Today, Year Five worked hard in the mara to harvest cabbages, refill the garden beds with compost and plant the last of our kumara seedlings.
Afterwards, we did our Ready Steady Go post test and read the Travelwise picture books
There was even time for a Travelwise Kahoot. What a buy session!
Thank you for our mahi and leadership Year Five! Next time we're going to be learning about a mysterious native creature and the study of taxonomy.
Today Yeaar Three did an amazing job of filling the beds with our own hot compost and planting out the spring (koanga) kumara seedlings (tipu). The Eco Group gently watered them at lunchtime. We can't wait to dig them up for the 2027 Matariki hangi! Afterwards we learnt a bit more about the history of kumara in Aotearoa and did a kumara Kahoot.
Sadly it was raining today, so Year 5 couldn't pot up our Trees for Survival seedlings. Luckily this gave us time to finish illustrating our Travelwise picure books that we are going to read to the Koru classes.
Today Year Three began the process of potting up our Trees for Survival seedlings. Every year Sunnyhills School grows over 800 native tree seedlings and plants them on farmers' land to protect waterways, fight climate change and enhance biodiversity.
We made filling the potting bags with soil an interclass competition:
Room 18 - 165 bags
Room 7 - 206 bags
Room 8 - 180 bags
We are looking forward to a science lesson about taxonomy next time and hopefully seeing the seedlings potted up by the Year 5's & 6's.
Year 4 have been learning about the moana. We were excited to hear Christopher Luxon's response to our letters here. And now it's time to take more action! We began by going on a litter hunt.
Afterwards we analysed the litter to see where it was coming from.
Room 6 found that in the Nature Trail most litter came from people outside of school. We knew this because the waste items were things like fizzy drink that children are not allowed at school. There was some lunch box waste too. We decided to make posters to remind visitors to take their litter with them.
Room 4 found that in the Mara Kai most plastic waste was coming from lunch boxes, so bringing a litter free lunch is the easiest daily way to avoid this issue and help the moana.
How could we remind people to bring a litterfree lunch?
Vincent "Tell our friends"
"Set an example by bringing a litterfree lunch" Kacy
"Make posters about bringing a litterfree lunch" Raysha
Room 5 worked hard. They tipped the compost moved the planter crates and did a litterhunt around the field. Like Room 4 they found lots of lunchbox plastic litter.
Well done to these people for bringing a litter free lunch:
Room 5
Litter free lunches - Theo S, Amelia, Jaxon (winner), Karina, Yeja, Onidu, Kimaya
Room 6
Yuri, Aila, Lucy (winner), Isaac and Jaden
Room 4
Diyon, Logan, Kacy, Vincent, Raysha won the prize from Paradice Ice Skating.
Room 4 had very few litter free lunches sadly, but they did have 100% participation in the Wednesday Challenge which shows an awesome commitment to sustainable transport.
Thanks to Paradice for providing prizes for our litterfree lunch draw.
Lastly all the classes got to try cabbage fresh from the Mara Kai.
Next term we're looking forward to learning about ecosystems based on the new science curriculum and our food gardens.
Today Year Six started a new mystery topic. We learnt that when scientists classify animals it is called taxonomy. We began by sutdying the similarities between a mystery skeleton and a human skeleton.
Did you know that all animals can be seperated into two groups - vertebrates and invertebrates?
We could see a backbone so the mystery animals was a vertebrate.
We discovered the mystery skeleton was a bat. We're going to study them because Peter and Zahara from Pestfree Howick said they live close by. We want to know how to protect this unique species.
"A species is a group of organisms that can reproduce and have off spring that can reproduce" Richie
What did we find out?
"Bats are the only mamals that can fly" Lose
"They use echo location to hunt" Aelene - we played a game to show how this works.
"Bats have similar bones to humans" Jason
Paris "All species have latin names."
What do we want to find out?
"Bats aren't blind. They have good eye sight" Mila
Luca "When did people first discover them?"
"Has anyone eaten them?" Salar
"How long have they existed?"Mila
Maya "What is their life span?"
"Where they here before people?" Emma
"What do they eat?" Alysia
"Do they bite?" Lacey
"How do they mate?" Caleb
Pekapeka continued 24/09/26
Today Year 6 learnt that classification keys include extinct species like the NZ's Greater Short Tailed Bat.
We learnt more about our native bats by watching a video and reading a school journal.
Then it was time to take action.
What actions can we take to protect pekapeka?
Touma "Stop cutting down dead trees because the pekapeka live there."
"Set traps for pests that harm pekapeka" Nicolas
"Have pest free islands" Mila
"Put out auto resetting traps" Richie
Each class set a trap in the Mara Kai and then picked a cabbage to eat fresh from the garden.
Lastly we completed a batty crossword.
