Garden to Tables

Our class have Garden to Tables fortnightly for the first half of this year. Garden to Tables is a programme where we can get our hands dirty in the garden. It is a programme where we can make and create delicious meals in the kitchen.

We help grow, harvest, prepare and share fresh food. Today we made a basil pesto pasta and a blueberry and apple crumble. Some of the ingredients were grown in our own school garden.

We are lucky to have parents that come in and support the programme by helping Ms Best in the kitchen and Whaea Joyce in the garden.

This is the Garden to Table's website where you can find out much more about the programme. Maybe a school in your area might like to get involved.

Tread Lightly Caravan

We recently had a visit from the Tread Lightly Caravan. We focussed on ideas we can implement to make a difference in our environment. 

Each decision we make in our lives each day, has some impact or effect on our environment. We saw how much effect these decisions have. We would need 3 or 4 more earths to support our population if everyone lived the same lifestyle as us. That's scary!

We were shown how the rubbish we drop and leave on the ground eventually ends up in our oceans. Outside drains should only drain rain. Oils and chemicals, and litter and rubbish, can all wash down our drains and end up in our waterways.

We all made pledges, where we promised to try and do something that would help us make a difference for our environment. They are small, manageable promises that can make a change.

Virtual Reality (VR)

We were lucky to have a session using Virtual Reality (VR) glasses run by the Sir Peter Blake Foundation.

In the VR session, we explore New Zealand's underwater world. The fish were spectacular, lots of shapes and colours. Most of the video footage came from some of our marine reserves, like Goat Island and  the Poor Knights Islands. Here, the fish are abundant because of the banning on fishing and collecting.

We also saw the sad sight of the polluted wasteland under the Leigh wharf just north of Auckland. There was ugly rubbish dumped here. There were no fish and hardly any plant life.

The Beautiful Tiritiri Matangi

Room 14 were so lucky to have a lovely, sunny day to explore the nature reserve, Tiritiri Matangi. Tiritiri Matangi is a protected island in Auckland’s Hauraki Gulf. It has been planted in native trees and many endangered bird species have been translocated there to help them survive. 

 Tiritiri Matangi is now 60% native trees and 40% grassland. It is predator free with all stoats, possums and rats eradicated from the island. In this safe environment, the bird species all flourish and multiply. 

We arrived at the island and were greeted by the knowledgeable volunteers who were going to escort us around the island. These wonderful people give up their own free time to share their knowledge and enthusiasm for the environment with others. Vicky was our groups guide. 

 As we first entered the bush it was hard work before we were lucky enough to see any birds. This area was the kiwi nesting sites. Being nocturnal, the kiwis were nowhere to be seen, of course. 

 We had not ventured too far, before we were surrounded by the beautiful calls of many different birds in the treetops above. They seemed to be trying to outdo each other with the beauty and majesty of their song. The sound was exquisite. 

 The Kowhai tree was just beginning to flower. The Hihi bird was fluttering from flower to flower, its tongue, a third of the size of its body, flicking in and out, collecting nectar. 

 Around the feeding trays filled with sugar and water, dozens of nectar feeders were gorging themselves. Humans have to supplement food for these birds because this new forest does not have enough trees with flowers yet. Thank you to Chelsea Sugar Company for giving the island free sugar. 

The government wants to make predator free by 2050. Barbara, our guide, explained that this is not accurate. New Zealand has some bird species like the Morepork and the Falcon, that are themselves predators. Our real goal is to make our country NZ introduced predator free by 2050. 

 Hopefully, we can eradicate all the weasels, stoats, possums, rats and mice from our forests on the mainland. If we can return our forests back to a safe, bird friendly environment like Tiritiri Matangi, and our native birds can flourish and repopulate these areas, we will once again be blessed with the sights and sounds that only a few people can experience now in remote, protected environments like these beautiful islands.

A blue penguin inside its nesting box.

Cleaning up our Local Streets

Today, a group of us went outside the school to clean up the local streets. We were going to clean up the whole block. Unfortunately, we found so much litter and rubbish just outside our school we didn't venture any further.  We only cleaned up approximately 200m of road frontage.

We collected so much waste that was destined to go down our drains and end up at our beautiful beaches and harbours. We felt good that by this simple action, we were doing something to protect our marine animals.

We are going to make this a regular job we undertake. Next time, we hope their will be minimal rubbish outside our school so that we can carry on further and clean up the whole block.

We were wondering why the Auckland City Council don't clean up the drains and gutters like they used to. 

One drain was so blocked with leaves, grass and rubbish, a heavy downpour would likely end up in flooding because the water wouldn't be able to escape.

A lot of what we collected has gone into our recycling bins.

Why are people so thoughtless and uncaring about our environment?

Our Environment

We have noticed a lot of unnecessary rubbish on our local streets. Much of it is blowing down the drains and ending up out at sea. We are asking ourselves why some people don't care. It is not a good look for our suburb, Papatoetoe.

Maybe we can help. We will come up with a strategy or plan for improving our local community.




We have started brainsrtorming our ideas...