Room 10 Bee Dance Off

 Today we found out about how bees communicate where flowers are by waggle dancing. We broke into groups to come up with our own dances. We ended the afternoon with a dance off! Room 10 have awesome moves!!

Pestfree Cadetship Session 2

Today we learnt about the pests that threaten our native tree planting. We were lucky to see stuffed versions of the pests, their paw prints and even their poos (plastic of course)! Next session we'll learn about the action we can take to protect our trees and native birds.

Exploring ideas of privilege and equality - The Chip Packet Project

Year 3,5, 5 & 6 took part in an experiment to explore privilege and equality. The experiment is outined here:

We threw a piece of paper representing all our life's goals, aspirations and dreams into a container but weren't allowed to move from our place on the mat.

This is what the tamariki thought:

IN THE FRONT

I feel like when you're trying to reach a goal you can't always reach it the first time.

You can succeed in life sometimes but not all the time

You'll succeed in life. You can always but eventually you will.

It was harder in the front becasue you didn't want to overshoot

Even if you're so far behind if you push through you'll achieve.

Some pople are lucky and some people aren't.  If you try hard you have a bigger chance of succeeding.

It's like throwing yourself out there.  When you hit you're succeeding and trying harder.

K2 - We were born smart and the people at the back need to try harder.  It's not equal.

Work hard to achieve what you want

You won't always succeed

Room 6 - It's easy at the front

Some of your dreams will come true and some won't

Life comes with many challenges and you have to face your fears and work hard

FROM THE MIDDLE

People at the front have it easy, but if you're at the back you'll learn to work hard

Poeple are born in different places and it will be harder of easier to reach your goal

Room6 - You have to concentrate and work hard

I think it's actually have to practice to get better

FROM THE BACK

It wasn't fair if you start at the back because you have less chance.

The pople in front are like the rich becasue they were born with stuff and they were closer to their goals and didn't have to work so hard. The people in the back were the people who actually had to work hard to get what they want.

Life is not as easy as you think.

If you keep trying you can achieve your goals.

The people at the front had it easier.  People who are rich get better school, better education and build more wealth so it's easy to get richer.

It's easier if you're at the front because you can see better.  If you're at the back there are things in the way.

It was unfair becasue we couldn't see.

If you're at the front you could help the people at the back.

K2 - Depending on where you were it wasn't fair

People at the front had an advantage.

Privilege is something you're grateful for and gives you a better chance.

Room 6 - It's tricky because it's harder at the back.  If you're at the front the target is closer.

Life is not fair.  

Even if you got it in it's still not fair.

What sorts of things are a privilege to be born into? Born into royalty, born the oldest, being born in some places were there are better education, having responsible parents, having money, having strict parents, good health, luck, technology, education

We explored issues of poverty and how climate change is worsening this.  We identified the difference betweeen wants and need with a deserted island and sorting activity.  Te tangata living in poverty don't have their basic needs met.

What do we already do help lift people out of poverty at Sunnyhills:

-Jammies in June

- Donate cans of food for the food bank

- Gumboot Day

- Mufti Days

What else could we do?

- Grow kai and donate it

- Chip Packet Project

Give secondhand clothes to charity shops

Please put your clean chip packets in the bin in the Junior Courtyard, so we can make survival blankets for people who are cold.

Room 11 Being Kaitiaki with Kiki Kiwi

 Today Room 11 continued our growing kai learning journey with a deep dive into compost and broad bean sowing. We were excited to see how much our pea plants had grown. Can you see the flowers and pods? Some brave souls tried spicy rocket lettuce too.

The tamariki were sad to see so much litter in the Mara Kai so began picking it up. Some children even continued at morning tea time. What wonderful kaitiakitanga! Kiki Kiwi would be proud.

It was also a perfect opportunity to reread Kiki Kiwi and the Travelling Trash and remind ourselves why it's so important to pick up litter and keep drains clean. 

Well done to everyone in Room 11 who brought a litter free lunch!! Next time we see Mrs Daniel we'll be seeing how much our broad beans have grown and eating more vegetables from the mara kai.

Room 15 Growing Kai

 Today Room 15 learnt how to grow kai with Mrs Daniel in the Mara Kai. Can your tamariki name five things seeds need to grow?

We planted broad beans and tasted lettuce straight from the mara.

To practice our new vocabulary we made playdough plants. Can you see the roots, stem, leaves & flowers?

Next time we have Education for Sustainability with Mrs Daniel, we can see if our beans have grown..

🐦Landcare Bird Survey - Assessing our progress

 Every year Sunnyhills tamariki take part in the Garden Bird Survey 🐦 to assess the health of our environment and the success of our actions. Rooms 1, 2 & 7 took part this year.

We're hoping that planting 700 natives on site will have had a positive effect.

Check out our results:

Bird Survey 2022/2023 Comparison

You can take part at home too! Visit Garden bird survey

Afterwards we researched Auckland garden birds to see which actions we can take to support our local bird populations. Check out our mahi here: Garden Birds & Creating a Bird Friendly Garden

Sadly despite planting 700 native trees and trapping pests on site our bird numbers over all are continuing to decline. We are wondering how we can reverse this trend. Two ideas would be a bird bath and bird feeders. We were excited to spot a grey warbler for the first time.

K1 Promoting our Composting Community

 Thunderstorms scuppered K1's plans to plant native trees, so we took up the challenge of trying to get more people using our Community Compost Hub. 

We reminded ourselves of how & why we hot compost at Sunnyhills then brainstormed how to get greater engagement from tamariki, staff and the wider community.

Next we broke into groups to create our campaigns. The results included:

- Kahoots

- posters

- mailbox flyers

- computer games

- slideshows

- Eco Leaders walking around with compost buckets at lunch eating

Mrs Daniel also posted on a local community Facebook page.

We'll monitor if our volumes of compost increase, to see if we've been successful. At the moment our hot composters are one third full.