Year Six Estuary Habitat Dioramas

 

Year Six got arty today to share what we had learnt about the different habitats that make up our estuary environment.

The estuary has six different habitats:

Mud flat

Mangrove

Shallow/Deep water 

Seagrass Meadow

Sandy Shore

Year Four Sea Heroes

 

Today Year Four used their powers of persuasion and literacty skills to create postcards for Prime Minister Christopher Luxon.  We wanted to share our learning about the moana and our hopes for the future.  

Ms Daniel is going to send our postcards to The Young Ocean Explorers so they can present them to parliament in September.

Sharing & Shining with Year Five

 

Year Five continued our picture books today to 'Share & Shine' our learning about how to get to school safely and why active travel is good for our bodies and the environment.We're looking forward to reading our creations to Year One buddies next time and taking a summative quiz to show what we have learnt in the 'Ready, Steady, Go' program.

Year 8 & 18 Investigate Rongoa

 

"When the land is well the people are well"

Today Room 8 & 18 researched the special rakau (trees) & tipu (plants) in the nghere (forest) that are Rongoa (medicine).

Some things we found:

-Harakeke can heal wounds

- Kowhai for cuts

- Pohutukawa for diarrhea

- Puriri for ulcers

- Koromiko for dysentery

We explored where we can find these trees and plants in our kura (school) then consolidated our knowledge with a cut and paste activit

Koromiko

Pohutukawa, tikouka & harakeke

Manuka

Titoki

y.

Room 7 Healing Nature

  Today we explored the trees around the kura (school) that have been traditionally used by Maori for Rongoa (medicine).. We found kowhai, harakeke, puriri, koromiko, pohutukawa, titoki and of course kawakawa. 

Nature is healing. We spent mindful time forest bathing and creating nature sculptures. Afterwards we all felt more calm, well and ready to learn.

Year 6 Explore Te Ao Maori and the Estuary

 

Today Year 6 learnt about the importance of estuaries to Maori.  In the early days estuaries were used for catching eels, fishing, putting food in to keep cool, travelling, farming and harvesting.

We learnt about he concept of kaitiakitanga - protecting of nature and being a part of it rather than owning and using it up.

We read an article Kaitiaki of the Stream 

Sadly we found out our estuaries are now threatened by:

Vida "plastic"

Hunter "Fertiliser run off"

Vienna "Trees are cut down so there's no shade and the soil gets into the water"

Cody "Rainwater from the road that carries poison"

Next, played a Kahoot to learn key Te Reo Maori Kupu.

Afterwards we became kaitiaki for our Mara Kai.  After all the kumara were harvested the garden beds needed to be fed with nutrients.  We collected compost made from our lunch box scraps and last year's hangi scraps and put it on the gardens.

Olivia "I saw worms and showed them to my friends"

"We should use less plastic because it can't break down" Laela

"Pour the compost on the soil not on top of the plants" Manal

Evie "I saw a lot of centipedes and lots of worms"

Olivia M "Some food scraps hadn't been broken down and that's where the worms and insects like to be."

"I think worms are cool but creepy" Evie

Keshan "Compost is life"

Year Four Ocean Advocates

 

Today Year Four used their numeracy skills to compare what percentage of the our moana and what percentage of our whenua are protected.

We began our lesson by brainstorming all the creatures we knew lived in our ocean.  Some ideas included:

whales, plankton, crabs, seagulls, krill and more.

We watched videos that compared the ocean environment in protected and unprotected areas.

Next we used a 10x10 square grid to show how much of our moana and how much of our whenua are protected.  Less than one square was coloured in for the moana grid as only 0.38% of the ocean is protectded.  We shaded in 30 squares on the land grid as 30% of the whenua is protected.  Wow, what a difference!!

How does that make you feel?

Jessica "There's a big difference between how much land and how much sea is protected. The sea creatures might become extinct and that is sad"

Payton "It makes me feel sad"

Jin "It's disgusting"

Ella "I feel sad and mad about the oceans.  Sad because turtles think plastic is jelly fish.  Mad because lots of people drop plastic"

Maymay "I feel worried for turtles and sea animals because when plastic goes into the sea the animals think it is food and they can get stuck in it"

Kirsten "I feel disappointed in New Zealand for proetcting so little of the ocean"

"I feel annoyed becasue we need more protected areas so the sea isn't filled with trash." Zoe

"I feel mad because some people don't care about the animals when they throw plastic in the ocean"

Annie "If the sea gets too much trash in it.  The fish might accidentally eat it and then if we eat the fish the trash will get into our bodies"

Hazel "Wellington Harbor has so much rubbish"

What would you do if you were in charge?

Luke "Make the protected area of the sea a lot bigger"

Albert "Make the whole ocean a reserve"

Briar "Ban plastic!"

Chase "Christopher Luxon could make a sea police that will get the rubbish out of the sea"

Awa "I would make robots to pick up rubbish"

Zoe "Ban fishing in more places"

Coby "Ban plastic straws"

Flynn "Ban non reuseable plastic"

Jin "Ban everything that is plastic that sea animals could eat"

Georgia "Put flaps on all the bins so rubbish can't fly out the top"

Ciara "Invent a sucking machine.  Every week people have a duty to go in the sea and suck up the plastic"

Alice "Make a different material that acts like plastic but is edible, so sea creatures don't die.  Make a law that you have to use that instead of plastic"

We can make our voices heard!  We are going to write to Christopher Luxon to share our thoughts and feelings in the hopes of protecting the ocean now and in the future.