Year Six Collect Data on our Biodiversity - Annual Bird Survey

 Today Year Six took part in the Landcare Bird Survey.  Every year we record all the species of birds at our school.  Did you know birds are a bio indicator species?  More birds means a healthier environment.  

When we analysed the results, we were excited to see that we had recorded 16 different species of birds.   That's great news, as last year we only recorded 12.  Here's our year on year data:  https://docs.google.com/document/d/1PjnmDwG-9r-ua6NTvOoFGKhvQWn8tjTHF1DGLZrYGmI/edit?usp=sharing 

Afterwards we created fact files to research how we might further improve our school environment for the birds.  Some ideas included bird feeders, more native trees and a bird bath. Check out our fact files in the school library.

Year Four Take Action

 On a very wet and rainy day Year Four began their letters to the Prime Minister to make a call to action for our Moana. We were inspired by our visit from the Young Ocean Explorers. What persuasive writers Year Four are! Next term, we’re looking forward to writing and decorating our good copies.

Year Five Know How to Stay Alive

 

Today, it was the turn on Year 5 to work on their readiness for Natural Disasters. We're hoping to be one of the lucky schools selected for a special assembly and ipad prize draw. We took part in Civil Defense's Get Ready School Challenge: Look out for more information coming home with your tamariiki. Does your family have a fire evacuation plan? Do your tamariki know one parent's phone number and their address?

https://getready.govt.nz/involved/schools-challenge Get Ready School Competition

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qv5IxXf91uE

Pakuranga Bike Hub and the Sunnyhills Bikie Gang

 This morning, before school an excited group of tamariki met with Kelvin from the Pakuranga Bike Hub.  We were so lucky to have an expert along to teach us how to maintain our kura's collection of bikes.  Soon our newly formed "Bikie Gang" will be able to keep our fleet up to spec and ready to go for class fitness on the bike track. 

If you have bikes at home that need work or want advice on riding in our area visit Kelvin at the Pakuranga Bike Hub. 

Thanks again to Kelvin for taking the time to share your knowledge.  We look forward to seeing you next week!

Howick Local Board Gather our Student's Voices

 

Kai, Damian and Brandii visited our Eco Group today to describe what they do and gather our feedback on what we'd like to see in our community.

Kai explained that the local board is in charge of libraries, parks, playgrounds, pools, transport,  walkways and activities like weed busting competitions, pest control initiatives, career expos and the Bike Hub.

Did you know there are 70 playgrounds in our area?

Kai asked for our feedback on the local playgrounds and parks. 

Here's what our Eco Group thought:

Matting on the playgrounds not bark please.

Traps on the drains to catch the rubbish

A merry go round on the playground that spins.

Can we get the trampolines that are in the ground?

Covers for the rubbish bins

Drawings in the parks to show how to take care of the environment.

Less concrete paths and more grass patches in the paths so the water drains away.

Paint murals with rubbish on the blank walls

3D pictures along the walkway like in Rotorua 

Visual displays telling people about the local birds.

A dog park with different areas for different sized dogs near the beach. Add toys, a stick library and lights.

More copies of popular books in the libraries

Tic, tac toe games in the playgrounds

More climbing walls please

Paintings around the Farm Cove Shops and walkways.  

Clear broken glass from the walkways.

Make the alleyways safer.

Lights at Sunnyhills Tennis Club

More gardens for the new builds

More hotels near Pakuranga for family to stay in

Exercise equipment that generates power. 

Solar powered / movement activated lighting

String telephone in the playground.

Shorter monkey bars for short people please

Damian told the group about the Youth Council they can join when they're aged 15 -24 years. Everyone has bright ideas so let's make sure young people's voices are represented.

Kai reminded us that just like with our own pocket money, the local board has to make choices about how to spend limited money, so we need to make careful choices.  We need to find balance with time, money, resources and what we value.

Thanks so much to Damian, Kai and Brandii for visiting today!

Year Three Sorting Out Healthy Kai

  Today, Year Three were thinking about how eating a wide variety of food helps our bodies grow and learn.  We began by talking about our favourite meals. Then we got into groups to sort picture cards into protein, grains, milk and milk products and fruit and vegetables. 

Different kai is good for different parts of our body.  We had a magnetic board and labels to help us sort this idea out. 

Lastly we completed a cut and paste activity and fill in the blanks sheet to consolidate our learning.

Next time you have a meal, can you check if it contains different food groups?

Our Medicinal Mushroom Mara

 

Last weekend Ms Daniel went on a foraging expedition in Murphy's Bush.  She learnt about edible and medicinal plants and fungus.  

Ms Daniel was able to bring back a log covered in medicinal turkey tail fungus.  Today the Eco Group looked at the fungi and wetted down the pile of rotting wood that it has been placed on.

Turkey Tail is a woody funghi and when it's boiled for an hour creates an immune boosting tea.

