Gardening

 A week ago we planted sunflower seeds into little pots. In went the seed raising mix and then the seeds. The students from Te Kauru grew sunflowers last year and then collected the seeds. Now we can use them to grow new plants. How cool is that! We put the pots outside. They need sun and water. We are checking and noticing growth. The weather has been perfect for growing. When the plants are big enough we will plant them outside in a garden we have been preparing.

One week later . . .

 A Little Seed

A little seed for me to sow

A little soil to make it grow

A little hole, a little pat,

A little wish, and that is that.

A little sun, a little shower.

A little while-

And then, a flower!

We also planted swan plant seeds for a butterfly garden. They were a lot smaller than the bean and sunflower seeds. Mr Mullholland has been helping us a lot with our learning about growing seeds and plants.

We are growing the swan plants in a little hot house for germinating seeds.  

Five days later a tiny sprout appears . . .

The seed has germinated.

How to make a no-dig garden

 This term we have been learning about growing plants from seeds, the parts of a plant, and, what plants need and do for the environment. We have worked together to create a garden to plant our sunflower seedlings in and a 'Butterfly Garden' where we will plant the swan plants we are growing. 

We joined hands and measured the space our garden would be.
Our garden will be a curved shape. It is 16 strides long.

Next we spread out the cardboard onto the ground.

We had to stand on the cardboard so it wouldn't blow away.

We worked in pairs tipping soil out of buckets, spreading soil and returning the buckets for Mr Mullholland and our helpers from 

Te Puawai to fill up again. 

Our gardens still need some more soil but that's our job for next week!

We went back to the classroom, washed our hands and got rewarded for our great mahi and . . . so did the lovely tuakana Levi, Miley, Kingston and Mason from Te Puawai.

We couldn't have made our gardens without their help.
They displayed all of our school values -Hiranga/Excellence, 
Rereketanga/Diversity, Ngakau/Integrity, Porihanga/Community and
Partnership and Kaitiakitanga with big smiles and their willingness to
help out! 

 

Gardening

 Our inquiry topic for term 4 is, 'From Garden to Table.'

During the last three weeks we have learned many new things about seeds and plants and have also extended our prior knowledge about plants and gardening. 

We have germinated bean and sunflower seeds without using soil and also with soil.

Without soil: Here is a written procedure that tells you how you can do this.

Here is what our seeds look like after two weeks. 

I look, I notice, I wonder

Many have sprouted and some of the seedlings were touching the top of the bag. We wondered what we could do to solve the problem so the plants could grow up straight. We opened the bags and after just one day the plants look straighter and they have grown even taller right out the top of the bags. We can also see the roots on each plant.

We also noticed that some seeds had not yet germinated. We think there was too much water in the cotton wool so we squeezed the balls and some are starting to germinate. 

Too wet!

Term 2 Week 8

Here is the link to the slide presentation from Tuesday evening's junior school parent hui - 'How to help your child with their learning'

Thanks to all those parents who turned up for this meeting despite it being a cold winter's night. We appreciated the opportunity to share "more than 100 years of teaching experience" . . . HAHA! These are the bones or notes of the presentation. Whanau, if you have any queries or questions please don't hesitate to ask for clarification. 

Te Whare Kiwi's Matariki Day

On Wednesday the students from Te Putake, Te Pihi and Te Kakano did their learning together. We had fun learning, creating and sharing. After lunch we all went out to the field area. Some students chose to play their own games with friends, build huts or explore in the gardens and trees. Some students chose to weed and clear the garden so we could have more space to play in the trees without getting hurt. These students had great fun being Kaitiaki. We finished the day with a Junior School Kapa Haka session -  THANKS MRS BRYDON!

Paper kites

Colouring in Matariki Stars

Sharing and creating.

Tuakana teina 

Thinking and creating.

Play dough stars.

Examples of completed Matariki art. Kite art created in Te Kakano classroom and collage created in Te Putake classroom.

Check out these busy bees

1 . . . 2 . . . 3 . . . all together now! 

Before the clean-up

After the clean-up

The pile of weeds, sticks and unwanted seedlings was huge by the time we had finished. We each carried armfuls of garden waste across the field to a hidden spot to decompose. What a great effort kids! Thanks for your mahi!