Year Six Sample Squash & Celebrate Seaweek

 It's Ngahuru (autumn) so just like Soha and Manushree suggested last time, we're harvesting and eating from the Mara Kai. K3 picked a fatty spaghetti squash and roasted it with olive oil and salt. K2 ate honey roasted squash. Unfortunately all the spaghetti squash were gone by the afternoon, so K1 ate a pumpkin baked with Sunny Honey. The pumpkin was less popular than squash. 

While our kai cooked we celebrated Sea Week by reading a KCC magazine and exploring the Young Ocean Explorers Website.

After eating we tested our memory with a quiz based on the KCC articles. 

What did you learn today? 

Arta "pukeko live in the wetlands"

Albert "pukeko fight for their territory"

Frida "lots of vegetables and fruits are harvested in autumn"

Katara "In the wetlands the plants' roots grow up and down for air"

Carlos "The skin of spaghetti squash tasted nice but feels like cardboard"

Samuel "Eels live in wetlands"

Zoha "Pukekos eat grass holding on with their feet"

Robyn "You can use spaghetti squash instead of pasta"

Carina "Pukekos fight for territory"

Maia "The inside of a spaghetti squash looks like pineapple"

Monique "They used to use gourds to hold water"

Andrew "pumpkins taste alright"

Melody "When pumpkins are yellow they are not ready"

Tai "Wetland trees' roots grow up and down"

Ella "Pukekos start to fly when they are 3 months old"

We saved the seecds for planting in Koana (spring)

Year 4 Ngahuru Harvest & Seaweek

It's Ngahuru (autumn) tomorrow, so Year 4 harvested and ate spaghetti squash from the Mara Kai. 

We also began our moana inquiry by reading a Kiwi Conservation Club magazine and looking at the Young Ocean Explorers Website while our kai cooked. 

Seed savers

More seed savers

Our whare kai experience:

Emily "Spaghetti squash tastes like sweet potato" 

Nathan "Put olive oil and salt on spaghetti squash to bake it" 

Himeth "Spaghetti squash feels like spaghetti" 

 Isabelle "I learnt how a squash looks inside and how it grows"

Isabelle J "We learnt how to take the seeds out so we can grow some more in spring"

Lucy "Spaghetti squash has a texture like spaghetti and I liked the butterness"

AVA "Squash takes 30minites to bake"

Indigo "I like eating things in class"

Maya "When you roast it there are spaghetti strands in it"

From our research we learnt:

Fiona "Pukeko fight with their feet"

Fae "A turtle comes up to the surface to breathe"

Emma "Turtles use their back flippers to to steer" 

Kayla "Some fish poo makes sand" 

Luca "Orca are apex predators" 

Harry " Birds can eat plastic" 

Next time we're going to continue our Sea Week exploration of our local area by mapping and looking at the meanings of local place names.

Ivy "how do sharks and fish breathe underwater?"

Hunter "why do whales have to come up to breathe air?"

Year Five Sea Week and Spaghetti Squash

 Year Five harvested spaghetti squash from the Mara Kai today.  While we waited for it to bake we investigated the animals of your local moana using Kiwi Conservation Club and Young Ocean Explorer resources. Then it was time to eat!

Alexander "Every part of it tasted good even the skin
Toby"The skin is the best part"

Olivia A "When I bit into it I got a shock when i saw the spahetti in it.  It was yum"

Kiara "I like the seeds becuase the taste of coffee"

Taryn "It kind of tastes like pumpkin to me"

Ben "Yum yum"

Annie "the seeds taste like popcorn"

Olivia F "It tasted like potato"

Vida "It tastes good.  There was a lot of salt".

Jacob "At first the spaghetti squash was alright but then i felt a bit sick"

Rangi "The skin was chewy and had no flavour.  Like a piece of cardborad"

Blake G "It tasted like sweet potato"

Nico "It tastes like spaghetti but abit sweeter"

Jordan "The inside was alright but my favourite part was the roasted seeds because they taste like burnt pancake"

What did we learn?

Laela "You use lots of salt to cook spaghetti squash and it tastes FANTASTIC"

Maddie "Spaghetti squash looks like thin clear tentacles"

Olivia "That squash is quite delicious"

Aiden "The seeds tasted a bit like popcorn"

Louisa " The squash gets more yellow when you cook it"

Fred "You need to keep the seeds moist so they germinate"

Year Three Get Thinking and Explore the World of Herbs

 Today Year Three learnt we don't just grow fruits, vegetables and flowers in our Mara Kai: we also grow lots of herbs and plants used for non edible reasons.

We got thinking about what we already knew about herbs in a group brainstorm, before we went on a  senses explore around the garden.  We smeilt and felt lemongrass, mint, sage, rosemary, oregano, gotu kola and kawakawa.  We saw gourds and squash growing. There was a big fat cucumber, so we picked and ate it. Yum!

Afterwards we came up with wonderings about our new topic:

Camellia - What do we do with the gourds? Hazel - Can you eat the herbs? Tino - What herbs make tea in tea bags? Emily - What kind of herbs can smell good? Camellia - how many types of herbs are there in the world? Annabelle - how long does it take to grow? Coby - can we grow herbs with just sunshine? Awa - who invented tea? Hunter - what do we do with the gourds?

Room 18 collected compost and filled the empty garden beds.  Room 8 potted up beetroot seeds and Room 7 watered the kumara patches.

Next time we're looking forward to finding out who invented tea.  We might try some fruit tea and hopefully our beetroot seeds will have germinatedp

Cucumbers

Apples

Using our senses

A big fat cucumber 

Look, there's a gourd! 

Mmm mint

Potting up beetroot seeds