Seed Savers

The Greenfingers Gang have been collecting seeds from the Edible Gardens; kohlrabi, radishes, turnips, kale, broccoli, artichokes and many more. We'll dry them, pod them and store them to grow in 2020. We might even have enough to sell.

Sunnyhills Sunflowers

Hooray the first of the sunflowers we planted for our honeybees are blooming. Thank you to Room Tekau ma Iwa for doing a great job of watering.

Companion Planting with Year Tahi

Year One are learning about companion planting. Each is growing marigolds to attract ladybugs to pur Edible Gardens. We relocated slugs and snails to the compost too.

Eco Leaders Growing Food

Today the Eco Leaders ate delicious buttercrunch lettuce salad fresh from the Edible Gardens.

#Eco buildings - our new worm bin pathway

Thanks Mr Smith for the new worm bin pathway all made from recycled materials too!

Room One's Beach Clean - Up & Litter Sculpture

An awesome well done to Room One, who did a beach clean up at the Snakes & Ladders Playground. They took the litter they collected and used it to create a beautiful moana sculpture. You can see it on display outside The Green Room.

Honey Yummy!

 Today some of us were lucky enough to sample honey from the Sunnyhills Beehives. Verdict = YUMMY!

Sunnyhills Bee Rocks

🐝🐝🐝 Our 'Bee Rocks' hide and seek game has begun - promoting bee care and outdoor play.  Congratulations Amelena for being the first to post. See Mrs Daniel on Wednesday for your prize. 🐝🐝🐝

For more information see our article in The Times;

Sunnyhills’ bee rocks

Sunnyhills School students have created a fun new hide and seek game that helps promote bee care.  The students at Sunnyhills have been excited to welcome beehives to their East Auckland school recently.  As a GreenGold Enviroschool, the beehives form part of their efforts to help create a sustainable future.  “Did you know most of the plants we need for food rely on pollination by bees?” remarks Vera a Year Six student.  Sadly bee populations are in decline. To promote bee care, such as not spraying pesticide, the Year Five and Six students have created ‘Bee Rocks’.  They’ll be hiding the small stones, painted like bees and covered in messages about how to care for bees, in public spaces in the 3.2 kilometre radius around Sunnyhills School, in which their bees will fly.  The community are invited to search for the bee rocks.  When found, they can photograph them and post to Instagram #beesrock and #sunnyhillsschoolbees.  “Please rehide the rocks so the fun can continue” advises Mrs Daniel the Sunnyhills Education for Sustainability teacher.  “It’d be great if everyone planted more flowers for the bees,” says Chloe a Year Six student “Let’s all help make our suburb a more colourful and sustainable environment!”

More fungi Fun

Thanks to Hyphae.nz Team Wha have got their own NZ native mushrooms to grow, harvest & eat. Stay tuned for the taste test next week ...

#BeesRock

Sunnyhills’ Bee Rocks

Sunnyhills School students have created a fun new hide and seek game that helps promote bee care.  The students at Sunnyhills have been excited to welcome beehives to their East Auckland school recently. 

As a GreenGold Enviroschool, the beehives form part of their efforts to help create a sustainable future. “Did you know most of the plants we need for food rely on pollination by bees?” remarks Vera a Year Six student.  Sadly bee populations are in decline.

To promote bee care, such as not spraying pesticide, the Year Five and Six students have created ‘Bee Rocks’.  They’ll be hiding the small stones, painted like bees and covered in messages about how to care for bees, in public spaces in the 3.2 kilometre radius around Sunnyhills School, in which their bees will fly. 

The community are invited to search for the bee rocks. When found, they can photograph them and post to Instagram #beesrock and #sunnyhillsschoolbees. “Please rehide the rocks so the fun can continue” advises Mrs Daniel the Sunnyhills Education for Sustainability teacher. 

“It’d be great if everyone planted more flowers for the bees,” says Chloe a Year Six student “Let’s all help make our suburb a more colourful and sustainable environment!”

The Fungi Fact Trail

Team Wha have been learning all about fungi. We've created a Fungi Fact Trail to share our learning about this amazing world. Can you find all the facts? Did you know Lego is made with fungi? Come and find out more ...

CONTEXT - 

CONCEPT OF EFS - 

Interdependence

We are learning about how living things work together to meet their needs.

SUSTAINABILITY ISSUE - 

Loss of biodiversity and habitats for a range of species

ACTION - spread the word about fungi and their special place in the world

The next leaf on our Action Tree - SCHOOL BEES!

We have a vision for a brighter more sustainable future and we're continually turning ideas into action to create it.

The video below shows just how far Sunnyhills School GEMS has come in our Enviroschools journey:

Did you spot the differences between then and now? We may not have ever been awarded a Treemendous Trees makeover, but in the past two years, we've planted our bird & bee corridor and now we're just about to get our own Sweet Azzz beehives.

Will you grow flowers to feed our bees?

Pestfree Action

Check out this new video from DOC. Pestfree 2050 needs everyone involved:
https://www.facebook.com/408747529491004/posts/900238960341856/

And introducing our new rat trapping team:

They're hoping to catch the rodent Mrs Smail saw behind Room 24.

