Drain Painting

As part lof our action to keep our waterways clean, we decided to paint some of the stormwater drains around the school with conservation messages.
First we all had a turn at creating our own design and then we voted to decide which designs were the best. Each class has one stormwater drain to paint.

Choosing a drain to paint

Will our taniwha design fit around this drain?

Year 6: Communicating Marine Concerns through the arts

‘A Night at the Museum’:  An Explanation

Our showcase produced by Year 6 was in response to a year-long Enviro Study on the state of our marine environment. The work is part of a wider movement to encourage change in how we view our oceans and water ways and to think about what we can do to create a sustainable future.

As part of our study, we visited the Voyager Discovery Maritime Museum which was hosting an art exhibition on the Kermadec Islands.  The Kermadec’s are one of the last ‘baselines of normality’ left in the world for scientific study but are only partially protected as a marine reserve. We were struck by the exhibition’s message calling for the Kermadec’s to be given World Heritage Reserve Status before commercial fishing and mining take over .

We decided to highlight this call for action in our school community through the exhibition and showcase you see this evening.  We hope this inspires our audiences to find out more about The Kermadec Islands and to discuss and explore other marine issues with their friends and family children.

 The Albatross: 

During the year we have learnt about the plight of Albatross caused by plastic pollution in the Northwest Pacific and long line fishing in the Southern Ocean.  During Year 6’s camp at Long Bay’s Marine Reserve, we were also inspired by the leadership of Sir Peter Blake and on returning to school studied his sea log observations, aboard the Sea Master, on the decline of the Albatross.

When finding a voice for our showcase, we researched the Albatross and discovered Samuel Coleridge’s Rhyme of the Ancient Mariner… “at length did cross an Albatross, through the fog it came”.  We work-shopped the poem during our drama sessions and this evening you will see a modern take on this still relevant tale of man’s impact on nature and the importance of our respect for it.

Synopsis:

In Coleridge’s poem The Ancient Mariner disrupts a wedding party and corners a guest with his “glittering eye” in order to tell his tale of sea adventures in the Southern Ocean. In our re-telling you will find the Ancient Mariner disrupting something more relevant to our re-tell.

Scene 1: Art Auction – At the Museum

The wearable art pieces on display at the museum are auctioned off

Scene 2: Sailing South 

The Mariner begins his tale and journeys south to “the land of mist and snow” where he and his crew meet an Albatross. The Albatross is a good omen and “makes the breeze to blow”, but the mariner shoots it, for reasons unexplained! As punishment the crew hangs the Albatross wings about the mariner’s neck and the boat is left adrift on a “wide wide sea… without any drop to drink”. It is propelled forward now not by wind but by the spirit of the Albatross who can be seen “nine fathoms deep” below the keel of the boat…

Scene 3: The Dolphin

The Mariner can do nothing while his ship is under the spell of the Albatross Spirit and is forced to circle the ocean currents, like the Albatross itself. While on this enforced journey he continues to write in his sea log and the next three scenes describe moments in time. The first is an encounter with a magical pod of dolphin.

Scene 4: The Seal and Turtle

Another sea log entry, this time the mariner meets both a seal and a turtle.

Scene 5: The Whale

The next sea log entry describes coming across a pod of whale.

Scene 6: The Terrible Truth

The Albatross Spirit has not finished the mariner’s punishment yet. The mariner until now has only seen the beauty to be found in the ocean. Now he becomes tossed about in a sea of troubles and sees great change afoot in the ocean.

Scene 7: A Safe Haven

The Mariner is left racked and ravaged and unsure where to turn. The Albatross Spirit takes pity and shows him hope by taking him to the Kermadec Isles. Here the mariner is able to give thanks for the beauty that he sees and once he does this the Albatross around his neck falls free and releases him and his ship from the spell.

Scene 8: And So We decide

We find ourselves back with the Auctioneers at the museum. The mariner is finishing his tale and has a moral to tell. We hope that you listen and take heed.

 

Grandparents Afternoon Tea

Using the vegetables the children have been growing on the deck the children made silverbeet and broadbean pesto for their Grandparents.  It was very yummy!

