Adopt a Park visit Term 4 2026

On Tuesday our year 2 / 3 enviro students had their final visit of the year to WILLIAM GREEN DOMAIN. 

It was lovely sunny day and after lunch and a quick visit to the playground we set to work picking up rubbish! 

Sadly there always seems to be a lot - plastic bottles and food wrappers being the most common trash we found. 

Next we did some river monitoring with Abi the park ranger. 

We learnt about the 5 C's of the stream - coolness, clarity, creatures, clean and current.

We took some measurements: 

* Coolness - we used a thermometer to measure the temperature - it was about 20 degrees which is a good temperature for the creatures there to live in. 

* Clarity - we put the stream water in a special tube and used a tool to see how far down the tube we could see. 

* Creatures - we looked at water Abi had scooped up from the stream and used a magnifying glass and some cards to try and work out what was in there. Some of the creatures were so tiny it was hard to see them! 

We spotted some tiny river worms, snails and amphipods (side swimmers) as well as a mayfly nymph that tried to escape! 

We hoped to find more creatures and wondered if the next C - clean (how clean the stream is) was affecting the amount of creatures there. 

Next time we would like to repeat some of these measurements to get a picture of the streams health. 

Trip to Motuihe Island

 As part of our enviro initiatives some students were selected to attend a special enviro day on Motuihe Island. They were chosen to attend as a result of their outstanding commitment to the moth pod competition this year. 

Ava and her Mum shared about their experience on this special day. 

Ava had a wonderful time on the vintage sailboat and learning about Motuihe.

We went on the boat Ida. It is a racing sailboat that was built in 1896. Edward Prince of Wales rode in this boat in 1920. On the way back our boat suffered engine troubles and made for an interesting experience.

Ava learnt that there is a whole different language for what things are called on a boat. Left - port, right - starboard, ropes - lines, skipper is the person in charge of the vessel, the helm is where the boat is steered from.

Ava loved seeing the birds. We managed to see oyster catchers, dotterel, saddle backs, tui and California quails. We could hear a few others too.

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Term 3: Adopt a Park visit

 This week our year 2 & 3 enviro students walked to William Green Domain to do some ACTION to help the environment. 

First we picked up some rubbish in teams of 3 or 4. 

We were shocked how much there was! We found over 25 plastic bottles in just 10 minutes. 

To reduce this we thought visitors to the park could...

"make sure they don't leave rubbish behind"

"take it with them and put it in a recycle bin"

" use reusable bottles so they don't need to keep on buying more plastic bottles. 

Next we had our lunch and explored the playground. 

After that Ranger Abi came and showed us how to remove the weeds round the natives we planted last term.  We learnt the name of some native trees and some interesting facts about them. 

Fact 1: The karo tree was planted from bird poo! 

Fact 2: Cabbage Trees (ti kouka) actually taste like cabbage in the middle! 

Fact 3: Harakeke (flax) has a gel that can be used to sooth sunburn. 

Our very favourite job was WEEDING! We pulled up LOTS of onion weed. All the weeds were stopping the young trees seeing the sunlight. 

Moth Pod Celebration Outing to PARADICE

 Every year we enter the HOWICK LOCAL BOARD MOTH POD COMPETITION. 

Every year we have huge school-wide interest in this event and tally up a massive number of these invasive weeds. 

This year was no different; with nearly 60 different students and teachers helping collect up and bring in pods and many students helping to count them at lunchtimes. 

We loved the addition of finding a GOLDEN pod this year!

All our hard work paid off - not only did we have a huge, positive impact on the environment removing these invasive weeds but we came SECOND school! 

To celebrate we had a fun outing to PARADICE MINI GOLF with our top 4 most active 'podders'. 

PARADICE supports our enviro initiatives at school by regularly donating vouchers for laser tag, mini golf and ice skating. 

We had lots of fun trying out all the unusual parts of the mini golf course. We also enjoyed some treats to keep us going while we played! 

Year 2/3 Adopt a Park

On Tuesday afternoon, a group of very enthusiastic Year 2 and 3 'Enviro students' visited William Green Domain for a planting afternoon.

We began with a quick tour of the park, identifying native trees and collecting rubbish.

Despite the changeable weather, which shifted from rain showers to sunshine, we successfully planted over 100 native trees and plants without getting too wet!

Our planting coordinators, Anna and Levi, demonstrated how to dig proper square holes for planting—we even discovered plenty of worms along the way!

With the support of our fantastic parent helpers, the students worked incredibly hard. We planted a variety of native grasses, cabbage trees, and flaxes, ensuring they were firmly in the ground so the pūkeko couldn't pull them out.

Native Tree Planting with "Trees For Survival"

     On Wednesday a group of enthusiastic year 5 / 6 enviro students set off to plant over 800 native trees & plants on a farm in Hunua. 

For the last 9 months we have been watering and nurturing these plants ready for this day. 

We watched a planting video beforehand and some of us had been last year so we knew what to expect. 

Kirsten, from Trees for Survival, did a great job of starting us off planting and making sure the pukeko weren't going to pull the seedlings out! 

It was a sunny but slightly chilly day when we started planting. But with the help of our fabulous parent helpers and even the bus driver we soon had them firmly planted in the ground. 

Together we planted 835 natives! 

We planted: manuka, karamu, mahoe, ti kouka, harakeke and 2 different types of sedge grass. 

Afterwards we enjoyed relaxing on the lawn, playing in the sunshine and collecting 

grapefruit to take back with us. 

Thank you to Maxine and Hamish, the farm owners, for a delicious lunch and for showing us your beautiful horses.