Cassie & Eliza - Kaitiaki o te Moana 🐳❤🌏

Cassie from Room tekau ma iwa and Eliza from Room rua tekau ma rua are gaurdians of the sea! Cassie's family have swapped from plastic straws to paper. Tino pai! Lisa's family use metal straws. Awesome! Will you say no to plastic straws too and help save our sea animals?

Also a big thank you to Grangers in Half moon Bay for choosing to go straw free. We hope you lead the way for other local businesses to follow.

Karthiga, Angie & Nessa Helping Save Our Native Birds in the Weekend

An amazing project by three of our amazing Eco Warriors. We're so proud of you! 

The project in their own words:

Travelwise Success – Silver Award

                                      Travelwise Success – Silver Award 

On Wednesday Mrs Venville and Mrs Wallace accompanied our 6 Travelwise leaders to a function at The Cloud to receive recognition of our efforts and plans to improve safety and education with travelling to school. The event included a transport and emergency services challenge around the Queens Wharf and Wynyard Quarter areas. In our first year of the programme we have been awarded Silver Status! Go Sunnyhills! Thanks to all those learners and families for supporting the school with safe parking, walking school buses and scootering/biking safely to school too!

Native Flora & Fauna Working In Harmony - Whanaungatanga - everything is interconnected

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.

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

Does Your Garden Have Food For The Bees?

https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=756556307875607&substory_index=0&id=597438023787437

A false spring has meant baby bees are starving. Has you garden got food for the bees?

Sunnyhills students have planted rosemary, comfrey, borage and anemonesfor our bees 🐝❤😊🌾

Pest Free 2050 - Cate & Ruairi Visit - Next Up Our Hosting The Pestival

 Today Cate & Ruairi visited Room 7 to talk about their work to rid NZ of  pest flora and fauna.

 Ruairi bought along traps, tracking cards, waxchews and even a possum, ferret, weasel and stoat to show us.

 Both Cate and Ruairi were blown away with Room 7's knowledge about pests and their impact on our environment. Mrs Daniel was super proud of how much we've all learnt through our inquiry topic this term.

We're keen to share what we've learnt with our families and other schools. Stay tuned for news of the Pestival we're planning!

Travelwise Leaders - Time Zone Mapping

Travelwise Leaders - Time Zone Mapping

Today the Travelwise Leaders worked with Constable Merv, Mrs Venville and Marianne and her team from MOT to create a Time Zone Map.  We split up and walked four of the popular routes to school recording where we were after 5, 10 and 15 minutes.  Marianne has taken the data away and will create a walking time zone map which we will share with the community.  This part of the Travelwise Leaders initiative to encourage our school community to walk rather than travel by car to school.

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

Travelwise Parking Survey Results

Travelwise Parking Survey

In Term 2 the Travelwise Group conducted a Parking Survey at both our school gates.  They are happy to report that most parents were parked correctly.   The Travelwise Group handed out positive parking messages and rewards to many of the correctly parked motorists.  Only 19 cars were observed parking on yellow lines which is a pleasing reduction.

The survey did highlight that many parents were parked too close to driveways. The Road Code states that you must not park closer than 1 metre to a vehicle entrance. Another problem is people parking in the clearway section on The Crest.

The results and information about parking is being included in the next school newsletter

                                          Tabulating the results of the survey

Travelwise members collecting data with Mrs Venville

Sustainability Challenge

Sustainability Challenge

Yesterday the Enviro Group took part in a sustainability Challenge at the Botanic Gardens.  We had to work strategically as a team and complete enviro challenges at stations to earn points.  Points could also be scored by finding clues.  We needed to read a map to locate these which was not as easy as we thought it would be. Matching the stream life to the pictures and description was really difficult.  So was the marine life activity - but we got there.  One of our groups came 4th which was a massive achievement as there was over 300 team taking part.  Fortunately the rained stayed away though our shoes and socks were soaked.  Here are some photos showing some of the challenges we completed.

                                           Planting lavender

                                                     Identifying river creatures

                                          Identifying marine life

                                                    Collecting clues

                                          How seeds are spread

                                          Finished

                                          Well deserved rest and lunch

                                                    Ready to start

                                                    Looking for fossils

                                                    Identifying river creatures

                                                    Naming the parts of a flower

                                                    The worm Farm challenge

          Such fun.  Got back with 3 minutes to spare and no penalty point incurred

Students meet with the Chairperson of The Local Howick Board

Today Gabrielle and Hollie met with David Collings the Chair of the Local Howick Board to discuss the council not using pesticide when spraying as it kills bees. The students explained that bees are one of the very few things that we humans need to live. Without bees there would be no pollination and that would lead to no fruit or vegetables. Herbivores would have less food to eat and some would die out. Then the carnivores too would be affected. The good news is that the council only use herbicides as they too are very concerned that the bee population is in decline. Mr Collings also signed the student's petition to ban the sale of pesticides as there are alternative products available.

Gabrielle and Hollie presenting their Inquiry about bees and the reasons for 
                                      their decline in numbers

Mr Collings signing the student's petition

Enviro Cluster Meeting

On the 8th June Mrs Venville and Mrs Daniels went to an after school Enviro Cluster Meeting at Wakaaranga Primary School

We learnt about:

•  Bees and ways to get students involved 
•  It was an opportunity to reconnect/network with local Enviroschools key teachers
•  We heard how Wakaaranga have set up their hive + visited the hive with students 
•  We met local “Sweet As” bee keepers
•  We found out about Sarah’s project to make Auckland become the safest city in the world for bees
•  We explored how being beekeepers addresses global challenges. E.g. pollination and health
•  We discussed the challenges and brainstormed a variety of ways schools can be bee keepers
• Found out how and when to apply for quick response Howick Local Board funds to support your projects
• We were given 5 lemon trees grown by prisoners at Paremoremo to plant in  our school orchard 

Video by the Enviro group to request funding from 'Treemendous School Makeovers'

From the Enviro Group's work around re visioning for our school; one of the major project they have identified from student suggestions collected is to extend the Native Trail and our orchard areas.  This will create a larger bird corridor and an extended orchard area will provide a haven for bees and produce that can either be sold to help fund other sustainability projects or consumed by the school community.  Check out the video they story boarded, filmed and edited to request funding from 'Treemendous School Makeovers.

Enviro Group Reflecting on the the Presence of the Enviroschool Guiding Principles in our School

The Enviro Group have been reflecting on the the presence of the Enviroschool Guiding Principles in our School.  They looked at changes we have seen in our school since becoming an Enviro School.  They started the session with a revision of what the guiding principles are using our Enviro display in the library.  (The guiding principles are outlined in child speak on this display).  They then brainstormed and categorised their ideas under: Place, Practices, People and Participation and Programmes.