Travelwise Leaders monitoring our Drivers

 Did you know the speed limit inside a school zone is 30 km/h? 

This morning, our Travelwise Leaders, along with Maggie Hablous from AT, had the opportunity to become road safety champions. They had to monitor and collect real-time speed data outside our school gate.

We used the speed radar gun and recorded the speed of the passing cars. We will analyse the data we collected soon.

Hendrix: "Having the best time of my life!"

Raquel: "It was really fun to use the speed radar. One car recorded 41, which is over the speed limit."

Mia: "I enjoyed recording the speed and getting toots from the cars to support us."

Zoe: "We made up a chant for the passing cars! Beep if you want to save the environment!"

Hannah: "I loved it when the cars honked their horns at our signs."

Abby: "I enjoyed recording all the speeds down."

Sophia: "Checking the cars' speed limit along with holding the sign up high was a highlight for me!"

Madi: "I liked seeing how fast the cars were going and then recording that."

A big THANK YOU to Maggie for bringing the signs and radars for us to use.

Riley Hathaway Young Ocean Explorers

 Riley Hathaway from Young Ocean Explorers visited Wakaaranga this morning. She inspired our tamariki with her vast knowledge of the Moana.  Afterward, we thought about what we'd learned and the actions we could take to be kaitiaki for our seas. 

Check out all our Mahi here

Yesha's poster

Check out all our Mahi here

Year 6 investigates the Australasian Bittern

 

Like John Oliver did for the Puteketeke in 2023, we want to champion the Australasian Bittern Matuku-Hurepo, in the 2024 Bird of the Year Competition.  We have been studying our estuary and have discovered this very rare and very shy shore bird that we hope will move into Wakaaranga Creek.

Bitterns are a Threatened (Nationally Critical) species and only 250-1,000 mature individuals remain. Matuku are wetland birds, eating eels, frogs, 

fish, and insects. They are 70cm tall and have a distinctive “freeze” stance when disturbed, while their brown-grey plumage enables them to 

camouflage into the reeds.

Year 6 further researched bitterns and then created artwork to 

promote this bird for Bird of the Year.  

We are also going to enter the Forest Bridge Trust Bittern.

You can view our mahi here:

https://photos.app.goo.gl/Fw3FXaYmG4yG5xov5

Year 5 Explore how & why Wakaaranga is a GreenGold Enviroschool

 Our year 5 classes explored the wonderful places we have at 

Waka that makes us a Green Gold Enviro School.

A new addition this year is our 3 Mara Kai (vege beds) made by 

wonderful caretaker Mr Dowden.

How wonderful our school is!

We watched ""Áll the Way to the Ocean""

Then we investigated our own drains at school...

Jayden- I saw a lot of plastic in our drain

Caroline- There was a spoon and iceblock wrapping

Sana- There was plastic that looked like jellyfish

Kendrick- I saw a pencil

Emily- I saw lots of squished food.

Isaac- There was lots of rubbish in most drains

We talked about what we could do about this...

Caroline- We could pick up the rubbish

Sana- We could have litter-free lunches

Caroline- with litter-free lunches, there is no rubbish to go down our drains.

Year Six Explore how & why Wakaaranga is a GreenGold Enviroschool

 

Year Six had their first Education with Sustainability session this week with Ms Daniel and Ms Everitt.  We reminded ourselves of what sustainability means and the actions we can take everyday as members of a GreenGold Enviroschool.

What is sustainability?

Ethan "protecting the planet"

Jaklyn "reusing things"

Tiaan "keeping the planet clean"

Ada "respecting"

Izzabella "Everything keeping going in one big cycle"

What can we do?

Indy "Pick up one to two pieces of rubbish everyday"

Evelyn "Bring a litterfree lunch everyday"

AJ "Walk to school"

Liam "Make a compost"

Amelia "Don't use glad wrap use bees wax wraps instead"

Sean "If you have soft plastic don't put it in the bin put it in soft plastic recycling at a shop where they can resuse it".

Evelyn "Keep litter in your lunchbox and throw away at home"

Amelia "give chip packets to people who make them into survival blankets for the homeless"

Krish "pick up litter on the beach"

Beau "Use biodegradable things"

Benjamin "Bring your own bag to the shops"

Lucas "Take scrap metal to be recycled"

Naomi "use the right bins"

Hannah "Pick up rubbish at the Wakaaranga Creek"

Next we mapped all the places (wahi) at school where we practice sustainability. Afterwards we used our maps to complete a scavenger hunt. 

Some tamariki helped spread compost in the new Mara Kai and begin planting. Collecting food scraps for the compost and growing kai is just one of our circular economies. Do you have a compost at home? 

Next time we're looking forward to beginning our enquiry into our local estuary.