Visit to a pest free island - Motuihe Island

On Sunday 15th October we went to a pest free island for being amazing at collecting moth pods. 

We all woke up and met each other at school at 7:50am and Miss Long drove us to the Maritime museum to meet with the other schools. After we started boarding the boats. 

At the island we went on a walk and started naming trees like pōhutakawa, five fingers, pūriri and more. Then we went down on the beach and ate our lunch. After we started boarding the boats again; it was around an hour and a half to get there and then back again. 

My favourite thing was the boat ride back when we got soaked! 

By Jade, Room 2. 

On board the boat

One of the other boats

On the trip we learnt about the plants on Motuihe island.  What I learnt was the difference between Toetoe and Pampas grass.  They are both kind of like flax but Pampas has one vein on the leaves and it is introduced.  What I enjoyed most was the boat trip with the big waves.  It was like a rollercoaster.  Overall I had a great time. 

By George, Room 17 

Can you spot the rare kaka beak flower?

Exploring the beach

Views! 

Island walk and tree spotting

Enjoying the waves on the way back!

... even enjoying the surprise waves too!

Watch Out - There's a Rat About!

 In term 3 and term 4 the Tui students have been learning about native and introduced species. We then went on to think about pests and if we might have any at school.

We talked about the 'clues' that told us if pests (namely rats) might be at our school.

We designed our own 'tracker tunnels' and thought about where to put them to see if there was any pests sneaking around.  Did we find any footprints in our tunnels? See below... 

What other clues can you see? 

Tracker tunnel in place

Something ate the peanut butter AND the tissue!

Hmm... what animal made these footprints? 

More animal footprints

A hole... 

A gruesome discovery this week told us there WAS a rat at school. 

However the footprints in our tracker tunnels are not conclusive evidence that it went through there. 

Introduced, Invasive and a PEST!

 This term Tui classes have been learning about species that are introduced to New Zealand. 

Unfortunately we have seen a rat around our compost area so this was a great learning opportunity! 

Over the course of three lessons, the classes learnt about:

* Introduced vs Native species 

* Invasive animals and plants

* Predator control

In the final lesson students worked in groups to make their own 'tracker tunnel'. The best ones from each class were set up around the school to see if we could see if the rat was still around after our groundsman had put some bait down. 

Watch this space to see what we found! 

Wrapper Free Lunchbox Projects

 This year we have trialled a number of different projects to promote having a 

WRAPPER FREE LUNCH! 

Term 1: Each class had a 'tick chart' and ticked their name each time they were wrapper free. At the end of each '5 week block' (half a term) names were randomly selected to win prizes. 

Term 2: We formed an enviro group that followed the action learning cycle and identified soft plastic as one area we could still focus on as a way of reducing our school waste. The students came up with different ideas then voted... the 'Enviro Scavenger Hunt' was the most popular. 

The enviro group students created posters. These were then put up around the school showing different lunchbox items. They students had to answer questions about what was in the image;

 e.g. How many different rainbow fruits were in the lunchbox? 

How much are the Cookies in the Jar mix that we sell? 

Term 3: Our focus this term was promoting having healthy food in our lunchboxes as we saw many students didn't seem to have much fruit and vegetables for lunch. 

The 'Rainbow Lunchbox Challenge' started! 

Each week students had to have a different 'rainbow coloured' fruit and vegetable in their lunchbox. If they did; they showed a monitor, collected a slip and went in the prize draw for that week. 

Prizes included books, 'Baking with a Buddy' vouchers, 2nd hand toys and double passes for Paradice Botany! These were a huge hit! A massive THANK YOU to Paradice Botany for giving our students a chance to skate, putt or laser tag! 

Term 4: ??? The big question is, what do we do next? 

Watch this space to see what our enviro students come up with! 

 

Garden to Table - becoming a model school and more awesome work by Room 17 & 2

 We are very excited to announce that our school has been selected to be a model school showcasing our Garden to Table programme to other schools in East Auckland! 

We have started off by hosting a hui last week and inviting other schools to share some of the things we do at Garden to Table.  

We asked the students what their favourite things were to do in Garden to Table:

I love cooking! 

I love trying all the new foods.

Trying to guess what all the leaves are when we look at them on the table.

🍎🍎🍎 We have been lucky to have received a very large crate of apples! 

Many we donated to families, ate during the school day or gave to local food banks. 

We kept a good amount though to bake apple muffins and apple and rhubarb crumble! 

For all the recipes we have made this term click HERE

The ever popular herby breadsticks- great use of leftover crusts!

In the garden shed

Using some of the apples!

Year 3/ 4 Adopt a Park #3

 This week our Year 3/4 Enviro students visited William Green Domain for our third trip. 

Today's focus was planting 100 native trees along the river bank.

We planted harakeke (flax), tī kōuka (cabbage tree) and some native grasses. 

It was amazing how quickly and efficiently we got them all in the ground! 

After some lunch and a play we headed back to school.

Sadly we spotted A LOT of rubbish around - we all picked some up on the walk home and easily had enough to fill a bin bag. 

 

Term 3 Garden to Table - Room 17 & 2

 So far this term it has been a great time for lots of warming winter soups with the herby breadsticks - always a favourite!  The dessert options of crumbles and warm muffins have gone down well too! 

For a list of the recipes we have made so far this term click HERE 

There has been lots of "greens" used from the garden in our cooking and we've started to have a few extra lemons to sell at our weekly enviro stall on Wednesdays. Pop by after school Wednesdays to see us!