Keep New Zealand Beautiful Week

The last week of term was all about ….

We wrote about our thoughts on it and

we looked around our school and saw

the need to have a bit of a spruce up..

so we did...

Room 7 -Eco Warriors of the school!

Some thoughts…

If there was rubbish in all of the world then there should be a lot of people helping to pick it up.  If people do not like the rubbish they should pick the rubbish up with other people to clean up their country.  Tidy Kiwi should help too.            Jokarvin

The way turtles die is because people are not caring for our beaches.  Keep New Zealand Beautiful week is the way we care for our beaches by picking up the rubbish.  New Zealand is a good place and we want to keep it clean.  We want our world to be the best world in the world.  We love New Zealand.                          Lucy

Don’t put your rubbish in the sea because the sea creatures and birds will eat it.  Don’t put your rubbish in the sea, pick it up and put it in the bin! Don’t throw it around, just clean it up.  It is important not to litter around the sea or near the water.     Arki

Our term Habit of Mind focus was working interdependently so we worked in groups to create a special poster to show we care.  Then we put all 4 posters together and made 1 big one.  We were really proud of our GREEN Hat creativity.

An Exciting Drive Past

There was much excitement last week when we were suddenly taken 

outside to witness the unveiling of one of the new massive recycling depots destined for our very own Black Bridge transfer station or commonly known ‘dump’. 

 It had been designed by Angela to be a far more user-friendly, more attractive and definitely effective way of collecting everyones recycling. 

On its way to its new home at the dump Angela had kindly asked for a drive past so Room 7 and 8 and Mrs Lindsay, could see another cog in the recycling wheel, and one we hope all the children will be familiar with in their own homes.

Waste Audit

Now for our Waste Audit.  This has been quite an important event and one we shared the results of in Mondays assembly.  We had the help of Angela Aitkin, Max and Islas Mum who is also the Waste officer at the Regional Council.  She brought along all the necessary gear.  We had collected a weeks worth of school rubbish and tipped it out onto tarpaulins to be sorted into crates. A rather icky job, thanks Tamsin for your help.  Here are some interesting results.

• ·         We take 2 ½ big green wheelie bins to the dump every week which costs a lot in dump fees.
• ·         There was 10kgs of food scraps in the rubbish.  This was nearly half the total weight of all the weeks rubbish going to the landfill. This should be put into the food buckets in the lunch area- going to the pig, the worm farm or the compost.
• ·         There was 2 ½ kgs of paper and cardboard in the rubbish which should be in the paper recycling bins.
• ·         We filled 5 crates with soft plastics.  This is gladwrap, chippie and muesli bar packets and plastic bags.  There were a lot of snap-lock bags in there as well which can be reused.
• ·         We found a lot of yoghurt pots that can be washed and recycled.
• ·         There were even milk cartons which need to be folded and put into the blue bins.
• ·         Coffee cups can be recycled if they have the recycle triangle on the bottom.

          

We wrote about the experience....

On Wednesday Room 7 and 8 did a waste audit.  This was with Isla and Max's Mum Angela.  She is a Waste Warrior and works for the council.  
There was a lot of food that people hadn't eaten and there weas a lot of chippie packets in the rubbish as well.  There was manderin peels in the rubbish bin!
We sorted out the rubbish in the bags.
We can recycle and reuse the yoghurt pots so they don't need to go to the landfill.
                                                               Lily

Yesterday Angela told us about reducing our waste.  The important thing was that I didn't knowthat there was going to be so much food scraps that weren't suppose to go in the rubbish bin.  Don't put your yoghurt pots in the bin because you can reuse them.
                                                            Jokarvin

On Wednesday Room 7 and 8 did a Waste Audit.  I was surprised by how much plastic there was in the rubbish.
We did the Waste Audit so we could work out how much rubbish there is in the whole school for one week.  There is lots in the whole school.  There is more than 100 pieces of rubbish in the school.
A lady called Angela talked about the rubbish and the litter.
We found yoghurt pots that can be washed and reused.  You can put plants in them like poppies.                                                   Sophie

We are making posters to share our findings.

Reduce, Reuse, Recycle

Reducing our schools waste has been our topic for the term.  

We have been working with room 8 on this programme.  

We began by looking at what sort of waste our school produces and where it goes.  We interviewed our caretaker Keith who told us about what he does with the schools rubbish and where it goes. We like helping Keith keep our school looking great by picking up any rubbish we see lying around the place. We are getting prepared for 'Keep New Zealand Beautiful' week which is at the end of term. 

Thinking Interdependently...Team Work!

This term an important focus has been on Thinking Interdependently.  Our catch phrase in Room 7 has been,

‘On our own we are good but together we are great.’ 

Check out our cool Jigsaw display in our cloakroom.

We have taken lots of opportunities to work cooperatively alongside our friends and peers and recognised that working together can not only be lots of fun but can also increase our understanding, as we share the ideas we come up with.

We constantly celebrate our successes in our Magic Castle.  We had to create a whole new one this term in preparation for the pile of new stickers representing the different levels we have passed.

We had fun painting our new castle.

Pink Day

Pink Day was lots of fun.  
We all became "PINK" for the day to support a school family that are having to face the enormity of dealing with cancer.  We stopped our usual routines and had a bit of fun with 'pink'.
 Heres a little snap shot of a very pink class in action at the coin trail. 

How Bees Make Honey

We have been learning about writing explanations in Room 7. 
 Explanations tell why or how something happens. 
We researched and found out 'How Bees Make Honey'.
 

 

 

How Bees Make Honey

First the bees go out of the hive and they find a flower.

They use their proboscis to get the nectar.

Next they get their legs out and pollen sticks to their legs. The nectar goes into their abdomen and it swirls around and turns into honey.

The bee flies back to the hive and puts it into the cells. When they get back they flap their wings to get the water out.

Then it turns into honey.

Honey tastes like sugar and sprinkles. It smells like jelly.

I like honey.

Ava

How Do Bees Make Honey?

First the bees come out of the hive and then they look for some flowers.

They suck out the nectar using their proboscis.  It mixes in their abdomen and then they go back in the hive to make nectar into honey.

They flap their wings to get the wetness off and then it goes in the cells.

Honey tastes like sweet and soft and sticky.

I like honey.

Arki

How Do Bees Make Honey

First the worker bees fly out of the hive and look for bright flowers.

Then they use their proboscis and suck up the nectar.

They bring it to the hive. Then they flap their wings to get rid of the water to make the honey.

The Bee Keeper takes it to Arataki Honey Farm and they pour the honey cones out of the hive.  They make the honey and it goes into the containers.  Then it goes to the supermarket and people buy it and they eat it.

I like honey.

Thomas

 

Getting to taste honey straight from  Arki's farm was superb and everybody enjoyed it. We say....     Clever Honey Bees!