Year 2 Investigate Super Seagulls

Rooms 8,9 and 29 listened to the story Celia Seagull by Nicole Miller.

We thought of ways that we could help reduce the amount of plastic in our ocean:

Naira, "We can recycle."

Holly, "Whenever we are about to chuck something away we can look at it, and  maybe we could use it for craft?"

Milly, "We can put plastic in the right bin."

Oliver,  "We can reuse things like paper... use both sides."

Rosemary, "We put rubbish in the correct bins."

Suvini, "We can pick up rubbish floating in the sea with a net."

Grayson, "We need to make sure the rubbish doesn't go down the storm drain."

Pierina,  "When we go fishing, we can pick up litter in the sea."

Amy, "Tell people to stop littering."

Collins, "We you go to the beach.... Take 3 for the see!"

Leo, "When you go to the beach take a rubbish bag with you."

Archer, "Put rubbish in the bin."

Amber, "Don't be lazy and throw rubbish in the drain."

Ryder, "Ask mum and dads to pack you food that doesn't have food around it."

Elora, "Stop using plastic bottles, instead use glass or metal so you can use it 

over and over again. "

Margoh, "Reuse our drink bottles over again."

Baylee, "We could pick up litter RIGHT NOW!"

 We talked about how we can REFUSE plastic in the first place, 

so that it doesn't get into our ocean.

We drew our 3 different types of New Zealand Seagulls.

We went on a litter hunt to make sure none of our own 

Wakaaranga litter goes down the stormwater drains and out to the ocean.

Lastly, we mulched our native tree walk, to protect soil moisture and feed the trees.

Travelwise Leaders Big Sort Out

 Our year 6 Travelwise Leaders sorted out the new safety gear for road patrollers. Thank you so much New Zealand Police for providing such a valuable resource. They are nice and bright which helps with the visibility for cars to see us.

Sean offered to take home the soft plastic so it could be recycled properly. 

WHAT A STAR!

Year One Go Litter Free

 Congratulations Rooms 7 & 4!  They had 18 litter-free lunches.  

Rooms 1 & 2 sadly only had 5 litter-free lunches.  

Plastic litter is a BIG problem for our world.  Packing a litter free lunch means packets and wraps can't blow around our school and go down the drain to the sea.  We held a pop-up prize draw and five lucky winners were rewarded for making sustainable choices.

Next, we went on a litter hunt around the school and sorted what we found into paper, plastic, and food scrap piles.  Sadly the plastic will not break down and hurts our environment.  We discovered that nearly all the plastic was from food wrappers.  This made it obvious that litter free lunches are a really powerful action we can take every day to protect our world.

Before morning tea, we did Squish the Fish Yoga to calm our minds and stretch our bodies. We learned how to breathe from our bellies. We read Kiki Kiwi and The Travelling Trash and finally planned our own delicious litter free lunches. 

Year 3 Finishing Off with Fungus, Bacteria & Invertebrates

 Year 3 finished the year with revision of what we have learned about fungus, bacteria and invertebrates and especially those super hero composters - EARTHWORMS. 

After the karakia, we started the session with caterpillar yoga, calming our minds and bodies.

 We revised what we have learned so far and added to our 

kete of knowledge with some more research.

We worked on our worm booklets adding facts, 

a worm farm poster

 and finishing with beautiful colour.

Then we did some Mahi to help protect our native trees for the long-hot Raumati ahead.  We spread mulch, which will lock in moisture and feed the trees as the fungus, bacteria, and invertebrates break it down.

Year 2 - Seagulls are special too

 Today Year 2 learnt about seagulls in New Zealand.  They aren't often appreciated, but did you know the red billed and black billed gulls are in decline?

We read Celia Seagull and the Plastic Sea

How can we help the three types of seagulls?

Nala "More rubbish bins near the beach"

Isabel "Don't throw rubbish into the sea"

Jackson "Go on a boat with a net and scoop up rubbish"

Rosie "Collect rubbish at the beach"

Bryn "Use the plastic again"

Hugo "Take three for the sea"

Nolan "The wind puts it back in there"

Torres "Recycle plastic and make a rubbish bin"

Luke "Stop dropping rubbish because it ends up in our drains  and goes to the ocean"

Acacia "Pick up litter from the sea"

Evelyn "Don't drop rubbish"

Atara "Use a fishing rod to fish for rubbish"

Freya "We should have a cleaning  day every week"

Hugo "BRING A LITTERFREE LUNCH"

We went on a rubbish hunt:

Year 3 Kumara Part 2

Our year 3 tamariki continued learning about the journey of the kumara to Aotearoa and how important it is to the Maori people. We read this article and talked about how the iwi from Mataatua record the whakapapa of the kumara compared to Tanui - Te Tapa Ingoa

We compared and contrasted growing food ourselves and how food gets to the supermarket by reading this article Kumara Behind the Scenes

We took action by using our school compost to enrich the soil in our Mara Kia in preparation for the kumara planting and mulched our new native trees to protect them from the dry season.