Year Four - Waka Whenua Kaitaiki

Today Year 4, were learning about kaitiakitanga.  We watched a clip all about the connective relationships of the ocean. We talked about how when one thing is gone, the balance of life and systems are effected. We learned how we can become kaitiaki of places, that our choices can impact our environment. 

What can we do to be kaitiaki? 

Niamh "Everyone should have litter free lunches"

Aarya "The sushi at school has lots of plastic packaging"

Freddie "Stop throwing our plastic on the field"

Muller "When you stand up at lunchtime look around and pick up the plastic"

"When you get a lunch order put your plastic in your bag to take home" Brax

Don "Pick up litter"

We wanted to show tiaki for the environment so went on a rubbish hunt. We cleaned up our environment to protect and help it. Once we gathered all the litter, we counted it then sorted it into groups to answer the question "Where is all the litter coming from at Wakaaranga?".

Some of our groupings:

Soft plastics/ hard plastics

Plastic/ paper/ tin/ fabric

Recyclable/ non-recyclable

Lunchbox waste/ classroom waste

Plastic/ paper/ other

Lunchbox/ paper

Food/ non-food

School litter/ outside litter

Decomposable litter/ non-decomposable litter

Here is what the litter collection told us:

"Most our litter is from our lunchboxes."

"Other amounts of litter come from our classrooms." (Like paper, pencils, hairclips, rulers etc.)

"We have a lot more litter in our school than we realised!"

"The second biggest amount of litter was other."

"Most of our litter is soft plastics."

"A lot of people are just dumping their rubbish in our school."
"There is more lunchbox litter than food litter in the school."

" A lot of our litter came from outside of school."

Here is what we can do about it:

"Bring a litter-free lunchbox"

"Pick up our litter instead of throwing it around our school."

"Take our litter and wrapping home."

"Check our space after lunch-eating and make sure we have picked everything up."

We are Kaitiaki of our whenua at Wakaaranga.

The first two classes alone picked up 1073 pieces of litter from around our kura.  Oh my goodness how can we stop this tide of plastic pollution??

The afternoon classes still managed to find 512 pieces of litter, most from lunchboxes. Oh dear.

Next time we are going to plan some guerilla actions to promote litter free lunches to protect our environment. 

YEAR 4 OCEAN SUPERHEROES

How would we protect the Hauraki Gulf if we were Prime Minister of New Zealand? 

"I would protect the snapper so that they eat the kina and the seaweed is protected" Noah

"I would like to see 30% of our ocean protected, just like our land." Max

"I would like to protect 60% of the ocean, especially the parts where the Hector and Maui dolphins live." Jacques

"I would protect the sharks." Aaron

"I would protect the octopi because I don't understand why we need to eat them." Emily

"I would like to see less container ships so that the whales don't get boat strikes." Rachel

"Put a sign up at the beach telling everyone to clean up their rubbish." Oisin

"Less commercial fishing, more rules." Sarah

PLASTIC

"Make food packaging sustainable." Noah

"Bring in bigger fines for littering" Andrew

"Ban all single-use plastic." Aaron

"Ban plastic wrappings." Alvin

"Re-use our plastic we already have." Anisha

"Everyone should have litter-free lunches." Jacques

"Ban plastic sheets they wrap around houses." Emily

 

Year 6 Find out about our Estuary Habitats

 Did you know our estuary contains six different habitats that are home to lots of different plants and animals?

Year Six quizzed, read, cut, pasted and played to learn about the salt marshes, mudflats, shallow/deep water, seagrass meadows, mangrove forests and sand shores that make up the Tamaki Estuary.

Next week we're looking forward to completing our 3D Estuary Habitat Dioramas.

Year Four Moana Numeracy and Ocean Advocation

 Today Year Four used their numeracy skills to compare what percentage of the our moana and what percentage of our whenua are protected.

We began our lesson by brainstorming all the creatures we knew lived in our local ocean.  Some ideas included:

whales, plankton, crabs, seagulls and more.

