Flowers for bees & garden to table

We're having a delicious time in the edible garden; watching the bees bumble about the early spring flowers, picking winter veges and creating crunchy stir fries.

What's your favourite carrots, broccoli or sugar snap peas?

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