🐦Landcare Bird Survey - Assessing our progress

 Every year Sunnyhills tamariki take part in the Garden Bird Survey 🐦 to assess the health of our environment and the success of our actions. Rooms 1, 2 & 7 took part this year.

We're hoping that planting 700 natives on site will have had a positive effect.

Check out our results:

Bird Survey 2022/2023 Comparison

You can take part at home too! Visit Garden bird survey

Afterwards we researched Auckland garden birds to see which actions we can take to support our local bird populations. Check out our mahi here: Garden Birds & Creating a Bird Friendly Garden

Sadly despite planting 700 native trees and trapping pests on site our bird numbers over all are continuing to decline. We are wondering how we can reverse this trend. Two ideas would be a bird bath and bird feeders. We were excited to spot a grey warbler for the first time.

K1 Promoting our Composting Community

 Thunderstorms scuppered K1's plans to plant native trees, so we took up the challenge of trying to get more people using our Community Compost Hub. 

We reminded ourselves of how & why we hot compost at Sunnyhills then brainstormed how to get greater engagement from tamariki, staff and the wider community.

Next we broke into groups to create our campaigns. The results included:

- Kahoots

- posters

- mailbox flyers

- computer games

- slideshows

- Eco Leaders walking around with compost buckets at lunch eating

Mrs Daniel also posted on a local community Facebook page.

We'll monitor if our volumes of compost increase, to see if we've been successful. At the moment our hot composters are one third full.

Rongoa & Tea History with Room Wha

 This morning with Mrs Daniel, Room 4 took a deep dive into Maori Rongoa and the world history of tea.

Firstly, we investigated kawakawa - a Maori medicinal plant.  We made tea and tried it and ate the cooked leaves.  Next we researched other rongoa rakau we could grow at school.  We discovered that we could create a Mara Rongoa by growing these traditional healing plants:

- manuka

- harakeke

- rata

- kawakawa 

- ponga

After morning tea we studied the world history of tea and played a kahoot to review.

Lastly we reflected on our sustainability journey by bookmarking the blog on our devices and having a browse.  We liked seeing photos of ourselves, friends and siblings.

🍯🌺🐝Room Tekau ma Toru

 Room 13 began our Sustainability lesson by tasting Sunny Honey and learning about how our honeybees made it.

Next we investigated the role bees play in pollinating fruits and vegetables.

We want to help our bees over winter, so we created seed packets so we can grow nasturtium flowers at home.

Does your garden have winter flowers for the bees?

🐝 Room Tekau Bee Buddies

🐝 Today Room 10 learnt about the very important job bees do pollinating our fruit trees and veges.

We created seed packets so we can grow flowers for the bees at home.

Lastly we worked in the Edible Gardens; digging, watering and planting flowers 💐 

Doing our bit for Pestfree 2050

 The Eco Leaders grimly cleared our second kill from the rat trap today with Mrs Daniel. We don't like killing small furries but we do want to protect our native birds.

2023 Tree Planting Tally = 600

 Last week Sunnyhills Eco Leaders planted 600 of their native tree seedlings we've grown,  on Crabtree Organic Farm in Clevedon . Our efforts will extend the bird sanctuary there and protect the waterways. Thank you to Lynda & Trees For Survival.

Kawakawa 3 ways with Room Waru

 Today we went into the nghere to look for kawakawa. - Cody Some kids ate the kawakawa leaves raw and they were a bit spicey. - Touma.  The raw leaves tasted bitter.  - Kyan. KawaKawa is a Maori herb. - Timmy. In Te Reo Maori it means a bitter plant.  - Hunter. Kawakawa leaves are heart shaped.  - Hana.

Next, we went to the kitchen and made kawkawa tea.  The tea was quite nice for me and there was a hint of sweet from the honey. - Nathan.  It was easy to make. Just put hot water on the leaves. - Touma.

Lastly we tried cooked kawakawa leaves.  They tasted like weird wet lettuce. Cody

We found out that Kawakawa is important to Maori people.  It's good for colds and infections.  The orange berries are edible and sweet in summer.

After morning tea we investigated the history of tea.  Here's some of what we found out:

China invented tea - Kyan

They started drinking it 6000 years ago - Marley

Queen CAtherine made it popular in England - Emma

The Dutch bought it to Europe from China using silver - Nathan

England stole tea plants from China and grew it in India - Luca

England started a war with China becasue they wanted to trade China opium for tea and the Emperor said no. - Orlando

Room 6 Explore Herbs & Spices

 Herbs and spices add delicious aromas to our food and drinks. We explored some that we grow at school. So many different smells!!

After lunch we investigated a very special herb to Aotearoa - kawakawa. We made tea from the leaves and tried it.

Lastly we found out about the amazing history of tea. Did you know it's the second most popular beverage in the world and was invented in China?

Next time we see Mrs Daniel we're going to design our own herbal tea.

Room Rima Investigating Herbal Tea

 

Today we investigated Aotearoa's own herbal tea - kawakawa.  Fay - First we found kawakawa in the native bush walk.  Janshly - Kawakawa likes to grow under other trees in the shade.  Lucas F - The leaves look like lilly pads. Mrs Daniel picked the kawakawa leaves and we smelt them.  Lucas F - they smelt like peppermint.  

Bridie - Next we went to the kitchen so we could make the tea.  Helena - Mrs Daniel put boiling water in the big tea pot.  Daniel - I put the kawakawa leaves in the tea pot. 

While the tea brewed we researched on our devices.  Toby - Kawakawa  grows in the South.  Mavis - The common name is pepper.  Lucas F - It's one of 3000 types of tea in the world.  

We each got to drink the tea.  Kayla - It tastes like tea mixed with honey.  Toby - It tasted like smooth rice.  Emily Z - It tasted like water.  Janshly - It tastes like boiling water with honey.  Mavis - The colour was like smooth honey.

Finally some of us tried the cooked kawakawa leaves.  Emily W - They tasted like seaweed.  Kaiden - It tasted like cooked seaweed that's wet.  Kayla - The leaves looked like wet seaweed that grows in the sea.

After morning tea we learnt about the history of tea. Kayla - Tea started in China.  Lucas F - The English stole tea from China.  Emily - For a long time only China had tea.  

Next time we see Mrs Daniel we will design our own herbal tea and tea pots.