Year Five Prepare our Mara for Raumati

 Today Year Five had an important job preparing our mara (garden) for raumati (summer).  

We put the hot compost and worm farms to sleep by feeding them up, watering and putting the equipment away.

We weeded the mara kai and collected the wild flower seeds.  

Next we planted kumara tipu and sunflower seeds.

Bonus for Room 3; they found cucumber, strawberries and kohlrabi ready to pick and eat.

Over the summer a new irrigation system is going in.  Hooray that will help the sunflowers, kumara and all the other plants to grow.

Lastly we made origami seed packets so we can grow our own phacelia at home.

Well done Year Five this was excellent mahi for our future Eco Leaders!

Year 3 Rainbow Ramen

 Mrs Daniel had TOO MUCH rainbow silverbeet in her garden, so today Year 3 made Rainbow Ramen.  

Jessica "It felt soft and crunchy and it tasted a little bit spicy"

Coby "It tasted really yum"

Hazel "It smelt nice like noodles and garlic"

Archie "The veggies were really good in it and it was tasty"

Ranger "The bubbles were made out of oil"

Alice "It tasted healthy"

Ciara "It was sweet and salty"

Camelia "The rainbow silverbeet gave it colour"

Greenfingers Gang Harvesting Kai

 

Year 4 Stormwater Detectives

 Today Year 4  conducted our anual water testing to check the health of our estuary.  We learnt about how human actions threaten our water ways such as oil from cars, plastic litter, concrete run off and detergent.  

We can help by making sure only rain goes down the outside drain because they lead straight to the sea.

Kathryn from Watercare brought water from our local stormwater outflow.  We used special equipment to measure turbidity (how clear it is), PH (how acidic, nuetral or alkaline it is), nitrate (chemicals from things like fertilisers), & oxygen. 

Next we observed carefully to see if the water contained any macro invertebrates.

We discovered that the water was clear & nuetral.

The nitrate test showed a small amount of pollution.

There were some bugs, but none that can't survive with trace pollution.

Sadly there was lots of litter.

Next year we are going to think about what actions we can take to protect our local wai.

Recycled decorations

 Check out our recycled paper decorations:

How can we have a sustainable Christmas? 

Kay den "Make Eco friendly ornaments" 

Elizabeth "Use reusable bags instead of wrapping paper" 

Rebab " Keep plastic Christmas trees for 10 years" 

Astin "Compost real Christmas trees" 

Ella " Use the food scrap bin" 

Year Five Get Inspired by Hukanui

 Today Year Five explored the mahi of Hukanui School.  They were one of the first enviroschools back in 1998.  We read articles about them and explored their webiste. We used this information to reflect on our own enviroschools journey and plan some next steps for 2025.  Look at our reflection here. Thank you for sharing and inspiring us Hukanui! 

Afterwards we went into the Bird Corridor to release the native trees from the kikuya grass.  Look how much the trees have grown!

Year 4 Share & Shine

Today, Year 3 reflected on our Enviro journey so far and planned our possible next steps.  To help us reflect we read a story, article and poem about other schools that pratice sustainability and compared and contrasted: story, article and poem

It was lovely sitting in amoungst the flowers in the mara kai to do our buddy reading.

We recorded our ideas in a digital diagram.

Lastly we went back into the Mara Kai and watered the seedlings with worm tea.

Room 7 also found a male tree weta in the mara. They've been learning about them with Mrs Oxford. 

Next time we would like to make a fence with a playground, plant more trees, make a tree house, make a hut and grow stuff in it, nature art, make a staircase through the trees to see the birds, plant some more veggies, plant more fruit tree, pick the fruit and vegetables, weed the trees or make tea

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Year Six Share & Shine - Reflect on Change 2018 - 2024

 

Year Six spent some time down memory lane today 2018 - 2024.  In 2018 when this cohort started school, Sunnyhills became a GreenGold Enviroschool.

We reflected on the changes at Sunnyhills in the time we've been here and the action learning cycles we've been involved in.

Guiding Questions:

What are we reflecting on?

What changes and benefits have come about as a result of our Enviro Programme learning and actions?

What went well?

What didn't go well?

What could we have done differently?

What highlights can we celebrate?

We scrolled the EnviroBlog and selected highlights and photos to share. Check out our mahi here

Year Four Begin Our Kumara

Today Year Four worked to plant our kumara for the 2025 harvest. At the beginning of the term we learnt about the importance of kumara to Maori and how it was brought to Aotearoa. The kumara we put in water during our lesson then  has now sprounted with red stems, heart shaped leaves and white roots, so they were ready to plant out.  We watched this video to learn the tikanga of kumara planting: 

Room 5 helped to turn the compost and move it into the kumara beds.  We also harvested the last of the broadbeans to clear space. We'll dry out the pods and collect the seeds to plant next takurua/winter. We planted some kumara tipu in the beds.  The broadbeans help to put nitrogen in the soil, so we'll see if those tipu grow stronger than the other beds.

Unfortunately for Room 4 it was pouring with rain, so we spent our time recording instructions for how to grow kumara at home. Check out their mahi her How to Grow Kumara by Room 4 Just before lunch the sun came out so we managed to sneak out and plant a few kumara tipu.

Room 6 helped to weed the Fordyce entrance and then planted the last of the kumara tipu. We'll done!

We can't wait for next year to see how our kumara have grown.