Showing posts with label Learning PTC 9 PTC 7:Environment. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Learning PTC 9 PTC 7:Environment. Show all posts

Tuesday, 2 May 2023

Room Tekau ma Waru

 Room 18 began investigating uses for the herbs we grow in our Edible Gardens.  We brainstormed the herbs we knew.  Next we added fresh basil to the tomato soup that Mrs Daniel had made from the tomatoes grown over the summer.  We all tried some.  

"It tasted quite sweet" Fred

"It was a little bitter" Semith

"It smelled like tomato sauce" Ali

"It was yucky" Lily

"It was hot" Ben

"It tasted like fresh tomatoes" Ben










Another use for our herbs is making herbal teas.  We brainstormed what we knew about tea and then broke into teams to investigate 10 different fresh herbs from the gardens.  We felt them and smelled them and looked carefully at them.  Lastly we guessed their names to make it a fun quiz.

Just before the end of the day we collected all the waste from around the school, because tomorrow Mrs Daniel is conducting the annual waste audit. 

Afterwards, there was just enough time for a 'Herbs & Spices' Kahoot.

Next time we're learning about the history of tea beginning in China. We'll try Aotearoa's kawakawa tea too. 


Wednesday, 26 June 2019

More Fun With Fungus - Yeast!

Bread, marmite, beer and chocolate all use a simple fungus called YEAST. We investigated how yeast eats sugar and makes bubbles.

We placed yeast, warm water and sugar in a bottle and topped it with a balloon. Look at our photos to see the results ...





Saturday, 5 May 2018

Barking the Western Boundary on Sunday - Taking Action On Our Bird Corridor

A big thank you to all the wonderful families who who joined the Mrs Venville, Mrs Driver, Mrs Knofflock and Miss Fullard to weed and bark our new native trail.  We had perfect weather not too hot and the promised rain held off.  Mrs Steel got our yummy morning tea ready for us and even Mr Venville came and helped.  Many hand make light work as students and parents beavered away.  All done by 11.30 and it looks AMAZING.

Mrs Venville xxx










Tuesday, 20 February 2018

ANGUS - THIS WEEK’S SUNNYHILLS ENVIRO HERO

ANGUS - THIS WEEK’S SUNNYHILLS ENVIRO HERO

Angus explains, "My dad and i walked from our home down the Rotary Walkway. We picked up a whole bag of rubbish including dead lighters, plastic bottles, plastic bags and nappies. We did it cause we know the estuary goes straight to the sea. We know it's already not the cleanest place and we don't want anymore plastic to go there because sea life can swallow it and it'll get stuck in their throat and they can die."

What will you do this week to help our environment?

Wednesday, 1 November 2017

Action Learning in Action! - Sunnyhills Farmers Market Supporting Pest Free 2050 & The Squawk Squad



This term the Sunnyhills learners brought together our edible garden project with our action learning plan to encourage more native birds by holding a Farmers Market to support the Pestfree 2050 project. We've been selling the vegetables, herbs and fruit we've grown to our community and using the money to support The Squawk Squad, who trap pests to protect native birds.

The Squawk Squad were pretty impressed with our efforts!

You can support the Squawk Squad too: https://squawksquad.co.nz/




Action Learning In Action!

Identify the Current Situation -  Learning about native birds - DOC Expriencing Birds in Your Green Space, The Manaki Whenua Landacare Bird Survey, Bird of the Year

Explore Alternatives - research trees to attract birds and how to trap pests that can harm them.  Visit from Ruari a pest expert from DOC

Take Action - plan a new bird corridor to plant new trees for the birds, farmers market to support trappers in reserves, hold a Pestival to promote trapping in the local community, setting and checking rat traps,

AND Treemendous Trees Video Application - view below:


Update - our application was unsuccessful, but Mrs Venville has managed to get 1200 from Gecko Trust to start our bird corridor!  She's planning a working bee to start the work with the help of all our whanau.

Reflect - still no rats caught in our traps, but some local families are catching them.  We think maybe the local cats keep them under control.

Wednesday, 23 August 2017

Our Marine Metre Square - Citizen scientists in action!






Today our Middle School Enviro Monitors, along with Mrs Venville, Mrs Daniel, three awesome parent helpers and marine biologist Dr Mels Barton conducted a Marine Metre Square survey.
We're helping scientists researching the health of our marine environments.

It was great fun! Sunnyhills families can conduct their own MM2 survey by visiting www.mm2.net.nz

Tuesday, 15 August 2017

Travelwise Leaders - Time Zone Mapping

Travelwise Leaders - Time Zone Mapping

Today the Travelwise Leaders worked with Constable Merv, Mrs Venville and Marianne and her team from MOT to create a Time Zone Map.  We split up and walked four of the popular routes to school recording where we were after 5, 10 and 15 minutes.  Marianne has taken the data away and will create a walking time zone map which we will share with the community.  This part of the Travelwise Leaders initiative to encourage our school community to walk rather than travel by car to school.


Tuesday, 8 August 2017

Sustainability Challenge

Sustainability Challenge

Yesterday the Enviro Group took part in a sustainability Challenge at the Botanic Gardens.  We had to work strategically as a team and complete enviro challenges at stations to earn points.  Points could also be scored by finding clues.  We needed to read a map to locate these which was not as easy as we thought it would be. Matching the stream life to the pictures and description was really difficult.  So was the marine life activity - but we got there.  One of our groups came 4th which was a massive achievement as there was over 300 team taking part.  Fortunately the rained stayed away though our shoes and socks were soaked.  Here are some photos showing some of the challenges we completed.

                                           Planting lavender

                                                     Identifying river creatures

                                          Identifying marine life

                                                    Collecting clues

                                          How seeds are spread

                                          Finished

                                          Well deserved rest and lunch

                                                    Ready to start

                                                    Looking for fossils

                                                    Identifying river creatures

                                                    Naming the parts of a flower

                                                    The worm Farm challenge

          Such fun.  Got back with 3 minutes to spare and no penalty point incurred