Watercare Teaching Us To Be Water Saving Super Heroes

  Today Year Four's EFS lesson was with Sarah from Watercare.  We discovered where the water in our taps comes from - The Waikato River, aquifers & dams.  Did you know Watercare has 12 dams in Tamaki Makaurau? 

We thought about all the ways we used water this morning; toilet flushes, facewashing, toothbrushing, handwashing, dishwasher, shower, and even a robotmop/vaccuum, 

We learnt how to be Water Saving Heroes:

- turn off the tap when we brush our teeth or use a cup (20 litres can be wasted if the tap is left running)

- use the small button when we flush the toilet (Yes, the small button can be used for number twos. It takes 12 litres to flush the big button and just 7 for the small)

- fill the bath less (a full bath takes 200 litres of water)

- use your bath water on the plants or share your bathtime

- have a short shower (showers take 12 litres of water a minute)

Each tamariki are bringing home a shower timer to help them and their whanu be Water Saving Superheroes. Thank you Watercare!!

If we are careful with our water it's great for the environment as the water will stay in our dam lakes, aquifers and rivers.

Lastly we used our superpowers of problem solving and collaboration to create super fun water courses. 

Thank you to Sarah and Watercare for a wonderful learning experience! 

Food waste at Wakaaranga - Our new 2025 Eco Warriors get problem solving

 

Mr Dowden showed us we have a big problem with the food waste that is being collected at playtime and lunchtime.  Can you see the problem from the photo above?

There is too much plastic rubbish going into our food waste bins.  That can't go into the worm farm and poor Mr Dowden has to sort it.

What can we do?

- have more signs

- all the Eco Warriors can split into groups and stay by the bins to help sort

- bring back the litterfree lunch competition

- peel oranges at home

- put posters around the school

- make a venn diagram to show compost/landfill

- - help Mr Dowden with the sorting

- leave rubbish at home

We investigated what another GreenGold school does:

What can we do?

Go around classes to educate everyone

Create an assembly item to educate

Collect in smaller buckets

Help Mr Dowden

We are going to keep working on this problem next week.

Year Six Baskets & Blogs

 

Today Year Six continued their inquiry into our Senses Garden Waka Te Waka Herenga. We reviewed our knowledge of Atua Maori with a Kahoot then pair shared the story of the three baskets of knowledge that's carved into the waka.

After morning tea we went on a blog scavenger hunt to explore our sustainability journey so far.

 

Year Four Dive Into Our New Inquiry

 

Today Year launched into our new moana topic. Did you know we live on the doorstep of Tikapa Moana - The Hauraki Gulf Marine Park?

Our morning classes used Google Maps Street View to explore the Gulf. The afternoon classes mapped the island of Tikapa Moana in their books.

Next both groups took action for our marine creatures by going on a litter hunt. Plastic rubbish travels down the drain to the sea, where animals eat it.

We sorted the rubbish into lunchbox waste and other waste. 

Thank you for the Whanau who pack a litterfree lunch. It helps A LOT!!! 

Lastly the morning group read about our local Wetlands and reviewed with an online quiz. The afternoon classes finished their mapping and sketched a Hauraki sea animal. 

All the classes got to sample pears from our school orchard as koha for their mahi. 

Continuing Our Waka Herenga inquiry

 Today Year Six continued their inquiry into Te Waka Herenga by comparing and contrasting with the waka at Kaiwaka Primary School.  WE began by reading this article about Kaiwaka and then compared to Te Herenga's origin story.

Next week we are going to delve more into the depictions of the three baskets of knowledge on Te Waka Herenga. 

Raumati Pear Harvest

Today Year Six ate the pears that were harvest last week.  We made our taste test a mindfulness exercise; thinking carefully about the feel, smell, look and taste and our piece of pear.

It feels smooth, cold, rough

It feels like a slug

It was crunchy, slippery, juicy

It looked lime green like a green apple

It looks a half moon

The pear was sweet, sour, juicy, crunchy&  fruity to taste.

Ana "It smells like chlorine"

"It smells like watermelon and apple*

It smells ripe

It feels wet

It feels juicy

We sketched the pears and came up with a line of poetry about them  to make a collaborative poem:

Our school pears are fine & devine,

Crispy, zesty,

Irresistible sweet bells,

Gorgeous pears full of glee

A sweet afternoon tea,

yummy pear

Honestly to sweet to bare.

Scrumptious sour candy.

Hard as a green rock,

Could survive a bullet from a glock.

It tasted yummy

When it went in my tummy.

Munch, crunch, 

In our lunch

What a lovely sight to see

Thank you to our Waka Tree

Year Four Map Out Our GreenGold Enviro School

Welcome back for 2025 Year Four. Today we reflected on how far we've come as an Enviroschool in the last five years. We used this video to help us:

Next we created a map of the areas that help our school be sustainable, before heading off on a scavenger hunt to explore them. 

After morning tea we began to investigate our new Waka and tree planting. We began our inquiry by sketching what we observed.

Next week we're looking forward to finding out more about our Waka's origin story.