Pink Bag Collection

To further raise funds for the development of the Room 19 deck, the children organised a pink bag clothing collection.  Families recycled clothes, shoes, blankets and soft toys.  In total $1220 was raised.

Vote for Meadowbank!

http://www.theaucklander.co.nz/news/mother-earth-gardens-food-competition/1573322/

Enviro Bus Tour

What do you think about your Enviro learning?

Safe Bottles arrive at school!

Kakariki Kiwi in the Junior School

Kakariki Kiwi

 

Room 33 have introduced a new environmentally friendly programme in the junior school to encourage children to help sustain their surrounding environment, at school, home and in their wider community.

There are 4 whole class levels to work towards- Green, bronze, silver and gold. 

Children are encouraged to take action alongside their teacher, classmates, parents, extended family and friends.

Green- This stage is introducing children to environmentally friendly ways of managing their surrounding classroom environment e.g. monitoring electricity use, water consumption and recycling rubbish.  This stage will be teacher directed and monitored.

Bronze- This stage is building on children’s current knowledge of their direct classroom environment. It is encouraging them to think about other classes around the school and managing the entire junior campus e.g. making sure lights are turned off when there is nobody in a room, teaching year 0 children where to recycle their rubbish, making sure classes have Enviro monitors. This stage can be monitored by class discussions/reflections and photographs.

Silver- This stage is encouraging children to take their knowledge about recycling, electricity and water home to teach their family ways to manage these elements. This stage can be monitored by discussion, photo evidence and parent/ teacher communication or a wall display.

Gold- This stage is building on silver level- however children need to start taking their message to extended family and friends and the wider community e.g. a family beach clean-up, designing and making posters to put up locally. This stage can once again be monitored by photo evidence, discussion and parent/ teacher communication. 

The aim of this new programme is to establish these routines so they become a natural part of each child’s day. The programme is designed to be the student’s responsibility and initiative. 

Litterless Lunches

This term, the Year 3 classes looked at ways we could reduce the amount of litter being produced by our school. We decided to introduce a litterless lunch competition. Each Thursday, Year 3 children inspect lunchboxes around the school and award certificates to the junior and senior class with the highest percentage of litterless lunches.
There have been some big improvement in some classes, but we still have a long way to go.

Here are some examples of litterless lunches

 We also made some posters to get our message across.

Visitor from Treescape

We had Jo Harris from treescape come in and share some information about an area that has being set up that is going to be safe for Kiwi’s to be introduced into. We learnt that there is a lot to consider when setting up these areas. They must be as close to the birds’ natural habitat as possible and area where no pests and predators can come in.

We were really happy to hear about this work being done because we now know that our Native New Zealand endangered birds are being helped in some small way.

Visit to the Zoo

We went on a year 1 trip to the zoo and learnt more about the endangered Native birds we have in New Zealand.

We got to touch and look closely at some of the worst predators to our Native New Zealand birds. We learnt that the worst predator is the dog.

 We also found out that there are a lot more endangered Native New Zealand birds than we realized and that there are some special people in New Zealand making areas that are fenced off and safe for them to be in their natural habitat without the danger of being killed and having their eggs eaten. 

Stormwater Drains

Sally from Watercare visited the Year 3 classes and showed us how pollutants can enter our waterways through the stormwater drains. Some common pollutants that get into drains are: detergents; paint; food; oil; dirt and rubbish.  Stormwater drains empty straight into rivers, lakes and the sea and any pollution can damage the marine environment.

Year 3's Orakei Basin Clean up

Back in Term 1, the Year 3's noticed that there was a lot of litter blowing around our school. We followed the litter into our gully and down the gully stream. We realised that the gully stream fed into the Orakei Basin and this was where our rubbish could end up. After a bit of research, we learned just how much damage the rubbish could do to our marine environment. As a result, we decided to take some action and went on a walk around the Orakei Basin to pick up any rubbish we could find.

This is the rubbish we collected

Year 5 Community Rogaine Event

The year five team are currently planning, designing and making a community Rogaine course so that the Meadowbank community can become more familiar with the areas they live, work and play in.

Rogaine is a type of orienteering where the participants have to find clues on a map and answer questions about the area they find themselves in.  The Year 5 children experienced a day of orienteering during term one as part of our EOTC week and during that week they got to make their own scavenger hunt down at Waiatarua Reserve.

