5 + aday

During Term 3 the student council have worked hard to promote the message of healthy eating. This is all part of the 5 + aday challenge which we are entering. In week 9 we had our own Fruit Elections to choose our favourite fruit. A news reporter from the Eastern Bays Courier came and wrote an article in the paper.

Well done to the Student council for all their hard work and creativity.

Kiwi Release update

A very big HELLO to our partner schools.

Firstly some great news to share with you all. Our first chicks of the season have been hatched. Charlie and Taranaki are the successful parents!

And some news of your birds:-

Twisty did start sitting – again – but only to “give up after 26 days.

Totara  also started sitting but also gave up. We are not quite sure why this happens. Pete Graham mentioned that if they don’t make a good enough nest and it gets wet they will abandon it – the last few weeks of rain suggests that this may be the case. Charlie’s nest was well underground.

Coco, from Meadowbank School, has settled down happily in the QEII bush. He is a little young to breed this season but we will let you know should he surprise us.

Ako and his mate Pare settled in where they were released very close to our bach and Ako has just begun incubating – 11 days ago – so fingers crossed he will be successful. We often hear kiwi calling close to the bach now and assume it is Pare and Ako.

In October it will be Save Kiwi Month,  the  national campaign to help raise funds for kiwi, as well as awareness about the plight of kiwi. Check out the Kiwis for kiwi website http://www.kiwisforkiwi.org/ for ideas.

From Kevin and Gill Ashead

Mataia Restoration Project

  

Room 34's Mushrooms

Check out the mushrooms that we grew! We only got the bucket on Thursday and this is how big they were on Monday! Some of us took some home for dinner. Yum! Our mushrooms came from the Te Mata mushroom company.

The Orchard

Year 2 look after The Orchard. Over the holidays it had become over grown and in need of some TLC.  The children took to The Orchard with shovels and cutters to weed and cut back the plants and grass.  They re-created the pathway and collected the rotten and fallen fruit and tasted the delicious feijoas.

Tadpole's Promise

On Thursday 26th June the Year 2 children preformed their production of 'Tadpole's Promise'.  The night was a huge success with the children sharing their knowledge of life cycles through song, dance and acting.  In the run up to the production the children explored the concept of 'Change' and the life cycles of caterpillars and tadpoles.

Oxfam Fair Trade Day

This week we had our annual Oxfam Fair Trade day. The growers of many of the things we buy everyday like chocolate, coffee, bananas and many other products are often not paid fairly. Oxfam Morning teas help to make people aware of this issue and lets them know how they can get involved in making a difference. Money raised goes to help make a difference in the lives of the growers in the Pacific and South East Asia. 

Our event was a huge success and many people got involved. Well done and thank you to all the Enviro Fernz and Parents who got involved. 

Kiwi Release

At the end of last term the Envirofernz when to Mataia and had the privilege to name and release some kiwi into the wild. It was a great day as we were involved with some other local schools in this project. There were a number of other guests who also attended this special occasion.  Below is a video of our day.

   

  Click here to read the latest Mataia Restoration Newsletter which Meadowbank school features in.

Worm Farming in Year 2

Year 2 are responsible for worm farming on the Junior campus.  As the children are new to Year 2 Mrs Elmore took the children on a tour of the worm farms and talked about how to care for the worms and what they do to help the environment.

The children then made a puppet pal movie detailing the steps they need to follow to complete their worm farming responsibility.

The oceans our beautiful treasure

During Sea Week Room 35 created some art work of the creatures that live in the ocean based on some of our research we had done during Reading and Writing. We wanted to celebrate the beauty of the sea. It also made us think about how we are responsible for looking after this treasure and what we could do to show that we value the oceans and its creatures.

Saving the Reefs - Sea Week

This week Room 33 read some books on coral reefs. They created these posters to highlight the effects we have on the coral reefs and what we can do to stop their destruction.

Thanks Room 33 for sharing this with us.

Enviro Project with Mike

In the past week we have been planning and designing a new plant stall to raise money for the school, The old one is falling apart,  So we decided to make a new one.   

 

Kiwi Release

Hi Meadowbank School

Today I went to the kiwi release on Mataia farm up at Kaukapakapa (1 hour drive north from school).  It started with a powhiri (welcome) to welcome us onto the whenua (land).  Then after we were officially welcomed we mingled with the hosts and had morning tea.  Thanks to Mrs Masters for your delicious cheese muffins and fruit loaf!  Then we joined the hosts and did another powhiri to welcome the kiwi onto the farm.  This experience was new to lots of Meadowbank children and families so it was fabulous to be able to be part of it all.

