Room 18 Waste Wise for Sea Week

 In Room 18 we reviewed the Enviroschools Guiding Principles with a discussion and a Kahoot.

Next we reviewed how far we've come with dealing with our waste.  We watched this video from four years ago Waka Waste Audit 2022 

We discovered that our litterfree lunches are still tracking around 40%

Is lunchbox litter still a problem?  A quick litter hunt showed us that, sadly, it was.

We had a brainstorm ...

How might we encourage more tamariki to pack a litter free lunch?

Dihan - posters

Fariya - a booklet

Ava - if you have a litterfree lunch you can wear mufti

Hector - if you bring a litterfree lunch you get housepoints

Riley - make a speech Ava - litter clean ups but if you have a litterfree lunch you don’t have to do it.

Savannah - make a video

We'll passed these great ideas  on to our 

Eco Warriors and spent the remainder 

of our lesson creating Litterfree Lunchbox 

posters for the Education for Sustainability 

room.

Year Three Crazy for Kai

 Today, Year Three continued their inquiry into kai.  We talked about the different times of day that we eat and the names we call these meals.  There's lots of different names for meals like some breakfast, brunch, paramanwa, tea, dinner, snacks, morning tea, dinner, supper, afternoon tea etc.

We talked about different families and cultures eat different foods for meals, but we all eat a mix of healthy kai to keep our tenana (bodies) going.  

We chose our own menu for breakfast, lunch, dinner and snacks.  

Before morning tea we learnt some Te Reo Maori names for food with a fun wordsearch.

We talked about how our senses are important when it comes to our relationship with food. we got to taste some pears from our very own Waka Orchard. 

Year Four Sea Week Celebration

Today Year Four are celebrating Sea Week by beginning our inquiry into Tikapa Moana / The Hauraki Gulf.

We began by discussing our own experiences in the local marine environment.  Then we watched this incredible video We identified all the animals we saw living on our doorstep:

Seal        stingray        Orca        Shark        Turtle                           Whales        Dolphins

Pufferfish                    Jellyfish                    Manta Ray                    Claw fish    Snapper

King Crab                   Swordfish                Crayfish                        Octopus        Seabirds

fur seal    Squid            Marlin                    Sea star                        Hammerhead    fish

We mapped out Tikapa Moana and located Wakaaranga School on the map too.

Afterwards, we read an online magazine about the wetlands that form part of Tikapa Moana.  There was a fun Kahoot to check our comprehension.

Lastly, we conducted an audit of the litter from around our school.  We discovered lots of plastic lunchbox litter.  Can you pack a litterfree lunch to help the oceans?

Year Three - Where's the kai?

 

Haere mai Year Three for another year of Education for Sustainability!  Today we began by sharing what we had for breakfast.  We're learning about different types of kai and where it comes from.

Then we shared different types of kai on cards.  We played a guessing game, then we discussed the kai in with our classmates.  Lastly, we decided how we can group the kai. 

Afterwards we went on a hunt around the kura to see where we are growing food and what types of food we could find.  We picked pears and plums along the way.

After our break we thought about the difference between the fruit in the supermarket and the fruit that we were eating off of our own trees.  We drew diagrams to show the difference.

The fruit from our own trees is so much fresher, cheaper and takes less energy. 

Next week we are going to learn Te Reo kopu for our kai and when we can grow certain foods. 

Sharing our Travelwise Mahi

 

Check out this awesome video promoting Travelwise Ready Set Go!

Year 4 - What makes us a GreenGold Enviroschool?

 

Year Four wondered what we do at Wakaaranaga to be an Enviroschool:

Planting trees - Holly

Planting fruit trees - Leleya

Take care of animals - Milly 

Take a litterfree lunch - Collins

Learn about the environment - Rosemary

Take care of the bees - Amber

Take care of the trees and bushes - Hiraya

Take care of  chickens - Leleya

Isabelle - pick up rubbish and put it in the bin

Oliver - make a veggie farm

Henry - worm farms

Zane - don't break anything

Hugo - use a reuseable water bottle

Torres - Reuse rubbish

Margoh - reuse grocery bags

Put food scraps in the compost - Alton

We went on a scavenger hunt all around the school to discover the  places and practices that help to create a sustainable future.  Have you seen the new chickens in  the Whare Hei Hei?

Afterwards we explored the GreenGold Enviroblog, where all our learning and actions are recorded: https://wakaenviro.blogspot.com/

Next week we are going to begin our Sea Week studies. Will you go to the beach this week?

Year 1 What does a plant need to grow?

Today Year 1 explored what a plant needs to grow.

We all got to hold a tiny seed. 

We looked at it up closely, held it tightly and then planted our seed in our Waka Mara Kai.

 

We also practised mindful eating and tasted some of our very own Waka Pears from our fruit trees.

We then draw our own flowers and drew what they need to grow.... sun, water, soil, compost, space.

Lastly, the morning classes watered the seeds we planted this morning.