Year Five Spaghetti Squash Seed Savers

 

Today Year Five set to work saving the spaghetti squash seeds we had harvested at the beginning of term.  

Do you remember the spaghetti squash we grew over raumati/summer and roasted? https://www.blogger.com/blog/post/edit/5234492709449203093/605536775667702119 We had collected the seeds from inside and dried them out.  Now it's time to store them for planting in our own mara next koanga/spring. Free kai!

We looked at various seed packets to see what a successful container would look like:

- a paper envelope with no gaps

- a title and picture

- instructions for growing that included when, where and how.

We had to think carefully to create our own seeds packets using A4 paper, glue, scissors. When we were sure it had no gaps we decorated it with pictures and instructions.  Lastly we filled them with six seeds each.

Now we can grow our own spaghetti squash or gift the seeds to some gardeners we know as an Easter surprise.

We're looking forward to continuing our Ready Steady Go Sustainable Travel topic next term.

Eco Group Celebrate Eye On Nature & Reflect

 Today the Eco Group celebrated a successful trip to 'Eye on Nature' .  We started by unboxing the goodies that the Manukau Beautification Trust gifted us when we left.

Wow there were gloves, compost, seeds, booklets and so many resources full of ideas so we can take action to help te taiao. 

We reflected on what we learnt on our trip with Auckland Museum, Beez Things, Auckland Council and Conservation Volunteers:

Evie "I learnt how the eels are becoming extinct because of the dams and how some people are putting rivers around the dams"

Taryn "We learnt about plants that native and that you can nibble on for a snack"

Louisa "I learnt that waka's are made of trees that 100's of years old"

Vinuka "I learnt about the eels life cycles"

Hunter "I learnt how to play instruments with just nature"

Blake "I learnt about long fin and short fin eels"

Toby "I learnt that there's one type of native eel - longfin"

Alexander "I learnt what its like to have a bee suit on"

Evie "We learnt about the Maori Gods and beginning of the world"

What actions could we take inspired by our day?

Vinuka "Pull weeds and catch pests"

Evie "We could write letters to people with the dams and make posters and videos to try and make a difference"

Alexander "Go to a science lab and make something to kill varoa mites"

Alexander "Make Sunnyhills candles"

Toby "Make medicine with propolis to cure cancer"

Olivia "We could make beeswax wraps and have a shop at the Howick markets"

Evie "We could protest"

Taryn "We could kill the wasps"

What amazing ideas! Next week we can use the beeswax from our Beez Things hives to make beeswax wraps. That will help us bring litter free lunches.

Thank you Manukau Beautification Trust and sponsors! 

Year Four Weed Busters

 Today, Year Four learnt about the dangers of pest plants that have been introduced to Aotearoa.  We discovered weeds are plants in the wrong place and pest plants threaten our native flora and fauna.

We can take action by entering the Moth Plant Competition:

We love hands on learning and helping our kura, so we ended our lesson with a big weeding session to tidy our school for the upcoming 55th Jubilee.  Well done Year 4 what wonderful team work!!

Te Wiki o te Reo Maori with Room 17

 Today Room 17 learnt new Reo Maori.  We labelled our beautiful plant collages wtih our new kupu:

Tipu - plant

Putake - roots

Rau - leaves

Kakau - stem

Puawai - flower

Room Tekau ma Tahi Take Action

 Today Room 11 took action for the environment.  We found some pesky moth plant climbing over the trees at the back of our classroom.  Kenny put on gloves and  pulled out the vines by the roots.

Next we collected plastic litter. It doesn't break down and can hurt animals. We noticed 19 pieces of litter, out of 26 collected, were from lunchboxes. Well done to the eight children with litterfree lunchboxes today.

After lunch we reviewed how to grow kai & explored the difference between hua whenua (vegetables) & hua rakau (fruit).

We tasted feijoas from the Edible Gardens and planted bok choy.

Next time we see Mrs Daniel we'll make vegetable soup.

Share & Shine in the Green Room

 Apart from all our actions we take around the school like biking, composting & litterfree lunches, we love to share our learning in the displays in the Green Room and library. Have you seen our new walls?

Climate Change and Energy 

Protecting biodiversity in the nghere (forest)

Our journey towards Zero Waste

The Enviroschools guiding principles & our Care Code.

Our Moana Enquiry 

Learning bike skills on our track means we can make sustainable transport choices.