Year 3/ 4 Adopt A Park Term 2

This week our year 3/4 Enviro team walked down to William Green Domain for our 'Adopt a Park' visit. 

This term we were focusing on tree planting in the park. 

Led by Ranger Anna from Auckland Council, we planted native grasses by the stream. We planted over 100 in less than one hour! 

We learned about how planting by streams and rivers is helpful to stop soil eroding (slipping away) into the waterways during heavy rain. 

I liked tree planting and I liked jumping on the spade and getting the dirt out (Aimee) 

Planting trees together was fun and I liked it when we took the worms out and gave them a new home (Blake) 

We found so many massive worms! I loved looking for them! (Dané) 

It was fun learning about the trees and how to plant (Jaylani) 

I had so much fun, I liked tree planting (Yasasmi) 

Year 1 and 2 Cooking Time!

Today the year 1 and year 2 students had their turn at cooking! 

Everyone came to the garden and collected the produce. We had spinach, silverbeet, thyme, parsley and rosemary. 

We made pizza and herby breadsticks. 

"I loved the pizza" 

" The monster green pizza was my favourite"

" It was fun grating the cheese - I wanted to eat it!" 

"Pulling out carrots was the best part - they were SO big!"

2 of our amazing Year 5/ 6 helpers 

We grow amazing carrots! 

There was lots of learning going on too! 

>  kitchen skills - such as ripping, chopping, stirring, mixing, kneading 

> naming vegetables and herbs 

> Taking turns and cooperation

> Sharing and using kind words and manners (yes even we didn't like the food!) 

See below for the recipes! 

Pizza Dough

* 4 cups of self raising flour

* 3.5 cups of natural, plain yoghurt

* 2 teaspoons of salt. 

1) Mix and make into a soft dough. 

2) Add more flour then roll our flat.

3) Add sauce / toppings 

4) Cook at 180 C for about 10 mins 

** Makes about 6 medium pizzas.  

Herby Bread Chips 

* Crusts from about 1/2 loaf of bread or more as required 

* Olive Oil

* Herbs (we used rosemary & thyme) 1 - 2 tablespoons of each. 

1) Break crusts into 2cm pieces

2) Mix in a bowl with a drizzle of oil and herbs.

3) Spread evenly on a baking tray and cook at 180 C for 10 mins or in the air fryer for about 8 mins. 

Trees for Survival Planting Day

This week our students attended our annual 'Trees for Survival' native tree planting trip. 

We have been watering and nurturing these native trees since we received them as tiny seedlings last August. 

We returned to the same farm as last year to plant them. This was great as we got to see how last years trees have progressed. 

To learn more about the Trees for Survival programme click HERE. 

Our hard working group of students were also joined by some members of our local residential home - Bruce McLaren Retirement Village. We also had Cate Jessep our fabulous sustainable schools coordinator join in too!  

We planted mānuka, harakeke (flax), tī kōuka (cabbage trees) and some native grasses. We planted over 400 trees! It was hard going as we were on a muddy slope. The farmers dog, Mabel, had a fantastic time joining in too! 

I loved seeing all the farm animals (Rianka) 

I liked working together to plant trees (Aira) 

It was fun planting different trees and learning the names of them. (Devin) 

The dog was so cute! And seeing all the other farm animals was fun too! (Ciska) 

Can you spot our baby trees we planted today? 

Our awesome tree planting team! 

Term 2 Garden to Table

 This term, two new classes have been doing our Garden to Table programme. 

In the kitchen... the usual fabulous mix of savoury, salad and sweet cooking continues. 

>  Students made ALL the items on sale for our annual bake sale. 

>  They have made food to celebrate Samoan language week and are planning for Matariki. 

The year 4 students were luckily enough to have a 'one off 'session while the year 5/ 6 students were at camp and doing outdoor education programme. 

Garden activities have included...

* Hunting for carrots and kumara! 

* Smashing up a pumpkin (sadly it went rotten so we had to compost it) 

* Planting, weeding  and composting

Enviro Successes

 Our school enviro programme received a number of awards and accolades at the Howick Local Board enviro meeting this week. 

We were very pleased to place 2nd school overall in the moth pod competition for the East Auckland area collecting a record 21 967 pods and roots.  

We were awarded a certificate for our work on waste reduction. For the 5th year running we have successfully reduced our school landfill waste. 

We have also received a certificate of recognition for beginning our journey calculating and reducing our school carbon footprint. 

Garden to Table - Kea cooking time!

Our Year two students have been cooking using our garden produce. 

They were so excited. 

We went to the garden and collected the vegetables and herbs we wanted to use. Everyone helped harvest and bring them inside. 

We made pizzas using spinach, basil, parsley and thyme. We even made a MONSTER GREEN pizza (using pesto sauce) 

We also used some rosemary to make herby bread chips. Everyone's favourite!  

Recipes: 

Pizza Dough

* 4 cups of self raising flour

* 3.5 cups of natural, plain yoghurt

* 2 teaspoons of salt. 

1) Mix and make into a soft dough. 

2) Add more flour then roll our flat.

3) Add sauce / toppings 

4) Cook at 180 C for about 10 mins 

** Makes about 6 medium pizzas.  

Herby Bread Chips 

* Crusts from about 1/2 loaf of bread or more as required 

* Olive Oil

* Herbs (we used rosemary & thyme) 1 - 2 tablespoons of each. 

1) Break crusts into 2cm pieces

2) Mix in a bowl with a drizzle of oil and herbs.

3) Spread evenly on a baking tray and cook at 180 C for 10 mins or in the air fryer for about 8 mins.