Te Kaupapari

We have a  TREEmendous  announcement to make!  But first, some background... TREEmendous  – a joint initiative between the Mazda Foundation and Project Crimson, teaches children about the importance of caring for the environment through the development of amazing outdoor classrooms for teachers and students to reconnect with nature. The initiative is about encouraging environmental education in schools, along with teaching children and the wider community about the importance of caring for the environment. Ruud Kleinpaste, the ‘Bugman’, is an ambassador for the project who takes environmental education to the next level at  TREEmendous  events. Ruud brings his insect friends along and teaches the children about New Zealand’s native bugs and the importance of looking after the environment. Check out  treemendous .org.nz  for more information and examples. In July the Eco-Warriors heard the exciting news that their stage 1 TREE...

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...

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...

Tupuranga teachers have challenged our learners to come to school with a litterless lunch. This is part of our Inquiry learning and will also help minimise waste in our  environment. We understand that it is hard to completely remove all packaging from lunches, all we  ask is to make a small change. 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.

In Whakatōtanga in terms 1 to 3 2019, the Room 9 Garden Club has grown, harvested and eaten a number of vegetables and fruits. The students pulled a large radish out of the garden. They all pulled  together just like in the story, ‘The Gigantic Turnip’! The Garden Club also harvested some celery, sugar snap peas and salad leaves to take home to share with their whanau. We enjoyed harvesting our kumara in autumn, it was like digging for buried treasure! One of the kumara was the biggest kumara we had ever seen. We loved eating the kumara chips, they were delicious. 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 l...

Whakatōtanga started Term Three 2019 with the arrival of our 9 chicks from  The Living Eggs Programme . We loved watching the chicks grow. The two females remained at school and grew quite large before leaving school at the end of the term to go and live on a farm. 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.                   

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. - The principle of  Māori Perspectives  honours the status of tangata whenua in this land and the value of indigenous knowledge in enriching and guiding learning and action. -  Sustainable Communities  act in ways that nurture people and nature, now and in the future, to maintain the health and viability of our environment, society, culture and economy.

It is great to see our Kapa Haka group getting out into the community, and travelling sustainably too - by foot! Ka pai! 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  honours the status of tangata whenua in this land and the value of indigenous knowledge in enriching and guiding learning and action. -  Sustainable Communities  act in ways that nurture people and nature, now and in the future, to maintain the health and viability of our environment, society, culture and economy.

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. -  Respect for the   Diversity of People and Cultures  acknowledges the unique gifts, contributions and perspectives of individuals and groups, reinforcing the need for participatory decision-making in Enviroschools. -  Sustainable Communities  act in ways that nurture people and nature, now and in the future, to maintain the health and viability of our environment, society, culture and economy.

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. -  Sustainable Communities  act in ways that nurture people and nature, now and in the future, to maintain the health and viability of our environment, society, culture and economy.

Room 17 have had a wonderful visit from Frazer Dale, Outreach Educator from Auckland Zoo, and Hazel Meadows, Sustainable Schools Advisor from Auckland Council. We discussed and examined some of the animal pests that threaten our native wildlife, such as rats, mice, stoats, ferrets and weasels. Room 17 students then undertook some “citizen science”, by installing some tracking tunnels, chew cards and wax tags within the school grounds. These will enable us to monitor what types of pest animals are present within our school. We are really looking forward to seeing the results. 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 learni...

You may have noticed that some new fruit trees have appeared around the school grounds over the past couple of weeks.  This is because we have been extremely fortunate to receive ‘Love Your Neighbourhood’ funding of $500 from the Eco-Matters Environment Trust, supported by the Maungakiekie-Tamaki Local Board. Plus our Parent Group very generously matched this amount.  This enabled us to purchase 22 fruit trees, enough for every class in the school to plant one. The students enjoyed getting outside, getting dirty and learning how to plant a tree. We can’t wait until our students have fresh apples, pears, peaches, plums, peachcots, guavas, mandarins, lemonade lemons, figs, guavas and cherimoyas to snack on during morning tea and lunch times.  Our sincere thanks to the ‘Love Your Neighbourhood’ fund and our Parent Group. Room 3 planted a ‘Packham’s Triumph’ pear tree   Room 7 planted a ‘Silverhill’ mandarin tree   Room 2 planted a ‘Yellow’...