Year 6 2025 Annual Bird Survey

 Today, Year Six conducted our annual bird survey.  Bird populations are an indicator of how healthy an environment is.  Each class walked around the school for 40 minutes and noted down the biggest number of each species they saw on the official form.

Afterwards we recorded our data here so we can compare and contrast from previous years and reflect on how we can improve.

What do our results show?

Our results track with last year, so not improvement but no decline. The population of magpies is much bigger, which is a concern as they are aggressive to people and other birds.

How can we improve our bird numbers?

"Plant more trees" Maddy

"Give them food"Lucas F

"Like seeds" Justin

Manal "Give them water"

Taryn "Bird bath"

Evie "Make bird feeders"

Maddy "Make sugar water"

Room 1 told us they saw a kereru last week in the trees outside their room.  How exctiting!

In Term 4 we can research the birds we'd like to attract and put some of these ideas into action.

Next time we have EfS we'll be visited by Auckland Emergency Management.  

Our Annual Garden Bird Survey 2024

 Today Year Four conducted our annual garden bird survey.  We'll share the results with Landcare as part of their citiizen science project.  Did you know bird numbers are an indicator of the health of our environment?  Check out our comparitive results here

You can take part at home too:

The survey introduces the concept and practice of carrying out simple surveys, which are important for scientific inquiry and a basic tool of conservation (you can’t look after wildlife properly unless you know what’s there and how much of it there is)

We observed 15 different species of bird at Sunnyhills today and the numbers were steady compared to last year, which is great news. Our planting and pest trapping may be having a positive effect.

Our Year Three's are starting an inqiry into our native birds next term. We can use this data to help come up with some actions to encourage more manu at our kura.

Eco Leaders - Citizen Science - Stormwater Sleuth Study

 Today the Eco Leaders discovered FOUR KGS of waste in our drain litter trap.  OH MY GOODNESS! What was all this waste destined for the Tamaki Estuary????

4 tiny pieces of soft plastic

6 tiny peices of hard plastic 

1 bottle top

1 piece of styrofoam

AND 4 KGS OF CLAY AND LEAVES

We think this came from the recent gardening work.  The left over dirt and leaves must have washed into the drain.

Unfortunately the reason our estuary is so muddy and murky and full of mangroves is from this type of thing washing down the outside drains.

What can we do??

Monique "sweep it onto a lawn instead"
Matthew "put waste in landfill not down the drain"

Stormwater Sleuthing with Room 3

 Today Room 3 went with Mrs Daniel and Monique and Dom from Tread Lightly to the Tamaki Estuary to monitor the health of our local awa.  While the acidity and temperature were good, sadly the clarity and amount of plastic polution were poor.  Luckily our nitrate test showed that the spill in Auckland Central is not affecting our river. 

We decided banning plastic straws, bottle tops and lollipop sticks would make a big difference, as well as packing litter free lunches.

To find our more details please look at the slide show Room 3 created: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1vVusDXhTKOKpbWXb7yWo3gYt0BT6VKWaSWvJAZrHC9M/edit?usp=sharing

Room Toru Stormwater Slueths

 

Room 3 became citizen scientists last week when they took part in the Stormwater Slueth Project.  Follow this link to read their recounts of their mahi:

Room 3 Storm Water Slueth Recounts

Stormwater Sleuths doing Citizen Science

 Our Eco Leaders logged 1 litre of debris in our storm drain trap today. Mostly biodegradable leaves, but sadly also some polystyrene and plastic. 

K1 Break Into Climate Change & Stormwater

 K1 had a busy Sustainability session with Mrs Daniel today.  We began by starting our enquiry into climate change.  

We discussed what we already knew and how it makes us feel:

Ashton: the climate is changing and the ice is melting and it makes me sad.  Joe Biden and the Willow Project are bad.

Edward: the air is getting hotter and there's going to be more floods.   Animals can't adapt to the climate.

We clarified that the ozone layer hole isn't to do with climate change but it does go to show that humans can change their habits and reverse the negative effects they have caused.

Next we did a Climate Change breakout provided by Live Lightly at the Eye on Nature Event.  We timed ourselves and are going to compete against the other Year 6 classes for the grand prize.

K1 thought the break out was exciting and difficult.  We used our brain power.  We learnt to work together, how we can live more sustainably, and to yell out answers so everyone knows. We wonder if we'll be the quickest ...

The times:

K3 - 16m 36s

K2 - 9m15s WINNERS

K1 - 15m 15s

We continued making meaning and connections about climate til morning tea.

Next we had a surprise special guest; Monique from the Stormwater Sleuths for a citizen science project looking at pollution in our drains.

Meet our trap:

We emptied the trap and audited the waste. 

We'll monitor and log the waste each month.

Landcare Garden Bird Survey

Each year we take part in the Landcare Bird Survey to check the health of our ecosystem and track if our measures to attract more birds are working.  

