Room 17's Autumn Harvest

Today Room 17 harvested the last summer watermelon from the edible garden. It's so cool to see all our hard work in the garden resulting in delicious, healthy things to eat. We also discovered the first autumn feijoas under the trees and collected them too.

When we cut the watermelon open, we saw it was perfectly ripe; bright pink and full of dark seeds. Delicious!!

After we had finished eating, we collected the rinds and put them in the worm bin. Next week the Greenfingers Gang will use the worm tea to fertilize our winter crops.

Mrs Daniel also collected the biggest, darkest seeds. She'll store these til spring, when we can plant them and start the cycle all over again.

Senior Enviro Team Planning to Make Plastic Bags Go BYE BYE

Today the senior enviro monitors brainstormed possible actions to make plastic bags go BYE BYE.

 Firstly, to share our message we each emailed our teachers to ask if we could show the TED Talk: https://www.ted.com/talks/melati_and_isabel_wijsen_our_campaign_to_ban_plastic_bags_in_bali

Then we broke into teams to start planning our action. Stay tuned for how you can help us say ByE BYE TO PLASTIC BAGS!

Room 17 Citizen Scientists: The Hunt for Moth Plants

For our Enviro lesson with Mrs Daniel today, Room 17 went on the hunt for moth plants.

First we researched about these noxious weeds and reported back our findings.

Next we put on gloves and grabbed garden snips. Then it was time to find the moth plants.

Lucas spotted adult plants covering the neighbour's hedge. We could see the green pods filled with a 1000 seeds each. We scrambled under the hedge to snip the thick woody vines at their base.

Then we went off to our native bush walk. With our super powers of observation we spotted and pulled out over 26 young moth plants.  We made sure disposed of them into the bin rather than compost. Good job crew!!

 Have you found any moth plants? Comment below 😊 🌿✂

Next we're ging home to share the message about moth plant with our whanau, friends and neighbours. And look we're helping to spread the word online:

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!

Room 20 Eating Healthy & Sustainably

Today Room 20 ate capsicums from the edible gardens. They were fresh and juicy. Nearly everyone tried some. Dylan put it in his mouth to taste the flavour and feel the texture. Awesome!!

Next we collected the seeds from inside the capsicums and planted them into seedlings trays. We're going to grow new plants and new capsicums for next year.

Room 1 & 2 Big on Birds

Did you know the number of birds in an environment is a great indicator of how healthy the ecosystem is? Birds aren't just pretty plumage and sweet songs, they pollinate, disperse seeds and keep insect populations in check.

Room 1 & 2 brainstormed the Auckland garden birds that we know. We talked about our experiences with birds.

Next we turned on our super powers of observation and went out to find evidence of birds in our school environment. We found feathers, a nest, saw some birds and found poop. We concluded we could definitely do with more birds about.

Next week we're going to research local bird species and how we can attract them into school.

Travelwise Student Leadership Day

Travelwise Student Leadership Day

Our six Travelwise Student Leaders spent a day finding out about the Travelwise programme.

The Travelwise primary school programme focuses on road safety education and fun ways to get to school. Teaching kids to be safe and encouraging them to get out of the car and be active inspires good habits for the future.  The programme equips primary schools with tools to encourage safe behaviour, sustainable travel habits, commitment to road safety and active transport.
The Travelwise Student Leaders will be working with the school’s Travelwise Lead Teacher, Auckland Transport’s Community Transport Co-ordinator and the Police to deliver the Travelwise Progamme to our students and our community.

The leaders took part in four workshops.  The first one was about ways to communicate with the school community about the issues around road safety and initiatives that could be introduced to improve the situation.  The second focused on the 'Slow Down Around Schools Programme'.  Next the teachers went to a session where they were given an overview all about the facets of the Travelwise programme while the students had a fun skills session.  The last session centred around the cycle safety programme.  It was an awesome day and we all learnt lots.  We can't wait to initiate some of the ideas.