Next we used a 10x10 square grid to show how much of our moana and how much of our whenua are protected.  Less than one square was coloured in for the moana grid as only 0.38% of the ocean is protectded.  We shaded in 30 squares on the land grid as 30% of the whenua is protected.  Wow, what a difference!!

Aaria "That makes me feel sad for the ocean"

Huvishka "I feel angry, because I want to save the ocean and people don't know the importance of it."

Elias "I'm sad that we're trying to help the ocean by taking rubbish out and it's making no difference."

Rachael "I'm worried that we might not be able to swim in the ocean because it's littered"

Nova "I'm sad because some people take too many fish  and they are not stopping."

Muller "I'm sad because some people don't care about the plastic they are throwing it out their car window"

"Some of the sea animals might eat the plastic rubbish in the ocean" Roxanne

Donn "I'm disappointed in the people who are trashing the sea.  Make it a law you can't bring rubbish near the sea".

We thought about what we would do if we were in charge:

Asariah "I would make a law to not throw rubbish"

Riana "I would ban plastic"

Tania "I would stop people using plastic and make them use more paper"

Stirling "Make a law that you can't do fishing"

We began to create postcards to send to the Prime Minister. Next week we'll finish them so Ms Daniel can post them to Christopher Luxon. 

We are going to add our postcards to the letters that the Young Ocean Explorers are taking to parliment: We'll send them to PO Box 228, Warkworth 0941 by 8th September. We might win a visit from Riley Hathaway!

From the Young Ocean Explorers newsletter:

Letters to the Prime Minister! As part of our 21 Day Challenge - Together for our Moana: We're shaping our future - children are writing letters to the Prime Minister, sharing why the ocean matters to them and calling for greater marine protection. The letters are already piling up, and next year we plan to hand-deliver thousands to him. If you know any young people in Aotearoa, let them know they can take part! Send letters to us at: PO Box 228, Warkworth 0941

Room 2 Crazy for Kumara

 Today in Education for Sustainability, Room 2 continued their inquiry into growing kai.  We were focussing on the kumara that was grown for Matariki.  

What do you already know about kumara Room 2?

Grayson "It's like  a potato"

Alissa "It grows with water and sun"

Tyson "It grows in the ground"

Hannah "It has purple skin"

Jehan "You can cook it in a soup"

Grayson "It tastes nice if you put honey on it"

We learnt more about kumara and then went to the Mara Kai and dug up our own kumara.  We wondered what it tasted like.  Luckily Mrs Daniel had roasted some kumara for us to try before lunchtime.

What did you learn?

Hannah "I never tried kumara before and I tried it and it was yum"

Ian "I tasted kumara before and today's one smelled like pizza.  I liked it so much. I want to eat more. It was delicious."

Callum "I like kumara so much.  I liked digging it up".

Theo "I want a thousand kumara to eat".

Greyson "I like digging it up.  I saw some worms and I moved them away.  It wriggled back. I liked putting  the kumara in the basket."

Well done Room 2.  Next time we have EfS we will need to feed the soil in the Mara with compost so we can grow new kai.

Year Two Bumble About

 Today Year Two recapped all we had learnt about honey bees before we brainstormed other types of flying insects we knew.  Some ideas were:

ladybug, butterfly, dragonfly, bee, hornet, moth, fly, mosquito, praying mantis, wasp, bumble bee, 

We decided to find out more about bumble bees our honey bees' cousin.

Next we decided to help the bumble bees by moving mulch so they can make their burrow homes.

Juan "Bumblebees are fluffier"

"Bubble bees are fatter and honey bees are thinner. They are better pollinators than honey bees" Ethan

Emile "Bumble bees have pollen basket on their legs"

We went outside to move mulch. This was helping the plants grow and in turn, helping the bees. We saw so many bugs! Worms, bees and even a centipede! 

After morning tea, Miss Tottle taught how to make beautiful rangoli patterns based on the shapes we see in nature.