The biggest groups of bird species we Room Rua discovered

Sparrows - 16

Starlings - 2

Thrush - 3

Tui - 2

Fantail - 2

Blackbirds - 6

Goldfinches - 2

Myna - 1

Magpies - 2

Silvereyes - 2

Yellow hammer - 1

Sunnyhills in Enviroschools Feature Article

 The commitment and enthusiasm of our Eco Leaders, who collected moth plants with their families, has featured in a new article on the Enviroschools website entitled 

STUDENT COMMITMENT HELPS DECREASE THREAT OF MOTH PLANTS

Read the whole article here:

https://enviroschools.org.nz/creating-change/stories/student-commitment-helps-decrease-threat-of-moth-plants/

Well done to all the learners and their families for helping to create a more sustainable future!

Citizen Science - The Garden Bird Survey - Will your family take part too?

This week we're prepping our bird knowledge, so we can take part in the Landcare Manaaki Whenua Garden Bird Survey.

We'll be collecting data on our local bird life and sending it off to scientists. Did you know the number of birds is an indicator of the health of the environment?

Families can take part in the surveys too. It's fun and easy. Visit https://www.landcareresearch.co.nz/science/plants-animals-fungi/animals/birds/garden-bird-surveys

ANGUS - THIS WEEK’S SUNNYHILLS ENVIRO HERO

ANGUS - THIS WEEK’S SUNNYHILLS ENVIRO HERO

Angus explains, "My dad and i walked from our home down the Rotary Walkway. We picked up a whole bag of rubbish including dead lighters, plastic bottles, plastic bags and nappies. We did it cause we know the estuary goes straight to the sea. We know it's already not the cleanest place and we don't want anymore plastic to go there because sea life can swallow it and it'll get stuck in their throat and they can die."

What will you do this week to help our environment?

Our Marine Metre Square - Citizen scientists in action!

Today our Middle School Enviro Monitors, along with Mrs Venville, Mrs Daniel, three awesome parent helpers and marine biologist Dr Mels Barton conducted a Marine Metre Square survey.
We're helping scientists researching the health of our marine environments.

It was great fun! Sunnyhills families can conduct their own MM2 survey by visiting www.mm2.net.nz

Our TFS Planting Day - Sunnyhills Enviro Monitors share their planting day experience

Trees for Survival

By Cathy

Year 6

Sunnyhills School

Do you want to be planting trees with a bunch of your friends on a nice sunny day in the countryside? Trees for survival is just like that. I went to a farm in Hunua with my friends and planted trees there, and the farmer even made pizza for our lunch! It was fun and we were helping the environment too!

After we got off the bus, we walked to the planting site. It was downward sloping site and the farmer wanted to plant trees there, as there was a lake next to the site and the farmer wanted to stop the soil eroding into the river. All the trees were laid out for us in black plastic bags and we went to work.

When half of the trees were planted, the boys kept planting and the girls ( Me! ) started mulching the trees. A truck came filled with mulch and we got buckets and mulched the trees. Mulch stops the weeds from growing around the trees and helps keep the tree moist in summer. We also had to make sure that the base of the tree was mulch-free. After we mulched about half the trees, the boys started mulching and the girls carried on planting.

When we finished planting, we had lunch. It was homemade pizza, apples, sausage rolls and scones while we looked at the trees we just planted and mulched( The food tasted so good and the whole group felt so accomplished! ) We had just planted a whole bank of trees!

I think this was one of the best days of my life, ( Being honest here.) and I would DEFINITELY recommend going there.  It was fun, amazing and we helped the environment! Hope I can see you planting trees soon!

Trees for survival is a great opportunity for kids to get into the environment and use a bit of elbow grease. It is a great day with friends to plant new trees and help with environment. The farmers are friendly and provide food at lunchtime. I highly recommend going to the  trees for survival project. Ethan, Year 6, Sunnyhills School

On Friday 4th August, 20 Students from Sunnyhills School school went on a trip to a farm in Hunua. At the farm we were taught how to plant our trees properly. In the end we planted 400-450 plants. At the farm they made us a delicious pizza for lunch and it was great. The day was pretty full on, but it was still very very fun. Morgan, Year 6, Sunnyhills School

Pest Free NZ 2050 - Tracker Tunnels & Chew Cards

Did you know NZ has pledged to be pest free by 2050? Sunnyhills students are on board to make this a reality!

But which pests live at Sunnyhills? Room 7, 6, 2 & 1 students made and laid tracker tunnels and chew cards to answer this question.

You can make your own tracker tunnels at home too: https://youtu.be/uChWMjSIJh8

Next week we'll inspect the paw prints and bitemarks....stay tuned for results!!

16.8.17 Update : Today we checked our tracker tunnels & chew cards. Lots of the bait was missing from our chew cards with no bite marks - we blame the rain and ants and perhaps a licky cat. However, we were excited to find one chew card with tiny teeth marks!

Most if the tracker tunnels were untouched except for snails, but one had four distinct paw prints!

Back in our classrooms, we used online resources to identify the teeth marks and paw prints ......both are from a hedgehog!

Mrs Jeans has also discovered evidence of a rat living in one of her storage cupboards at school.

Next week, we're looking forward to a visit from Auckland City Council's Pest Control and creating posters to spread the word about Pestfree 2050.