                                               
                                   'Slow Down Around Schools Programme'

                                                         
                                                    Checking helmet safety

                                                     Cycle safety activities

Room 3 Discover Some Mini Mates

Today Room 3 had our first Eviro lesson with Mrs Daniel. We went to the edible gardens to learn more about fruit, veges and how Sunnyhills is growing sustainably.

While we were there we learnt lots of Te Reo Maori names the fruit and veges and how everythingis interrelated. Do you know what an aporo is?

With our super powers of observation we noticed lots of little mini beasts in our gardens. Mrs Daniel said some were garden helpers. There were lots of curious questions, so next week we're going to break into buzz groups to research what we saw. Stay tuned for when we report back!!

Look what we found in our next lesson:

Middle School Marine Metre Square (MM2) Group Get Mussley!

Today the Middle School Enviro Monitors answered the call to become citizen scientists. We're going to collect data to help marine biologists save the Hauraki Gulf!

Find out more at:

https://www.mm2.net.nz/

Our first investigation was all about mussels. Mrs Daniel had collected two containers of water from the Tamaki Estuary. We saw how the water with mussels in was much clearer. Did you know the Hauraki Gulf used to covered in mussels until humans tredged them all? The water used to be way clearer from all the mussels filtering it.

Next we dissected the mussels to learn more about them. Here's some things we we found out:

Angus - Mussels actually have genders.

Sophie - Females are orange and males are white.

Isabelle - Mussels clean the ocean by filtering the water.

Amy - The white circle makes the shell stick together.

Kamden - If there's no mussels you can't see your feet in the water cause it's so gunky.

Liam - Mussels are closed out of the water and open in the water.

Next week we're looking forward to finding out more about those carnivorous whelks; cute but deadly to crabs! We're going to identify the shellfish we might find in the estuary too.

Room 17 Wandering, Wondering & Watering

Today Room 17 had our first enviro lesson. We explored what it means to be sustainable in the edible gardens. At the end of our lesson we watered the vege beds. Next week we're looking at why we have a worm farm and what to do about weeds.

Room 7 Enviro Launch!

Today Room 7 had our first Enviro lesson with Mrs Daniel. We worked together to complete a scavenger hunt in the edible garden. We learnt fun facts and Te Reo Maori names for our fruit and veges. We saw first hand how Sunnyhills is being sustainable.

Next in Enviro we'd like to:

- create nature art
- plant veges
- pick up litter
- weed
- create presentations
- Breakout

Senior Enviro Leaders; Getting Inspired!

Today our Senior Enviro Leaders met for the first time for 2017. We brainstormed the Enviromental issues we're already aware of at school and in our local area.

Next we watched a TEDTALK about two Balinese girls who've created a global environmental movement run, by young people. It was so inspiring! We were brimming with ideas and optimism afterwards. We want to work together

create change too! 

Next week we'll investigate the Bye Bye Plastic Bags movement more in buddy pairs; stay tuned for action!

You can watch the TEDTALK too:

https://www.ted.com/talks/melati_and_isabel_wijsen_our_campaign_to_ban_plastic_bags_in_bali

The Greenfingers Gang

Today was the first meeting of the Greenfingers Gang; Sunnyhills kids of all ages who are keen to get into the garden.

With Mrs Daniel and Mrs Venville we cleared weeds and vege beds to make room for new plants. There was lots of smiles as we worked together in the sun. Big kids buddied little kids. Brothers worked alongside sisters. We tasted cherry tomates and found lots of garden helper bugs.

Next week we're looking planting seeds for winter crops.

Room 9a Plant An Avocado Tree

Today Room 9a planted a tiny avocado seedling that had germinated in Mrs Daniel's worm bin. We put it into the seedling house to grow bigger and bigger. We wonder how long it will be before we will have avocados to eat...

Room 9 Harvest & Reflect

Today Room Nine ate tomatoes and watermelon from the edible garden, and planted a kumara. We thought about what we'd learnt in Enviro this term and what we'd like to do next.