Carrot Harvest with Hillary Team

Hillary team have had a busy time in the garden this week harvesting some carrots. The carrots were very interesting to harvest.... some big, some small, some orange, some purple, and some with strange knobbles on them!! Everyone enjoyed giving them a try, a crunchy treat!

Early Spring Snow peas

Look what is growing in one of the wine barrels in Kiri. Sweet, crunchy and super delicious! Well done Kiri eco-warriors!

Sad to be Leaving

Hello my Eco-Warriors!  

I am really sad that I won't be coming to lead your gardening adventures on Thursdays anymore. I have a new job that makes it difficult for me to be there.

I will try to come in again one day this term to say goodbye and maybe eat some of those fantastic vegetables you've grown!

Melanie

Snell EcoWarriors Plant More Winter Veges

Snell team learn how to carefully remove and separate seedlings from punnets for planting. They are planting bok choy, spring onion and lettuce seedlings. 

James discovers some lettuce seedlings that have seeded down by themselves and decides to transplant them. 

Eve shows how to remove seedlings from a punnet.

Kiri Harvest and Sow

Kiri EcoWarriors harvest and eat broccoli from their planter box. 

They also sowed carrot seeds in their wine barrel and learnt about what seeds need to germinate: water, oxygen and warmth. When they get their first leaves, they will also need light.  

We Love our Cauliflowers!

 Hillary Team harvest their beautiful cauliflowers and can't wait to gobble them up! 

Results of Bubbly Water Science Experiment

Snell Team are collecting the results of their science experiment into the effect of bubbly hose water on lettuce plants.

Method Continued: To do this they cut the roots off and weighed every plant on some kitchen scales. They were careful to keep measurement methods the same between the two groups of lettuces - eg: cutting roots off in same place, weighing in same way.

 Results: Their measurements showed no clear difference between the size of the lettuces grown in tap water and those grown in bubbly water from the hose (see graph):




Conclusion: They conclude that: whatever is making the hose water bubbly, it doesn't seem to affect the growth of lettuce plants.

Our hypothesis: "That the plants watered with the bubbly hose water will not grow as big as the plants watered with ordinary tap water." 
was found to be incorrect.  It is still an interesting result. 

Kiri Eco-Warriors Harvest their Kumara

 Eva, Siena, Cohen and Max find buried treasure in the wine barrels. See how the kumara tubers are attached to the roots.

BIOBLITZ: Discovering the Biodiversity of Kohimarama School

Last Thursday we had our first 'BioBlitz'. The EnviroTeam (and many others at 3rd break) joined together to hunt for Kohimarama School creatures. 

We found spiders, flies, butterflies, slugs, birds, ants, praying manitis, snails, mosquitoes and more!

By next term our Biodiversity Inventory will be updated and you will be able to view the new entries.

Here is Mia-Rose getting up-close and slimy with a slug!

Bubbly Science Experiment Progressing

Snell Eco-Warriors check out their Bubbly Hose Science Experiment.

We can't see any differences between the two groups of lettuces yet. One group has been watered with the bubbly water from the hose and the other group with water directly from tap.

This shows the foaming water that comes out of the hose - is it just aeration bubbles we wonder?

Watering the lettuces:

Follow the progress of our experiment by clicking on the "Snell Eco-Warriors Bubbly Hose Science Experiment" page on the right.

Compost Elves at the Compost Factory

Here are the Kiri Eco-Warriors emptying their hungry bin. We collected the fabulously fertile vermicast compost and worm juice. We spread the compost over the gardens to feed the plants.

Max described the hungry-bin as a Compost Factory and Eva suggested that would make themselves Compost Elves. 

Announcing the Prize-Winners of the Giant Pumpkin Growing Competition:

First Prize (36kg): William Boswell

Second Prize (25kg): Dylan Griffiths

Third Prize (21kg): Sienna Moyle

Prettiest: Stella McElroy

Nicest Colour: Rowan Kensington

Nicest Stalk: Isabella Clayton

Squattest: Charlotte Clayton

Smoothest: Summer Pene

Most Round: Hanan Musovich

Cutest: Mia Rose Grey

Most Grey: Sebastian Shaw

Best Shape for Cinderella's Carriage: Morgan Lloyd

Thinning Carrots

Hillary EcoWarriors have been thinning their carrots. They are taking out some that are growing too close together. If carrots grow too close together, they grow into funny shapes and don't get so big. 

They also emptied the worm juice (liquid fertiliser) and worm compost (vermicast) from two of the hungry bins. Their cauliflower plants are already enjoying the worm compost, yum yum.

Sowing Carrot and Pea Seeds

Cowley EcoWarriors have been sowing carrot and pea seeds in their planter box. Little seeds like carrots are sowed shallow and larger seeds like peas are pressed in a little deeper.

Margo found an unusual spider in the planter box: a square-ended crab spider. Here she is completing her creature inventory log.

Room 17 and Wai-Care

Room 17 have been doing some fabulous learning about how to keep our local streams clean. They will soon be visiting the local stream at Madill's Farm to monitor the water quality. In preparation they have been working with Alice from Wai-Care and doing their own research. They have learned about the 5 important C's of stream health: clean, clear, cool, with creatures, and current. They prepared a wonderful assembly item to teach the rest of the school about this, and everyone was entertained and educated by their thoughtful presentation.

We Are A Bronze Enviroschool!

Exciting news this week!!!!!

Nicky Elmore, our regional Enviroschools facilitator came to visit us and to help us with a reflection day. The Eco-warriors did a fabulous job of reflecting on our journey as an Enviroschool, and we all came to the conclusion that we are a Bronze Level Enviroschool, and Nicky agreed.

We started the day by preparing pumpkin soup made with some of the pumpkins grown for our pumpkin competition.

We made the soup in a thermomix, which was a lot of fun!

The eco-warriors showed Nicky around the gardens and told her all about what we have been doing. We all braved standing in the pouring rain, but it didn't dampen the children's enthusiasm for shwoing their learning. After lunch we returned to the library for the reflection work. Nicky introduced the children to the Guiding Principles of Enviroschools, and the children discussed the evidence that we have been collecting to show learning in each area. They were also full of great ideas for next steps to extend our programme in the future. Well done Eco-warriors! We finished up the day with a warm cup of pumpkin soup and some crusty bread.