After the kiwi were formally welcomed they were taken out of their boxes and carried around to everyone so we could get the chance to stroke them.  I was imagining them to be really soft but I found out that their feathers are actually quite rough and prickly.  The DOC workers that were carrying them had been out all last night catching them on Moturoa Island.  They only managed to get 5 kiwi because the full moon made them hid away and hard to find.

Four lucky Meadowbank children (2 ex students) and Nicky Elmore were asked to go with the DOC workers in their 4x4 drive vehicles to release them out in the protected area of the farm.

What a day!  I wish you had been there to experience it too.

Mrs Cook

Oxfam Hot Chocolate Fundraiser

On Thursday 23rd May the School fundraised profits to go towards Oxfam who will support Fair-trade Farmers. We fundraised $614.60 by asking for a gold coin donation and in return you got a hot chocolate with homemade baking, it was so yummy.  We brought our own cups to save the environment.

Here's super girl

 

                                                           Matthew is giving out stamps
                                                             

                                                Here are the Enviro Ferns on the junior side  

                                                    Heres a hot chocolate and cupcake

Chickens

On Wednesday at lunch time we helped Mrs Masters to weed the garden and feed the hens.  Fiama was scared but Darlene wasn't.  She liked picking up the hen.  Bananas was jealous of the other hen.

By Darlene and Fiama

Term 2 Week 3 G2T for Room 32.

This Wednesday Room 32 went to G2T. The gardeners (Groups 4,5 and 6) were given tasks like weeding the garden, picking comfrey to plant potatoes, harvesting kumara and even harvesting 3 fresh eggs! Afterwards we all had some lunch made by the cookers (Groups 1, 2 and 3) that consisted of a spouffle, a kumara salad, and soft-bread pretzels, they were all a delicious treat!

 

Picking the Kumara to give to the cookers.

 

A dirty Kumara dug out of the ground

 

A nice, warm, fresh egg straight from the chicken nest

 

Old potatoes make great potato plants!

Garden To Table

On Wendesday we were helping Mrs Silvester in the kitchen. We were  making rhubarb crumble, corn fritters, runner beans with onion and tomatoes and to top it all off tomato salsa.
                                        

Caitlian and caleb are cutting the runner beans

The others strolled of to the garden to help Mrs Masters. We weeded the garden and harvested the crops for the cookers in the garden to table room.

We are weeding the garden

By Logan and Ben

Gully Working Bee

On Wednesday Rm 32 helped Mike shift gravel from the truck to the gully in buckets, because the gully gravel looked old and too plain, it was also getting too messy and there was hardly any left. It was hard and heavy work, so Telecom workers volunteered to help us. The gravel is brand new and it looks better down in the gully. Sometimes we had to remove small plants or sticks because they would get in the way.

Fiama, Ella, Rokas, Darlene and Holly tried to bring a cart full of full buckets down the hill, but it almost rode down by itself so it was pretty scary.
Everyone was tired by the end so we all did Topic and came back to tip buckets at the end of the day.

                                                   Stella and Ella are having lots of fun!

                                                    Mike is helping to fill up the buckets!

                                                 Here are some Telecom volunteers!

Here comes Mikayla and Ryan with

their empty buckets!

In the Beginning

The Year 1s went for a walk with Mrs Elmore around Meadowbank School and through the gully to look at the Pou’s. It was a very wet day but we learnt so much.

Before we left we first read the book “In the Beginning” so that we had some understanding about the Pou and what they mean to us and how they represent the guardians who look after our earth. 

We first looked at the Pou outside Room 9. This Pou is called Haumia and represents the guardian of wild foods.

We then looked at the Pou near the path leading over the bridge this Pou is called Rango and represents the guardian of peace and foods we eat from the garden. 

Then we went into the Gully and looked at the Pou that is so tall it can almost reach the sky. 

This is called Rangi and represents the guardian who split the earth and the sky.

Next we went on to look at the Pou near the tennis courts. This one is called Tawhirimatea and represents the guardian of wind. On the Pou it has little patterns engraved so it feels and looks like the wind is blowing.

Then we went to one more Pou which was by the hall. This Pou is called Tangaroa and she is the guardian of the sea and sea creatures. She has some shapes engraved in her that look and feel like water.

After this trip to the gully the Year 1 begun describing each of the guardians in the story. We have learnt when writing these stories that we have not only got the Maori guardians that look after our earth but that we can be guardians of our enviroment too!