Food Trip... around New Zealand!

 We have been learning about food from different places in the world. 

The next part of this 'food trip' brings us back to New Zealand. 

We have been reading about the giant food sculptures that are throughout the country; the giant carrot, fruit and the big trout. Some of them have been here for many years! 

We learnt about the Maori gods - or atua and how they help provide food. 

After we played a game where someone did an action and we had to guess which god it was linked to. 

To finish with we tried some carrots from the garden and some from the supermarket... do you think YOU could tell the difference? We could! 

" The shop carrots might have chemical sprayed on it so it will taste different" 

"One of them was a lighter colour" 

" The darker orange one was sweeter"

" One is much crunchier than the other" 

Kumara Season!

This week at Garden to Table we celebrated a milestone:

harvesting the first of our kumara for the season!

David and the senior students had worked hard creating an excellent

new kumara bed, and we are hoping for a great crop this year!

Before the harvest, we said a karakia (blessing). Following tradition, the first harvest of kumara is presented to a respected elder,

and this honour was given to Mrs Hurley.

This tradition reflects practices that many Māori growers still follow:

• Begin harvest with karakia

• Respect Rongo-mā-Tāne

• Keep first-fruit traditions in some form

• Emphasise careful handling and curing

Room 5 and Room 2 have been busy the last few weeks!

Other exciting activities they have been doing include:

• The great compost bucket race! 

• Building Bliss Ball snowmen

• Eating lots of juicy greens from the garden in our veggie pasta

• Getting a good dose of Vitamin C with the first of our lemons

• Discovering carrots can be RED!

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. 

Herbs and tea!

Herbal tea; not only is it a great 'winter warmer' but it has many health benefits too. 

This term the year 3- 6 students have been learning about and tasting tea. 

We have learnt about tea from all around the world and have made our own herbal tea. 

The students came up with some really thoughtful questions; 

'How long has tea been around?'

'How is tea healthy?'

'How many different types of tea are there in the world? 

'What tea is popular in different countries?'

'Why does tea make you feel energised?'

We collected some herbs from the garden and explored what they were like by feeling, smelling and even tasting them! 

We looked up how different herbs are used in different kinds of herbal tea, 

- thyme can be used in tea to help with sore throats 

- rosemary helps with brain function

- mint can be a great 'wake up' tea! 

We made the 'morning wake up' tea using mint, lemon balm (as a substitute) and lemon zest (we have lots of lemon trees at school too!) 

We are going to make the brain tea next as one student has some 'gotu kola' - a common Sri Lankan herb, growing in their garden at home. 

Garden to Table Composting & Kumura Beds

Our Garden to Table GARDENERS have been doing a great job in the garden both composting the food scraps and collecting the new, rich compost we have made!  

                                             

Our new hot composting is going really well and turning out fresh 'black gold' compost in about 2 months! 

We are also adding more growing space to the gardens by creating kumara beds.  We had great success growing kumara 2 years ago but, to keep healthy soil, we have planted other vegetables in that particular garden bed this year.

Year 5/ 6 ENVIRO Eye on Nature Trip

 On Tuesday we went on an enviro trip with Mrs Rothery and some helpful parents to the Auckland Botanical Gardens. It was so fun, we did a lot of activities. 

1) Our 1st activity was learning about bees. We learnt how to get honey from the bees. Eden and I got to wear special beekeeper clothes. They were too big for us but it was cool. It was fun trying to find the queen bee. 

The 2nd activity was learning about plants and what they could be used for. We went for a walk in a native forest. We learnt about lots of other native plants we never knew about. We saw some Totara. When we were done we went back to the place we started at and did a quick quiz. After we had a snack and then we moved on. 

The 3rd activity was food scraps. It was so fun. Some volunteers got to do a great show even if it was short. Then we played a game. It was so noisy when we played it. Thinidi won a prize. Finally we learned more about how food scraps can help us. 

The 4th (and final) activity was the AM/Auckland museum. They shared a Maori legend with us and showed us cool instruments. I played the poi. It was loud in the tent. Everybody had  cool ways to play the instruments. Sadly it started pouring and some of us got wet. When we were done with the musical instruments and activities we got on the bus and went back to school. It was an amazing day and we learnt a lot of new things. If you get an opportunity to go on an enviro trip you should because it is great fun and you learn lots of new things.

Written by Rianka