Year Four Learn about our Moana with a Marine Biologist

Today, Jess from the Young Ocean Explorers visited Year Four.  We were amazed to learn about Jess' career as a marine biologist working with Kelly Tarltons.  One career highlight was helping to save a three flippered turtle called Waiwai Toru. Jess also worked with NanoGirl and now is continuing her science education pathway with the Young Ocean Explorers. 

Jess gave a fascinating presentation that included a quiz, videos, a smoke machine and even giant bubbles. We were able to explore how animals communicate with sound under the sea and hunt with air.

What did you find out Year 4?

Jaxon "Whales breathe air and they sing by humming"

Leo "I liked hearing all the animal sounds"

David "Whales use sounds to find their friends and family"

Ken "I enjoyed when Jess put smoke into the giant bubbles"

Valentin "I found out seaweed can grow 70cm per day"

Lucy "Jess made a smoke ring push a cup off my hand.   She gave me a poster"

We were sad to hear that while 30% of land is protected in NZ, only 0.38% of the sea is protected.  What could we do to protect more of the sea?

"Build a robot to clean up rubbish. We've been working on that in digi.

Special drains that can't let rubbish out or in

Use a magnet that attracts the rubbish

Make more marine reserves

Put posters up that we make

Write letters to the Prime Minister

Call DOC 0800 DOCHOT if you find a sick animal on the beach."

Next time, we're going to write letters to the Prime Minister, toconvince him to protect more of the moana.

Year 5 Are Travelwise

 Today Year Five thought about how we can independent active travelers.  We want to be able to walk, bike and scooter more, because it's good for our bodies and good for the environment, but we need to be safe too. 

We began our lesson by checking our class rankings for The Wednesday Challenge.  Every Wednesday we try to use active travel more and log our results in an inter school and inter class competition.  WELL DONE to Room 1 who are currently in second place.

Next we created a giant jigsaw puzzle.  It was great fun to work as a whole class team.  We timed it to make an interclass competition:

Room 2 - 5 minutes 41 seconds

Room 1 - 7 minutes 23 seconds

Room 3 - 6 minutes 38 seconds

Then we looked carefully at the picture we had created and identified children who we being unsafe.  We marked them with red flags.  Lastly we labelled the children with flags to describe what they should be doing.

To review we completed questions in our digital workbook.

Next time we're looking forward to taking part in Civil Defense's "Disaster Readiness" Competition.

Natural Disaster Readiness with Year 3

 Today Year 3 learnt that nature isn't always kind, but we can be prepared.

What are some of the natural disasters we know?

Zoey "Tsunami & flood"

Rhyden "Hail, lightning, earthquake & fire"

Margaux "Whirlpool"

Shion "Volcano"

Isla "Slips"

Elsie "Hurricane"

Christina "Snow Storm"

Billie "Bee swarm"

Jack "Coconut falling on your head"

Mahina "Sandstorm"

Amelia "Cliff crumbling"

Milan "Cyclone"

Sammy "Tornado"

Ciaran "Forest Fire"

We revised the things we can do in the event of a natural disaster:

- drop, cover & hold in an earthquake 

- ring 111 in an emergency

- learn your address and parent's phone number

- check heavy objects in the home are secure

- learn the tsnami alarm that tells us to move to high ground 

AND lastly please discuss a fire evacuation plan at home with our families.

By completing these activities we are in the draw to win an iPad from  Civil Defense.  Fingers crossed!

Year 6 Work on Natural Disaster Readiness

 

Today, it was the turn on Year 6 to work on their readiness for Natural Disasters. We're hoping to be one of the lucky schools selected for a special assembly and ipad prize draw. We took part in Civil Defense's Get Ready School Challenge: Look out for more information coming home with your tamariiki. Does your family have a fire evacuation plan?

https://getready.govt.nz/involved/schools-challenge Get Ready School Competition

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qv5IxXf91uE

2026 Waste Audit

 Today, Year Five helped Ms Daniel conduct our waste audit to see if we are being successful in diverting waste away from landfill.

First we played a game to see if we knew the right place to put our waste.  We had to choose between:

- paper recycling

- soft plastic

- comingled recycling

- general waste (red lid bin)

- food scraps / hot compost

- garden compost / worm farm

- hazardous waste

- op shop

There's so many places we can send our waste to be reused, composted or recycled so our world doesn't fill up with rubbish.

Afterwards we did a reading comprehension to analyse the results of the last waste audit.

Lastly we sorted all the waste from one day and weighed it:

Hot Compost 3.25kg (2.22kg in 2024)

Soft Plastic .35kg (soft plastic not collected in 2024)

Paper Recycling 1.25 kg (5.9kg in 2024)

Comingled Recycling 0.2 kg (0.1kg in 2024)

General Waste 1.25 kg (3kg in 2024)

Concerns -

compostables in waste 0.2 (Puka tea bags are recycleable) (0.72kg in 2024)

contamination in paper recycling 0.01 Room 1 

contamination in recycling 0.05 (Up and Go boxes can't be recycled)

Can ice block sticks be composted? Yes :)

Recycling in waste 0.05 (1.08kg in 2024)

Analysis: 

Last time we had 3kg of landfill waste and this time we had 1.25kg.  What a dramatic drop! One reason may be that we made it a school rule that the Wednesday pizza boxes had to go home. 