Rats and mice threaten our birdlife.

Clean Air Classrooms

Follow the link to see what our Eco Leaders have been doing to help create healthy learning environments:

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1t2JRI_p6HRaOEJHZ26uVJdfO9S_er9tkbp0j8uts85g/edit?usp=sharing

Safer Walking Presentation

Today Tracey from Auckland Transport and Constable Willett came to talk to the Koru Whanau about how to be safer when we are walking. They reminded everyone about the benefits of walking but how we have to look out for dangers such as crossing in front of a stationary bus and sneaky driveways. They showed us a YouTube clip where we met Moe who was exploring all about road safety. They were great message to hear.

Which lightbulb will you choose?

Restoring Habitat on Ohuirangi Pigeon Mountain

https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=10161640834900188&id=693055187

Thanks Live Lightly!

Years 5 & 6 explored alternatives for energy efficiency & sustainability in our homes - thanks to Live Lightly for the loan of their model eco house for inspiration!

We found these ways to be more sustainable:

• Compost bins                - Vege patch 
• Smoke detectors            - AT Card for public transport
• Rain water tank            - Bus Stop
• Curtains                - Staycation
• Re-useable shopping bags        - Electric Car
• Solar panels                - Bike
• Shower dome                - Short shower
• Insulation                - Heat pump
• Close the fridge            - Inside clothesline
• Sewing machine to repair clothes    - Recycle Bin
• Window insulation            - Native trees
• Don’t waste food

Next we’re going to reflect on the things we do in our homes and school and what action we can take to be more sustainable. 

Do you have solar panels and your own AT HOP card?

Room 15's Mahi

Follow the link to see Room 15's marvellous mahi around Fair Trade:

https://room15shs2019.blogspot.com/2019/08/enviro-with-mrs-daniel.html?m=1

https://room15shs2019.blogspot.com/2019/08/enviro-with-mrs-daniel.html?m=1

All Good Bananas have seen our work and want to visit SunnyhillsSchool in Term 4!

Finding Fair Trade Locally

Year 3 want to make choices that are fair to people  and the environment.  They've been encouraging their whanau to choose Fairtrade products, BUT they can't always find them. We've decided next week to write notes to the local shops asking them to stock more Fairtrade groceries like bananas, vanilla, chocolate,  ice cream & coffee.

Find out more: http://fairtrade.org.nz/Fairtrade-Products

Look for this symbol:

UPDATE - Here are some of the letters we wrote:

Hello Wanaka Super Fan

Have you noticed our Enviro Blog has readers from all over the world? We love to share our learning.

19 563 total views. 641 visits since January from seventeen different countries. Wow!

Comment below why you like our blog 🙂💚♻️🌏

Being Fair with Year Three

"Look for the fair trade symbol. It means it gives people a fair life and they'll have the basics they need. Make life fair for others." Lachie

"Without Fairtrade the growers can be living in poverty" Jamie, Marco & Max

"With Fairtrade the money goes to the people that grow it".  Abigail

We think all children in the world deserve a safe place to sleep, shelter, food, clean water, an education and medical care.

CONCEPT OF Education For Sustainability - 

Responsibility for action

We are learning to make informed decisions and take action.

SUSTAINABILITY ISSUE - 

Ensuring food is produced and sold in ways that the Earth can sustain and people gain a fair price for their goods

ACTION - encourage others to buy Fairtrade products

Our Enormous Turnips

Year Zero & One have been growing turnips from seed. Today we got to harvest and eat them. Yum! And so easy to grow sustainably.  Even easier than radishes and  not so spicy. You might like to try at home.

CONTEXT - Edible Garden CONCEPT OF EFS -  Sustainability & Equity SUSTAINABILITY ISSUE -  Ensuring food is produced and sold in ways that the Earth can sustain ACTION -  Weed and feed soil with worm tea Harvest & eat CROSS CURRICULAR -  Science L1 Living World - Recognise that all living things have certain requirements so they can stay alive..

The Beeginning

Year Two have beegun learning about bees. Here's what we've discovered already:

Indy “They go from flower to flower” 

Milo “They dance to communicate” 

Alvin “They only sting one time and then they die” 

William “They bring nectar back to their hive” 

Brian “They have stingers at the back”

Dylan “Some bees don’t have stingers” 

Jayden “the bees always fly and get nectar” 

Connor “Some bees are big and some are small” 

Theo “When they’ve collected enough nectar they go back to the hive”  

Olive “The bees you see most are honey bees and bumble bees”  

Olivia “When the wings rub together it makes a buzzing noise” 

Ben “When bees drink nectar the pollen sticks to them”  

Indi “Bees have three body parts”.

What would you like to know about bees?

Think Kind - Taste Testing

Eating more vegetarian foods is kind to animals, great for the environment and DELICIOUS. Can Rajeev, Jerry & Regan convince the teachers?

More Fun With Fungus - Yeast!

Bread, marmite, beer and chocolate all use a simple fungus called YEAST. We investigated how yeast eats sugar and makes bubbles.

We placed yeast, warm water and sugar in a bottle and topped it with a balloon. Look at our photos to see the results ...