Showing posts with label PTC 6 Conceptualiseplan and deliver an appropriate learning programme. Show all posts
Showing posts with label PTC 6 Conceptualiseplan and deliver an appropriate learning programme. Show all posts

Tuesday, 3 July 2018

Weta Hotel - A Gift From Our Local Keas - Living Landscapes - Sustainable Communities - Taking Action


Koru Whanau have been learning about the animals in our back yard; our most exciting discoveries included tree wetas in the native bush walk. We wondered how we could protect and encourage these endemic taonga. 

Our wonderful local Kea group has just the answer! They've been building weta houses. Sunnyhills School and the Marae in Howick are two of the lucky recipients of their hard work. 

Griffin, Drake, Hannah & Roman presented Mrs Daniel with the weta house and will help to find just the right spot in the native bush walk. Thank you!

Next we'll go on another bug hunt and reflect on any changes.  Will we see more wetas now they have a cosy hotel?


Want to make your own weta house? Check out this article on the science learning hub: https://www.sciencelearn.org.nz/resources/1964-building-homes-for-tree-weta 

Wednesday, 14 March 2018

Hey Presto Pesto & Grilled Zucchini; Our autumn harvest




Our basil plants are coming to an end so it's harvest time!! We made sure we left some plants to go to seed so the flowers feed the bees and we get more basil plants popping up next year.

Seven classes made delicious basil pesto this week, with Mrs Daniel. That's a lot of basil! Here's out quick and easy recipe:

HEY PRESTO PESTO

INGREDIENTS
Basil leaves
Oil (we used Rice Bran Oil)
A pinch of salt
Sunflower seeds or nuts
Garlic (optional)

METHOD
Place all ingredients in a food processor and blitz until smooth.

ENJOY on crackers, with pasta, as a dip or on pizza.


GRILLED CHEESE ZUCCHINI

By enviro class number eight, the basil had run low, but not to worry Room 15 picked a marrow and made a another delicious snack.

We cubed the giant zucchini, added some salt and a decent hand full of cheese, before grilling on high for 15minutes. Yummo!

Tuesday, 27 February 2018

Kale Chips Are Ka Pai




To celebrate our last Enviro lesson this term, we've been harvesting our kale and making kale chips.

The kale leaves were wet, soft and bright green when we picked them. After they were put in the oven we noticed they changed to being dry, crisp and dark green. They tasted yum!

We put the leftover stalks in the worm bin, so the worms can make more fertiliser for our edible gardens and we'll have more veges to eat. That's being sustainable! I wonder what we will plant next ....

Wednesday, 29 November 2017

Zaina & Emma's Enviro Website

Check out Zaina & Emma's website: https://sites.google.com/sunnyhills.school.nz/enviro-message/home

What's there main message? Comment below ☺

Tuesday, 15 August 2017

Our TFS Planting Day - Sunnyhills Enviro Monitors share their planting day experience

Trees for Survival
By Cathy
Year 6
Sunnyhills School


Do you want to be planting trees with a bunch of your friends on a nice sunny day in the countryside? Trees for survival is just like that. I went to a farm in Hunua with my friends and planted trees there, and the farmer even made pizza for our lunch! It was fun and we were helping the environment too!


After we got off the bus, we walked to the planting site. It was downward sloping site and the farmer wanted to plant trees there, as there was a lake next to the site and the farmer wanted to stop the soil eroding into the river. All the trees were laid out for us in black plastic bags and we went to work.


When half of the trees were planted, the boys kept planting and the girls ( Me! ) started mulching the trees. A truck came filled with mulch and we got buckets and mulched the trees. Mulch stops the weeds from growing around the trees and helps keep the tree moist in summer. We also had to make sure that the base of the tree was mulch-free. After we mulched about half the trees, the boys started mulching and the girls carried on planting.


When we finished planting, we had lunch. It was homemade pizza, apples, sausage rolls and scones while we looked at the trees we just planted and mulched( The food tasted so good and the whole group felt so accomplished! ) We had just planted a whole bank of trees!


I think this was one of the best days of my life, ( Being honest here.) and I would DEFINITELY recommend going there.  It was fun, amazing and we helped the environment! Hope I can see you planting trees soon!


Trees for survival is a great opportunity for kids to get into the environment and use a bit of elbow grease. It is a great day with friends to plant new trees and help with environment. The farmers are friendly and provide food at lunchtime. I highly recommend going to the  trees for survival project. Ethan, Year 6, Sunnyhills School




On Friday 4th August, 20 Students from Sunnyhills School school went on a trip to a farm in Hunua. At the farm we were taught how to plant our trees properly. In the end we planted 400-450 plants. At the farm they made us a delicious pizza for lunch and it was great. The day was pretty full on, but it was still very very fun. Morgan, Year 6, Sunnyhills School



Tuesday, 8 August 2017

Pest Free NZ 2050 - Tracker Tunnels & Chew Cards









Did you know NZ has pledged to be pest free by 2050? Sunnyhills students are on board to make this a reality!