Last term, 24 students, a bunch of parents and Mrs Knarston went along to a schools Rogaine event run by an organization called Lactic Turkey.  Our teams did really well and got to learn more about the event which is more than just hunting for clues.

As part of our topic for this term we are cross grouping into four areas of event planning and construction.  Miss Carryers group are focussing on advertising and the promoting of the event.  Miss Bell's class are coming up with the environmental activity stations that are part of the course and earn each group more points on the day.  Mrs Knarston's class are finding and mapping the clues and Miss Bryant's class are digitalising the clues and creating a smart device version of the course.  The school event will be in Term Four and we hope it will become an annual fundraiser for Meadowbank School.

In week 6 we have a trip out to Ambury farm where we will all be participating in a Rogaine event!

Year 1 Bird Adoption

In Term 2 the Year 1 classes were learning about native birds. We learnt that some of our native birds are in danger of becoming extinct so we decided to see if we could help them. We all did jobs at home to raise money and sent the money to the Otorohanga Zoo. Each Year 1 class adopted a different native bird. Room 29 adopted a Tui, Room 30 adopted a Pukeko, Room 31 adopted a Kiwi, Room 32 adopted a Kereru and Room 33 adopted a Kea. The money that the zoo got from us helps to look after the native birds.

Term 2: Student Council, Sustainable Coastlines and other Year 5 and 6 Student clean up Okahu Bay:

Over 100 students, parents and teachers went down on a cold Sunday morning to clean up Okahu Bay. Initially it looked as if the beach was very tidy rhat was until the students started to dig deeper and managed to find several bags of rubbish.

The following day the students were able to audit the rubbish to look at what was exactly found. The rubbish that was found ranged from rope all the way through to appliances, however some of the bigger contributing factors were: Cigarette packaging and lighters, caps and lids, food wrappers and plastic containers, as well as medical products.

Although in the grand scheme of things our change was small but it still managed to make a difference. Our next focus will be to complete the clean up again next year during the same time and compare results.

Safe Bottles Promotion

The Year 4 team has come up with a great fundraising idea in order to raise money for the signs in the gully. We would like to make some new signs and that will cost money so we decided to sell Safe Bottles. This is a great project because we are encouraging people to use less plastic and buy a stainless steel bottle that you can use everyday. Room 5 have created these great posters to promote this product. Look out for them around the school!

Orchard

Check out Room 34's blog to see them doing some great work in the Orchard last term:
http://www.misshedstrom.blogspot.co.nz/

Sustainable Environment Award

We are so excited! The Lorax Garden Project has been nominated for this award. All the Year 2 children from 2011 were involved in the creation of the garden.

New Entrant Project

The children noticed that the deck outside Room 18 and 19 was dull, hot and lifeless.  They decided to develop the deck into a living learning work space.  They plan to include plants and vegetables to encourage wildlife to visit the deck and make it sustainable.  They also want the space to become an area where the can learn, an extension of the classroom. 
Here is a photo of the deck at the beginning of the year.

 

Since the beginning of the school year the children have been busy planting.  After a while the deck looked like this. 













It is now half way through the school year and the deck is developing.  We are now finding more mini beast.

Butterfly

While working on the deck and the concept of change the children found some caterpillars on the swan plant.  We bought a few branches into the classroom.  The caterpillars changed into chrysalis' then beautiful Monarch butterflies.  We were lucky enough to observe the butterfly emerging from the chrysalis.

Planting veg

The children worked with Mrs Elmore to plant some vegetables on our deck.  They thought carefully about what the vegetables need to grow.  We plan use vegetables to make pastries for our Grandparents afternoon tea in Term 3.

New Entrant Toy Sale

The New Entrant Team are developing the deck outside Rooms 18 and 19.  To raise funds for the materials the children held a toy sale.  Children purchased a recycled toy for a gold coin donation.  We raised over $700!!

Fruit Feast

Today Room 22 harvested some tamarillos and mandarins from the orchard. Many of us had never tasted tamarillo before and thought they tasted really yummy, although the skin was a bit sour.