Kea classes learn about natives

This term Kea rooms 11, 12 and 14 are learning about native birds and trees. 

They have learnt why they are so special and how to help these species. 

In the first lesson students loved going outside to try and spot some native birds. We saw seagulls, blackbird, sparrows and magpies. Sadly no native or endemic birds. 

In the 2nd lesson we looked at the four whanau trees of our school. The whanau houses are: Pohutakawa (red),  Puriri (blue),  Kowhai (yellow) and Totara (green).  

We looked carefully and drew or coloured what we could see.

Room 7 Mandalas

 It was a beautiful sunny winter day today so a great time to collect leaves and make some amazing mandala patterns. 

It was wonderful to see students getting to explore nature through looking closely and touching and handling things. It was good to enjoy what Papatūānuku, the Earth, gives us. 

Students said...

"I love looking at all the beautiful leaves"

" Look! I found a butterfly wing!"

" This leaf looks like a sunset" 

"This is so fun! I love what I made"

Garden to Table Term 2 round up!

The recent wet weather has been great for the garden! 

During this term our students have been busy growing and harvesting kai and doing an excellent job managing the compost area. The gardens are looking very organised and more and more beds are being established. This has resulted in more food becoming available, we've started to get our own lemons for the first time!  

In the kitchen students have been making lots of winter warming recipes such as risotto, soups and lemon and ginger drink. They have had clear favourites so this have been made a few times! 

We have run a number of after school veggie sales on Wednesdays which have been a great way to managed excess produce as well as make money for further pantry staples. 

For ALL the recipes from Term 2 click HERE 

Trees For Survival

This week our Year 5 / 6 Enviro students travelled to a farm to plant the native trees we've been growing and nurturing since August last year when we first potted them up. 

We always try to plant on a farm and near a waterway as the tree roots stop the soil eroding and soak up excess water.

This year we planted manuka, kānuka, karamu, ti kōuka (cabbage tree), and harakeke (flax). 

We also had the opportunity to see how a real life farm works! 

UPDATE: The Trees for Survival report has been released and details how we planted 674 native trees! 

For the report on which trees we planted see below. 

Kea Learning Outdoors in Term 2

This term Kea classes have been learning about native birds and trees. They have learnt why they are so special and how to help these species. 

During these lessons we have learnt about:

* The birds we see at school - then we did a bird count.

* Our 4 whanau trees. The whanau houses are: Pohutakawa (red),  Puriri (blue),  Kowhai (yellow) and Totara (green).  

* Ways we can help attract more native birds to our school.

 

Tui Learning Outdoors in Term 2

 Some Tui classes have been looking carefully at our whanau trees which are all planted around the school. The whanau houses are: Pohutakawa (red),  Puriri (blue),  Kowhai (yellow) and Totara (green).  

Pohutakawa in flower (December) 

Puriri 

Kowhai in flower (usually November) 

Totara

We looked very carefully at the leaves and wrote adjectives to describe them. 

Then we wrote descriptive sentences.  The students all LOVED this practical learning activity and produced excellent writing with a range of descriptive writing devices. 

In addition, we used the leaves to create some mandala patterns.