But which pests live at Sunnyhills? Room 7, 6, 2 & 1 students made and laid tracker tunnels and chew cards to answer this question.

You can make your own tracker tunnels at home too: https://youtu.be/uChWMjSIJh8



Next week we'll inspect the paw prints and bitemarks....stay tuned for results!!

16.8.17 Update : Today we checked our tracker tunnels & chew cards. Lots of the bait was missing from our chew cards with no bite marks - we blame the rain and ants and perhaps a licky cat. However, we were excited to find one chew card with tiny teeth marks!


Most if the tracker tunnels were untouched except for snails, but one had four distinct paw prints!



Back in our classrooms, we used online resources to identify the teeth marks and paw prints ......both are from a hedgehog!

Mrs Jeans has also discovered evidence of a rat living in one of her storage cupboards at school.

Next week, we're looking forward to a visit from Auckland City Council's Pest Control and creating posters to spread the word about Pestfree 2050.

Tuesday, 25 July 2017

Who are our NZ animal celebrities and villains?




To launch our Term 3 enviro inquiry about protecting our endemic species from invasive pests, the middle and senior school took part in an animal scavenger hunt, through the native bush walk. Do you know the difference between native & endemic?



"I found it really fun to search through the gardens. We looked in places we wouldn't normally go and thought outside the box" Samantha

"It's so fun to go in nature".
Finn

"I wish we could do this for every lesson. I didn't know that honeybees were introduced"
Cynthia

Tuesday, 4 July 2017

Our Pet Pest



While we were conducting the Landcare bird survey today with Mrs Daniel, Room 7 saw Louie, the much loved school cat, catch a silver eye. Luckily the little native bird got away, but two others were not so lucky.

Louie has been waiting for silver eyes to go under the neighbour's fruit tree net then easily catching them. Clever hunting but not great for our native birds.

Killing natives?! Does this make Louie and other cats a pest? We will be investgate more about  what it means to be pests, native, endemic, or intoduced, next term.

What do you think? Is Louie a pest? Comment below.




Wednesday, 28 June 2017

Citizen Science - The Landcare Bird Survey

Building from our work to provide habitats for our native birds at Sunnyhills, we've been taking part in the Landcare Bird Survey. It was so much fun spotting birds in the sunshine.





Our favorite finds were the two fantails and tuis in the Fordyce entrance trees. The  flock of 9 African swallows dipping and diving over the field were pretty spectacular as well.



UPDATE - Room 20 saw two Spur-winged plovers hanging out on the field and hall roof. Wow!! Another Australian import we saw were a group of rosellas.

Sadly we also saw a cat catch a silver eye and two dead silver eyes😢 It was an action packed survey session.

We're wondering how to help our native birds and what threatens them.



And you can take part in the survey at home too! Just follow the link - http://www.landcareresearch.co.nz/science/plants-animals-fungi/animals/birds/garden-bird-surveys


Wednesday, 10 May 2017

Do the Rot Thing: Compost Critters


This term the middle school are learning about how important our big 5 decomposers are to a sustainable future. Without worms, insects, mould, funghi & bacteria to biodegrade waste, we wouldn't have lovely nutient rich soil to grow our food in. Did you know all food comes from dirt? Doubt it? Ask a middle schooler to tell you how.



Today we went compost diving to find out more about the insects and mini beasts hard at work breaking down our scraps.

Comment below if you've got a worm farm or compost at home ☺🌍

Wednesday, 3 May 2017

Meet Bernice

Meet Bernice the butternut squash who has been helping to teach our Junior children all about plant lifecycles this week.



We read about Bernice in the picture book Sophie's Squash by Pat Zietlow. It's a funny and sweet book about a girl who really likes vegetables. We talked about how plants grow and what they need.

We also sang One Seed by Lairie Berkner. It's got a great enviro message:
https://youtu.be/jDtehB-BpIA






Lastly each Junior class weeded, composted, dug in the soil and planted a winter vegetable in the edible gardens.

We planted:
- kale
- peas
- broccoli
- cabbage
- pak choy
And we even planted butternut squash, so Bernice will have more friends.

We can't wait to watch them all grow and eat them!

Monday, 17 April 2017

Bring in the Birds - A Senior School Enviro Project

This term the Senior School have been exploring the concept of ecosystems and investigating how we can attract more manu species into our school environment. Some of our hard work is on display in the school hall.

 Which is your favourite type of bird?

Now we know what each species likes to eat and where they like to live, our next steps are to plan an area for our manu.


Tuesday, 21 March 2017

Room 19 Pot & Prune

Today Room19 potted up an avocado seedling. Billy recognised the giant seed straight away.

Then we did a fantastic job of pruning the Trees for Survival. Pruning them will make them bushy and strong. We needed to measure 30 cm carefully on each plant. We were amazed how the plants had grown from 2cm seedlings to 40cm plants in less than a year. Super maths skills everyone!