roots can absorb all the rain we keep having! 

                             

The highlights of the day were...

* playing with the farm dog 

* seeing a pīwakawaka (fantail) watching us all day long plant trees

* the yummy pulled beef for lunch

* being outdoors in nature 

* finding a huhu grub

* the challenge of planting on such a tricky, muddy slope 

   

We grew 763 native trees over the last 9 months, of these we planted 458 on our planting day. 

These were a mix of: 

- Karamū

- Mānuka

- Tī kōuka (cabbage tree) 

- Harakeke (flax) 

- Upokotangata (a sedge) 

A huge THANK YOU to our wonderful parent helpers who came along on a grey and muddy day! 

Click HERE for the full planting day report and more photos.  

2025 Enviro Challenge

 This year, we have a brand new challenge to ALL the classes... 

become the ultimate 

ENVIROSCHOOLS CLASS! 

This new challenge links in with our waste minimisation focus.

Classes earn points for :

* Being wrapper free

* Making sure rubbish is in the correct coloured bins for our weekly check

* Picking up rubbish 

 

When a class has earned 50 points they have reached BRONZE level. They receive a class certificate in assembly and a small reward.  Nearly ALL classes school wide have already earned this status! 

Each class voted on a suitable reward, most classes chose ice cream. 

The next challenge is to earn 100 points - silver level. 

Congratulations to Room 7, 6, and 1 that have ALREADY reached this level! 

Some enviro students wrote and shared a play in assembly to promote this initiative further. 

Great work Aira, Myra, Lyla and Kimberly! 

Garden to Table Annual Bake Sale

 Bake Sale is BACK! 

Our much awaited Garden to Table Bake Sale took place this week. 

This is a bake sale with a difference; the STUDENTS are the chefs and we try, as far as possible, to include some garden produce in all our recipes! 

The top sellers this year were: 

* Chocolate Beetroot Brownie

* Lemon Muffins

* Herby Breadsticks

We collected $674.90 from our sales. The money raised is going towards new kitchen items; in particular we are keen to get a new oven. 

Garden to Table: Room 1 & 2

 As 2 new classes start their 6 week programme of Garden to Table, we bid a farewell to our wonderful Garden leader - Karen. She has supported our Garden to Table programme since we started in 2021! We wish her all the best for her future ventures. 

Karen has set up the veggie garden areas really well so the transition for David and Olivia to take over was seamless. 

The students got straight into harvesting, weeding and, of course, composting! 

 

We have moved the compost into the 'stomach' to breakdown further. You can already see the layers breaking down!