Watercare with Year Three

 Today Year Three's Enviro lesson was with Sarah from Watercare.  We discovered where the water in our taps comes from - The Waikato River, aquifers & dams.  Did you know Watercare has 12 dams in Tamaki Makaurau? 

We thought about all the ways we used water this morning; toilet flushes, facewashing, toothbrushing, handwashing, dishwasher, shower, and even a robotmop/vaccuum, 

We learnt how to be Water Saving Heroes:

- turn off the tap when we brush our teeth or use a cup (20 litres can be wasted if the tap is left running)

- use the small button when we flush the toilet (Yes, the small button can be used for number twos. It takes 12 litres to flush the big button and just 7 for the small)

- fill the bath less (a full bath takes 200 litres of water)

- use your bath water on the plants or share your bathtime

- have a short shower (showers take 12 litres of water a minute)

Each tamariki are bringing home a shower timer to help them and their whanu be Water Saving Superheroes. Thank you Watercare!!

If we are careful with our water it's great for the environment as the water will stay in our dam lakes, aquifers and rivers.

Lastly we used our superpowers of problem solving and collaboration to create super fun water courses. 

Thank you to Sarah and Watercare for a wonderful learning experience! 

Year Four Launch 2025 - Reflect & Get Thinking

 

Today Year Four launched 2025 by going on a scavenger hunt to reflect on all the places that make us a GreenGold Enviroschool.

Then we got thinking about what we want our sustainbility year to look like. At envrioschools we have empowered learners that lead the way :)

What do you want to do in our sustainability lessons?

- Max - plant more trees

- Harvey - less buildings and more plants

- Alice - eat stuff we have never heard of before

- Ella M - pick up rubbish

- Juanito - grow watermelon & cabbages

- Lakyn - eat vegetables

- Ciara - go bird spotting

- Constance - have a trip out of the school 

- Alonso - have a lot more exploring in the nature trail

- Payton - make a tree house

- Ranger - water the plants

- Eloise - do some more art about sustainability

- Flynn - plant flowers 

- Ruby - look after the bird house

- Annie - plant more fruit trees

- Coby - learn about litter

- Ocatavia - make more art for around the school

- eat food from the garden

- more scavenger hunts

- learn about our favourite animals

- make herbal tea and drink tea

Year Five Prepare our Mara for Raumati

 

Today Year Five had an important job preparing our mara (garden) for raumati (summer).  

We put the hot compost and worm farms to sleep by feeding them up, watering and putting the equipment away.

We weeded the mara kai and collected the wild flower seeds.  

Next we planted kumara tipu and sunflower seeds.

Bonus for Room 3; they found cucumber, strawberries and kohlrabi ready to pick and eat.

Over the summer a new irrigation system is going in.  Hooray that will help the sunflowers, kumara and all the other plants to grow.

Lastly we made origami seed packets so we can grow our own phacelia at home.

Well done Year Five this was excellent mahi for our future Eco Leaders!

Year 3 Rainbow Ramen

 Mrs Daniel had TOO MUCH rainbow silverbeet in her garden, so today Year 3 made Rainbow Ramen.  

Jessica "It felt soft and crunchy and it tasted a little bit spicy"

Coby "It tasted really yum"

Hazel "It smelt nice like noodles and garlic"

Archie "The veggies were really good in it and it was tasty"

Ranger "The bubbles were made out of oil"

Alice "It tasted healthy"

Ciara "It was sweet and salty"

Camelia "The rainbow silverbeet gave it colour"

Greenfingers Gang Harvesting Kai

 

Year 4 Stormwater Detectives

 Today Year 4  conducted our anual water testing to check the health of our estuary.  We learnt about how human actions threaten our water ways such as oil from cars, plastic litter, concrete run off and detergent.  

We can help by making sure only rain goes down the outside drain because they lead straight to the sea.

Kathryn from Watercare brought water from our local stormwater outflow.  We used special equipment to measure turbidity (how clear it is), PH (how acidic, nuetral or alkaline it is), nitrate (chemicals from things like fertilisers), & oxygen. 

Next we observed carefully to see if the water contained any macro invertebrates.

We discovered that the water was clear & nuetral.

The nitrate test showed a small amount of pollution.

There were some bugs, but none that can't survive with trace pollution.

Sadly there was lots of litter.

Next year we are going to think about what actions we can take to protect our local wai.

Recycled decorations

 Check out our recycled paper decorations:

How can we have a sustainable Christmas? 

Kay den "Make Eco friendly ornaments" 

Elizabeth "Use reusable bags instead of wrapping paper" 

Rebab " Keep plastic Christmas trees for 10 years" 

Astin "Compost real Christmas trees" 

Ella " Use the food scrap bin"