Check out this video of Waitoriki School! You guys are amazing!

Uruti in the news

Bank staff muck in atUrutiSchool

Uruti students with BNZ staff.

All over the nation BNZ banks were closing their branches for good. Closed For Good is BNZ’s annual day of volunteering, and more than 3000 pairs of hands were sent to help a variety of places doing a range of jobs. Bank staff have lent their helping hands to more than 2500 projects around the country over the last seven years.

To get some of Closed For Good’s help causes submit their project and then bank employees vote for the projects they want to help. The ones with the most votes are picked and UrutiSchool was chosen. Bank staff arrived at Uruti School at 9.30am and got stuck in to work. Bank staff member Peter Hilliam told the students that they had decided that Uruti School was good place to go and spend the day. The workers were doing all sorts of jobs including painting, gardening, water blasting and building.

’’We really enjoy coming to the community and helping. We got away from the desk,’’ said Karen Goldsworthy.

Some of the students’ parents also came to help.

Uruti children were pleased with the finished product and hoped to be part of the Closed For Good programme again next year.

As spring (Koanga) is warming up, tamariki at Puketapu Kindergarten have been potting up seeds for our vegetable gardens.  Tamariki enjoy talking about planting seeds.  We were challenged when the beans that we planted, disappeared over night!!  Maybe a mysterious family of slugs or snails?? We are developing an appreciation, respect, and love of the natural world!

Mangorei School Envirogroup and Clean Up NZ Week

The Mangorei Envirogroup and I made a quick video about what they had been doing for Clean up NZ Week.

*Turn up the sound when watching this, it was a very wet and noisey lunchtime :)

Our cardboard garden!

Cardboard Garden


In our vegetable garden we had a huge problem! We were sick of pulling out weeds every time we had an Enviro Schools session. 
So this year we have decided to put cardboard down on top our garden as a natural weed mat. 
This was a good idea because cardboard can disintegrate and unlike plastic it will not affect the environment. 
We have cut holes in the cardboard where we have planted our plants and put stepping stones down to stand on and to prevent the cardboard from blowing away.  
We change our cardboard regularly throughout the term and so far we have had no problems with weeds yet!

our new and improved garden

Cleaning up our School

Cleaning our School.

We have cleaned up our school by water blasting our paths, pulling all the weeds, clearing the bush track, re-making the dirt path, water blasting our fences, scrubbing, sanding and painting our school sign and we are yet to get a new pool fence! 

Lucas is water blasting our bag area

Inside our school we are painting cupboards and tables to make our classroom bright and colourful.  We are putting blackboard paint onto cupboard doors and then we are covering some table with whiteboard paint too.  

Stay tuned....

Seed Selling

Last year Jayne came into school and helped to start us with a project called 'Seed 2 Seed.' Last spring we sowed our seeds (pumpkin, pop corn and peas).  Over the summer they grew then last term we harvested and dried our Strawberry Popping Corn and Purple Shelling Peas. We have also grown our own unique pumpkins that are called Small Stream Pumpkins which is the English translation for Waitoriki (small stream).
Ashleigh, Milla and Holly have designed and made the seed packets (we chose a vintage theme).

As a whole school we have packaged the seeds up and now have them on sale in the foyer. 
All seeds are $3.50 a packet or you can get three packets for $9.50.

Poppy counting out our strawberry popping corn to put in packets to sell

our small stream pumpkin seeds drying

shelling our purple shelling peas

Junior Cooking

Junior Cooking


Every Friday morning our juniors do some cooking with Mrs Downer and Mrs Wilkinson using produce that they have harvested from our school vege garden. 

So far they have made apple crumble, feijoa muffins, coleslaw, fritters, macaroni and cheese, lemon cake, pumpkin hummus, fruit milkshakes. 

They really enjoy Friday cooking as there are some delicious treats to eat each week!

Lucas making coleslaw

So proud of our Enviroschools - Kei runga noa atu Moturoa!!

http://www.stuff.co.nz/taranaki-daily-news/news/84199022/moturoa-school-celebrates-20-years-of-conservation-planting

Everyone gets a special page

Welcoming all the 'missing links' to make us one big team :-)

Hi
I'm learning how to work this
Maree

Plastic bottles for Waitoriki - Check out their writeup in the Taranaki Daily News

http://www.stuff.co.nz/taranaki-daily-news/news/84029294/rural-school-asks-for-plastic-fizzy-bottles-to-build-greenhouse

Kohanga

Kia ora koutou.

Photos from some of my Enviroschool visits in the last couple of weeks.

Toko Green-Gold Celebration

Raising the Enviroschool Flag.

Tikorangi School at Parāhuka/Te Niho o Te Atiawa, Parihaka Pā.

Mangorei School

Mangorei students have been busy.

Lauree's learning to Blog :-) and writing the 'how to'

Lauree learning how to Blog with her cat Jack in front of the awesome Enviroschools learning tool.

Watch out this volcano has a large crater and is about to erupt using baking soda and red coloured vinegar

Our Enviro-school visitors Day

On Wednesday 21st of October we opened our kindergarten to visitors to celebrate  alongside like minded conservationists.

Once we grouped together we went on a tour.  We started at the worm farms and compost bins, next to the native trolley track gardens, then to the vegetable gardens, herb garden, rain harvesting system above the sandpit, the flower garden, the nesting birds, the orchard, kumara garden and the bug hotel.

 

Once we explored outside it was inside to see our enviro-school planning wall, the Nga Atua display, our recycling systems, our natural resource and cold glue gun area.

Then weaving with Cordelle Rei, what a challenge.  Pegs were used as extra hands when creating our putiputi or pono.  Kia kaha nga wahine.

 

My fellow bloggers!!

Today I had the pleasure of working with these lovely ladies learning how to blog! Great way to learn and meet other enviroschool facilitators. I have also learnt how to add photos, Yay! L-R, Tammy, Marlene, Alayne, Lauree, Lee ann and Pare.

Stratford Primary- Enviro Super Sustainability!

Stratford Primary, Year 2's have been busy learning how to look after their Environment and how the Environment looks after us!

See the link below to check out what our Year 2 students have been up to.

Room 14 Year 2 Enviro Blog Page