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. 

Snell EcoWarriors Bubbly Science Experiment

We are trying to determine, scientifically, whether the mysterious bubbles from the school garden hose are affecting our plants. 

If you are planning a Science Fair project, perhaps our logbook page (click on page to the right) might give you some guidance. 

We will keep you posted on how the bubbles affect our lettuce plants!

Giant Pumpkin Competition Judging Day

These Giant Pumpkins that have been carefully tended all summer, have now been harvested, measured and weighed. 

Prizes to be announced at assembly this Friday!