Total diverted from landfill went from 8.22kg to 5.05kg.  This is because there was much less paper in the paper recycling bins (5.9kg vs 1.25kg), so that's good news.

Contamination dropped from 1.81kg to 0.35kg. That's another huge drop!  Teachers and students on the whole are putting waste in the right bins.  

We still have some work to do.  We are not perfect.  The Eco Group will analyse more and see what actions we take to improve the contamination rate.  We can't wait to share our awesome results with other Enviroschools.

How could we celebrate our wonderful waste reducation?

Jase "Have a free lunch order"

Theo "Classes have an ice block (nice blocks)"

Alyssa "Spend the first or second block in the gardens"

"A day off of school" Nick

"Have a litter hunt" Caden

"Get to go on an adventure by ourselves"

"Make a litter hunt group" Theo

"Next specialist everyone make like pumpkin soup" Chace

Year Three Kai Continued

Today, Year Three were back out in the Mara investigating kai.  First we observed the differences since we were last there in March:

Zoe "The leaves had gone from the fruit trees.  Last time there was lots of fruit and leaves"

Augustino "Cabbages were growing"

Evie K "There was no more leaves on the apple trees and no more apples"

Isla "The leaves will come back in spring"

We tried silver beet fresh from the garden.  

Next we thought about the differences between home grown kai and kai we buy in the shops.  Kai we grow at home is fresher and takes a lot less energy to transport and store so it's better for the environment.  We can't grow all our kai, but it's great if we can have a couple of fruit trees or a small veggie garden at home.

We created diagrams to show the differences between homegown and store bought kai. 

Lastly we thought about the senses that we use when we eat and created a vocabulary bank.

Next time we are looking forward to finding out the groups we can put kai into and how the different food groups are good for our bodies.

Room 7 had a slightly different afternoon because they had the big job of collecting all the bins from around the school for tomorrow's waste audit.  Also, when they were in the Mara Kai they say a HEDGEHOG.  At first it was curled up and then it was waddling around the garden. This led to some hedgehog research.  Did you you know they can swim? Their quills act like a life jacket as they are filled with air.  Unfortuanatley they below in England - they are now considered a pest in New Zealand.

Next time we will be doing a special Civi Defense lesson, then we are looking forward to finding out the groups we can put kai into and how the different food groups are good for our bodies. The children want to end this unit by making kumara soup from the mara.

Greenfingers Gang on the hunt

 Today, the Greenfingers Gang got bust tipping compost, weeding and lastly protecting our Mara by setting rat traps. Stay tuned to see if we catch anything. 

Year Six Continue Our Estuary Inquiry with Watercare

 Today Year Six learnt about how we can observe what live in our fresh water ways, with Kathryn from Watercare.  We learnt about the common risks to our local waterways - detergent, nitrates, oil, plastic litter and paint. Sadly litter is a main pollutant.  What could we do about that?

Next, we used magnifying glasses to find macro invertebrates in the samples.  Who knew there were so many bugs living in our freshwater?! Lots of life means healthier water.

Observation, identification and recording of data

Good news! We saw six types of macroinvertebrates, so the water was relatively healthy.

What we found:

- leech

- microvelia

- water boatman

- water mite

-damsel fly

Freshwater Leech

Water Boatman

Lastly, we chose one water bug to find out more about and created research posters. Check them out HERE

Thank you to Kathryn and Watercare for the wonderful hands on learning.

Year 4 Get Ready School Challenge

 Nature isn't always kind. Today, Year 4 thought about how we can get ready and be prepared if a natural disaster strikes.

What sort of things could we get ready for?

Arjun "Earthquakes"

Theo "Volcanoes"

Amelia "Tsunami- my dad went through one in Samoa"

Caden "Tornadoes and Cyclones"

Karina "Fires"

Kimaya "Flood"

Nick "Rockslide"

Amelia "Sinkhole"

Azara "Pandemic"

Archer "Heatwave"

We practiced 'Drop, cover & hold" to prepare for an earthquake.

We took part in the "Get Ready Schools Challenge" by completing eight activities:

1. Practise drop, cover, hold for an eearthquake

2. Learn the 111 emergency number, your address and your parent's phone number off by heart - we'll learn this at home if we don't know alreadu.

3. Check big objects are secure around the house

4. Know who is responsible in the event of an emergency

5. Know the types of hazards that may happen in New Zealand

6. Know how to respond to  hazards

7. Create a fire escape plan with your family - we'l do this at home.

8. Know how to evacuate for a tsunami.

REMEMBER to talk about this mahi, complete the fire evacuation plan with your whanau and memorise your emergency contact details.

THEN return the sheet with the dog on it to your teacher to enter the IPAD draw.

Lastly, we drew our families evacuating with our 'Go Bags' in the event of a volcano.