Monday, 22 June 2026

Year 2's Honey Helpers

Today, Year 2 began their lesson by revisiting  our learning so far:

- life cycle, 

- parts of a bee 

- and how bees make honey.

We completed a cut-and-paste to review how bees make honey.





Then we were able to taste some of our very own Waka Bee Honey!








Grayson: "I think my honey was from a rose bush."

Ronica: "It was such a treat because it was yummy!"

Remi: "It tastes like a dandelion."

Leo:  "It tasted yum!" 

Liam: "The honey was sugary."

Sophia:  "I had a lot of honey."

Mackenzie: " My one was like it was from a white rose."

Zoe:  "The honey was really sticky."

Daniel:  "I felt my honey was from a sunflower."

Richie: "Me too!"

Grace: "The honey was sweet and yummy."

Bianca:  "It was very lumpy, but it was good.x"

Liam:  "The honey was so yummy, I finished it all, now I am ready for another."

Yenuth: "It is golden yellow."

Olive: "It smells sticky."

Sasmi: " It smells like a flower."

Jehan: " It is a bit grainy on my tongue."

Ian: "It tastes like real honey!"

Jacob: "It is golden, and it tastes like very good honey."

Erin: " It tastes sugary and sweet."






Afterwards, we toured our gardens and bee hives.  We observed all the flowers and the bees covered in pollen returning to the hive.  Luckily, there are lots of camellia flowers out for our bees to eat.  Please don't pick them!




Sunday, 21 June 2026

Year One Being Kind & Carrot Crazy


Today in Education for Sustainability, Year One, were investigating how plants grow.


After our karakia and waiata, we wondered what grows ...

Gus "Strawberries"

Bella "Trees"

Ada "Seeds"

Ryder "Ourselves"

Nakoa "Corn"

Layton "Hay"

Elsa "A pear"

Ada "A giraffe"

Amber "Flowers"

Kayden "Lions"

Ronni "Elephants"

"Rhino" Brooklyn

"Hair" Zayne

Everything that is alive grows.


We all need different things to grow.  What do plants need to grow?  We went to the Mara Kai to see.  Wow, we saw silverbeet, sorrel, kumara, thyme, rosemary and carrots.  Everyone got to pick a carrot. We felt the sun and saw the soil and raindrops.  That's what makes our garden grow.















When we got back to class we read a Fredge story about how to grow veggies. Then it was time to eat the carrots from the mara. YUM!


Lastly, we drew what plants need to grow.







In the second part of our Education for Sustainability lesson, we were lucky enough to be visited by The Youth Project.

We suggested what being kind meant:

"When some one is sad being friends with them to cheer them up"

"If we are kind the people will want to be our friend"


Being kind has three parts:

Being friendly

Giving

Thinking about how others feel

It makes us feel happy when we are kind and makes others feel happy.

We want to share kindness around in our community, so we each created "Love Bugs" - a small wooden bug that will have a tag attached that says "This little bug is free and here to brighten your day  Please take it home and do one thing to be kind to keep the kindness going". They're going to be hidden in our local libraries.

Well done for being kind Year One and thank you to the Youth Project!














Wednesday, 17 June 2026

Eco Warriors Present at the Pestival










 Our Eco Warriors shared how we do Education for Sustainability at Wakaaranga at the Howick “Pestival”. They received Bronze Certificates for their involvement in the Pest Cadets Programme.  Thank you to the Howick Local Board, Pestfree Howick and all those who attended this wonderful community event.



https://youtu.be/IG8CWnPHev4?si=5xUgEdqMda67hzXf 





Monday, 15 June 2026

Yr 2 How do Bees make Honey?

Today, Year 2 reviewed all that we've learnt so far about our VIP Bees.  Next, we found out how bees make honey with a Mystery Science lesson.  Did you know they spit the nectar out to each other, so the nectar mixes with enzymes in their tummies?

We acted out bees making honey and then recorded the sequence in sentences.  We had time for a quick maths colouring page before our special guests arrived.









Claire  & Claire from the Youth Project visited to show us how we can spread kindness in the community.  We talked about how kindness includes being friendly, generous and considerate.  We want the world to be a kinder place, so we made love bugs for people to find in our local libraries.





Next time we're looking forward to sampling some of our Waka Honey and exploring the importance of pollination.



Year 2's Honey Helpers

Today, Year 2 began their lesson by revisiting  our learning so far: - life cycle,  - parts of a bee  - and how bees make honey. We complete...