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 biodiveristy.
We made filling the potting bags with soil an interclass competition:
Room 18 - 165 bags
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.
We took part in a Mystery Science lesson and created a paper model to investigate how the leaves seem to disappear over time.
What did we discover?
Colt "Fungus and worms and bacteria are super heroes"
"The animals broke up the leaves and the worms, bacteria and fungi ate them"
Next time we are going to learn about how scientists put animals into groups.
Today Year 4 are taking a mathematical look at dolphins/aihe.
What do we already know about our Hauraki Gulf neighbours the dolphins?
"They have a hole to breathe and they can jump high" Valentin
"They breathe air but they have to stay in water" David
Joshua "They use echo location"
Lucy "They communicate with whistles and clicks."
Hirva "There's lots of different types of dolphins."
Logan "Their forehead is called melon."
"They are a type of whale" Logan R
"A group is called a pod." Archer
We watched a video of dolphins in our Gulf.
What did we learn?
"A dolphin group is called a pod" Roy
Edison "The Maui dolphin is one of the smallest in the world"
Ken "The Maui dolphin was named the Maori God Maui"
Next we got into groups and ordered different types of dolphins from biggest to smallest based on our prior knowledge. Then we check against information. Afterwards we went outside and estimated how big the dolphins were, then we measured exactly.
Next, we drew a dolphin in our book and added facts we had learnt. Lastly, we had just enough time to review with a Kahoot
Please pack a litter free lunch to help protect our dolphins.
