Shubh (Happy) Diwali

 Last week we celebrated Diwali at Garden to Table. 

To begin the week many of the teachers dressed in brightly coloured clothes and saris. 

The teachers had a yummy feast thank to Mr Venkataiya! 

At Garden to Table the students also had a delicious feast! They made: 

* Vegetarian curry

* Flat bread 

* Nankhatai biscuits  

 

  

  

ALL of the food disappeared very quickly! 

The biscuits were a favourite - a tiny, yummy sweet treat with a hint of spice. 

In the garden students collected lots of colourful flowers to make beautiful posies for the tables. 

Celebrating Enviro Successes

This year all classes have been involved in our 'enviro challenge' initiative. 

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Classes collect points for helping the environment in different ways; 

>  putting rubbish in the right bin

>  having a wrapper free lunch

>  picking up rubbish outside

And other special challenges that have popped up throughout the year - like bringing in items for SWAPtember or walking  / biking during our active travel week.  

In assembly last week we celebrated seven classes 

that have reached different enviro challenge milestones: 

*  300 points (platinum level) earned by Room 1, 2 and 6 

* 200 points (gold level) earned by Room 13, 8 and 17

* 50 points (bronze) earned by Room 11 - despite being at school for less than a term! 

Room 12 recently reached gold level and celebrated this achievement by decorating gingerbread cookies!  

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.