Koru Whanau have been learning about the animals in our back yard; our most exciting discoveries included tree wetas in the native bush walk. We wondered how we could protect and encourage these endemic taonga.
Our wonderful local Kea group has just the answer! They've been building weta houses. Sunnyhills School and the Marae in Howick are two of the lucky recipients of their hard work.
Griffin, Drake, Hannah & Roman presented Mrs Daniel with the weta house and will help to find just the right spot in the native bush walk. Thank you!
Next we'll go on another bug hunt and reflect on any changes. Will we see more wetas now they have a cosy hotel?
Want to make your own weta house? Check out this article on the science learning hub: https://www.sciencelearn.org.nz/resources/1964-building-homes-for-tree-weta
A massive thank you to Mrs Trembath and Room 14 for our sturdy new worm buckets for kids to put their lunchbox scraps in.
Room 14 do an amazing job feeding and watering our worms each week, so we can return nutrients to our edible garden. You rock!!
Special thanks to Sticky Bambam for the sicker labels!
THE WIGGLY WORRY
Today, while Year One were learning about what to put in our worm farms and why we have worms at school, Cameron noticed a problem; the bins children put their lunchbox scraps in are all cracked and broken. Also, they don't have any labels or instructions. Sounds like an issue for our Going Gold group to resolve. Good spotting Cameron! We're always reflecting on ways we can keep our sustainable practices running smoothly.
Did you know NZ is home to 44 out of the 88 species of whales and dolphins in the world? That's just one of the many fascinating facts that we learnt when Project Jonah visited.
It was fantastic to meet real enviro heroes and learn what to do if we discover a stranded sea sea mammal.
"I liked how we learnt how dolphins adapted to the sea by breathing upward through their blowhole" Sophie
"Keep a stranded whale's skin shiny and wet" James
"Call 0800 4whale or 111 if you see a stranding" Taite
Thank you to Project Jonah & to all the Sunnyhills families who contributed gold coins to donate to this worthy cause!
To learn more visit http://www.projectjonah.org.nz
To celebrate our last Enviro lesson this term, we've been harvesting our kale and making kale chips.
The kale leaves were wet, soft and bright green when we picked them. After they were put in the oven we noticed they changed to being dry, crisp and dark green. They tasted yum!
We put the leftover stalks in the worm bin, so the worms can make more fertiliser for our edible gardens and we'll have more veges to eat. That's being sustainable! I wonder what we will plant next ....
Well done Alistair and Maddie from Room 22 - they bought naked lunches. No wraps and wrappers means less pollution for our environment. Can you bring nude food too dude?
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?
Wow, today Liam told us all about bobbits, as part of a SeaWeek studies. Do you know what a bobbit is? Mrs Daniel and Room 22 didn't either:
It's a worm or sand striker that lives in the ocean floor and ambushes fish. Cool!
We can't wait to find out more about the creatures that live in our moana and how to protect them.
Do you know any weird, rare or wonderful sea creatures? Comment below 🦐🦀🦈🐋🐠🦑🐡🐢
Happy new year! As we think about our goals for the year ahead, why not add an enviro resolution for your family?
Reducing household waste is a great place to start!
Did you know up to 55% of all household waste could be turned into compost? Instead it's sent to landfills, where it creates methane gas, which contributes to climate change.
What can we do?
- create a compost
- start a worm farm (ask Mrs Daniel for worms to get you going)
- recycle carefully
- collect soft plastics
- use reuseable shopping bags
- pack wrapper free school lunches - bring nude food dude!
This a great article from NZ Herald:
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11957595
Simply making a resolution to say no to plastic straws, refuse plastic bags or pick up rubbish on the beach can make a big difference too.
Wishing you all clean green summer holidays Sunnyhills! 🌏❤
To wrap up the year, the Senior children were asked to share one Enviro message with the world in any way...check out the Pestfree Rap Battle that resulted between Room 6 & 7:
This term the Sunnyhills learners brought together our edible garden project with our action learning plan to encourage more native birds by holding a Farmers Market to support the Pestfree 2050 project. We've been selling the vegetables, herbs and fruit we've grown to our community and using the money to support The Squawk Squad, who trap pests to protect native birds.
The Squawk Squad were pretty impressed with our efforts!
You can support the Squawk Squad too: https://squawksquad.co.nz/
Action Learning In Action! Identify the Current Situation - Learning about native birds - DOC Expriencing Birds in Your Green Space, The Manaki Whenua Landacare Bird Survey, Bird of the Year
Explore Alternatives - research trees to attract birds and how to trap pests that can harm them. Visit from Ruari a pest expert from DOC
Take Action - plan a new bird corridor to plant new trees for the birds, farmers market to support trappers in reserves, hold a Pestival to promote trapping in the local community, setting and checking rat traps,
AND Treemendous Trees Video Application - view below:
Update - our application was unsuccessful, but Mrs Venville has managed to get 1200 from Gecko Trust to start our bird corridor! She's planning a working bee to start the work with the help of all our whanau.
Reflect - still no rats caught in our traps, but some local families are catching them. We think maybe the local cats keep them under control.
The kowhai flowers are florishing in the native bush walk and the Sunnyhills tuis are putting on a spectacular show for our enviro classes this week.
Children have been able to observe first hand how the tuis curved beak and bristley tongue is perfectly adapted to drink the kowhai's nectar. They repay the kowhai by spreading pollen, so the tree can produce its seeds. Native flora and fauna working in harmony!
Of course problems occur when humans bring plants and animals here, where they don't belong, throwing our ecosystems out of balance. Comment below if you can think of three such pesky plants or animals.
The Sayer Family & Mrs Daniel attended the 'Fruit Trees in Schools' breakfast time launch, at Farm Cove Intermediate.
Thank you to the Howick Local Board & Kings Plant Barn for providing our school with a fabulous variety of new trees, including for the first time a fruiting cherry tree.
We loved the opportunity to explore FCI's edible gardens and learn about their bee hives as well.
