The Fruits of our Labour

We have been enjoying the fruits of our labour in the garden recently.

The loquat tree has been extremely popular, with its sweet and juicy yellow fruit drawing crowds during break times.

We have also been harvesting lettuce, spinach, celery, snow peas, broccoli, cabbages, beetroots, kale, silverbeet and carrots to share with some of our whanau.

Labour weekend is the traditional time to plant tomatoes in New Zealand, so Whakatōtanga and Tupuranga students have been busy getting our cherry tomato plants into the ground and we can’t wait for a delicious harvest when we get back to school after the summer
holidays. It’s a great time of year for our students to be getting outside and working in the garden!

Enviroschools Principles in action here:

- Empowered Students are enabled to participate in a meaningful way in the life of their early childhood centre or school. Their unique perspectives are valued for the knowledge and insight that they bring, and they are supported to take action for real change.

- The principle of Learning for Sustainability recognises the types of teaching and learning that foster student empowerment, decision-making, action and sustainable outcomes.

Harakeke Harvesting

A group of students from Puāwaitanga needed some harakeke (flax) to use in their inquiry learning. Before harvesting, we said a harakeke karakia and the students sang a beautiful waiata. When we harvested, we cut on the diagonal away from the heart of the plant and we took only the Tūpuna (grandparents/ancestors) leaves, not the Matua (parents) or Rito/Pepe (baby) leaves. The students took three leaves to plait into a rope to be used on a waka they had crafted. The trimmings of the harakeke were returned to Papatūānuku and buried beneath the harakeke plant that we harvested from. Source: National Library Enviroschools Principles in action here: - Empowered Students are enabled to participate in a meaningful way in the life of their early childhood centre or school. Their unique perspectives are valued for the knowledge and insight that they bring, and they are supported to take action for real change. - The principle of Māori Perspectives h...

Dry Ice (solid carbon dioxide)

Room 6 students experimented with dry ice during Science Club. Students learned that dry ice was frozen carbon dioxide, the gas we exhale and the gas plants use to make food. We discussed the differences between normal ice (frozen water) and dry ice. Water freezes at 0 degrees and carbon dioxide becomes a solid at -78 degrees. Students hypothesised about what would happen to the dry ice when placed in cold water vs hot water. They observed bubbles when dry ice was in water and vapour poured off the water. To show that the bubbles were carbon dioxide (air), we placed water and dry ice in a water bottle and quickly attached a balloon to the opening. The dry ice bubbled and the balloon began to inflate. This week the students discussed the experiment further in class and each wrote about the experiment. We are so grateful to one of our parents, Colleen Brent, for giving up her time to come in and share her incredible knowledge, expertise and enthusiasm with the stud...

Enviro Update - February 2020

We have got many enviro initiatives going on in the school to start the year, with more to come. Here is a snapshot of what is happening so far: The Eco-Warriors have started working towards the our TREEmendous outdoor learning area event to be held on the 8th and 9th of May. They are currently designing some of the elements of the space, including a creative water wheel. The school has committed to communicating digitally with families, which is a great way to drastically reduce paper and ink use in our school, saving money and easing pressure on the resources of our planet. Tupuranga students are taking ownership of their vegetable gardens and have started off by planting seeds to grow in their gardens. Growing kai is a great way to develop our hauora: our physical, mental and emotional, social and spiritual wellbeing. Room 9 had a great time digging up potatoes last week and enjoyed a potato feast. ...

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