Visit to the Buddhist Temple

In May the whole school visited the Buddhist Temple.  The students learnt about the 3G's and 4G's.  They visited the temple, made a lotus flower, learnt a little about mindfulness and were given a yummy morning tea.

Enviro Cluster Meeting

On the 8th June Mrs Venville and Mrs Daniels went to an after school Enviro Cluster Meeting at Wakaaranga Primary School

We learnt about:

•  Bees and ways to get students involved 
•  It was an opportunity to reconnect/network with local Enviroschools key teachers
•  We heard how Wakaaranga have set up their hive + visited the hive with students 
•  We met local “Sweet As” bee keepers
•  We found out about Sarah’s project to make Auckland become the safest city in the world for bees
•  We explored how being beekeepers addresses global challenges. E.g. pollination and health
•  We discussed the challenges and brainstormed a variety of ways schools can be bee keepers
• Found out how and when to apply for quick response Howick Local Board funds to support your projects
• We were given 5 lemon trees grown by prisoners at Paremoremo to plant in  our school orchard 

Scooter Skills Middle School

As part of Road safety Week the Middle School students had a session run by Auckland Transport which taught them the basics of safe scootering

Citizen Science - The Landcare Bird Survey

Building from our work to provide habitats for our native birds at Sunnyhills, we've been taking part in the Landcare Bird Survey. It was so much fun spotting birds in the sunshine.

Our favorite finds were the two fantails and tuis in the Fordyce entrance trees. The  flock of 9 African swallows dipping and diving over the field were pretty spectacular as well.

UPDATE - Room 20 saw two Spur-winged plovers hanging out on the field and hall roof. Wow!! Another Australian import we saw were a group of rosellas.

Sadly we also saw a cat catch a silver eye and two dead silver eyes😢 It was an action packed survey session.

We're wondering how to help our native birds and what threatens them.

And you can take part in the survey at home too! Just follow the link - http://www.landcareresearch.co.nz/science/plants-animals-fungi/animals/birds/garden-bird-surveys

Meet the TFS Planting Team

After a year of potting, planting, tending, feeding and watering, our native trees and plants are ready to be set free!

Thirty keen kids have been selected to attend the planting day. We'll be travelling to a farm in Hunua to create a new bushy area.

We're looking forward to a muddy fun day in the country supporting biodiversity and errosion prevention ☺

The Greenfingers Gang - feed, weed, harvest & eat!!!

Look at our delicious carrots we grew! So long! So straight! So fat! So crunchy!

Our apples are growing bigger and BIGGER!

We noticed the new lemon tree leaves were a tad yellow, so we fed them up on worm tea.

Weeding and Seed Collecting in the Native Bush Walk

Our Senior School were busy last week collecting seeds in the native bush walk. We're hoping to grow our own trees and plants to extend the bird corridor along the western edge of the field.

While we were collecting we found lots of pesky pest plants too, so out they came!!

We're looking forward to potting up our seeds and investigating pathways, pollinator palaces, water features and planting options for the new space.

Bee Team Research

The Senior Enviro group would love to get beehives for Sunnyhills School.

Today we split into three research groups.  First we watched a presentation by the Wakaaranga Bee Team on YouTube.

Next we thought about what else we needed to find out to get our own hives.

Lastly we emailed three local groups who might be able to answer our questions;
The Wakaaranga Primary Bee Team
Seet Azzz - beehive rentals
The Farm Cove Intermediate Enviro Lead Teacher

We're looking forward to the replies!

The EcoHero Show

• Today Sunnyhills had a presentation by Mr Eco.  Many of the Enviro messages we teach at school  were reinforced and he showed us that we can all help create a sustainable future.
• Through the medium of hip hop he encouraged the students not to waste water or to litter and highlighted the damage plastic bags and straws are doing to the environment. The show was interactive with singing and dancing to keep the students engaged and all the students went away with positive messages to take home.
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• He Inspired us to all be EcoHero leaders for life!

Video by the Enviro group to request funding from 'Treemendous School Makeovers'

From the Enviro Group's work around re visioning for our school; one of the major project they have identified from student suggestions collected is to extend the Native Trail and our orchard areas.  This will create a larger bird corridor and an extended orchard area will provide a haven for bees and produce that can either be sold to help fund other sustainability projects or consumed by the school community.  Check out the video they story boarded, filmed and edited to request funding from 'Treemendous School Makeovers.

Investigating Beehives for Sunnyhills

Some students at Sunnyhills have become passionate about getting beehives, so Mrs Venville & Mrs Daniel attended an Enviroschools meeting about bees in schools.

The Wakaaranga Bee Team gave a presentation, describing their journey to get bees, which had begun in 2015.

You can watch the presentation here:
https://youtu.be/zRhxZk23FAE

It was really exciting to learn more about bees in schools and we were're looking forward to the next steps towards Sunnyhills own honey.