Grounds Duty

As part of keeping our environment clean and tidy, each class has a week of school grounds duty where we go on a hunt to pick up rubbish.

Here is Mrs Makani and Room 23's effort. It wasn't even their week on grounds duty, they just wanted to do a deed! Ka pai Room 23:) We love your passion to keep things green!

The bees are back in town

We enjoyed making water troughs for the new bees this week. Bees need nectar, pollen and... water. We placed rocks on plates and then filled them with water. The rocks are there for the bees to land on safely, so they don't slip into the water.

We also started making our first batch of comfrey tea concentrate. Full of vitamin B12 and nitrate - absolutely super duper plant food for your garden.

2014

The Eco Kids have been busy planting seedlings, making bamboo teepees for the tomatoes and fertilising the vegetable beds and native areas. Ask us what fertiliser is and what Blood and Bone comes from! We know all about it and the smell too!

Information Signs

What does our school need to help the plants? Sign we decided!

 A small group from Ara Pakeke have been working hard on cutting, designing and painting information signs about the environment.

Winter Strawberries

What a warm winter we have had. Usually this time is a quiet time for gardening however it has been unseasonably warm. So, we started planting some seedlings and we have our fingers crossed that there won't be a frost.

Our strawberries have gone in early because if you plant them in winter, they fruit more. We are doing an experiment on three different types of strawberries (our old ones fertilised, new ones from the shop and runners). Which ones will do the best??

Term 2 Weeks 5-10

Maintaining the gardens is hard work but it's made much easier pushing a wheelbarrow - it's always a race to see who will get to steer it! We finished with a class treat of homemade vege soup. It was absolutely delicious, nutritious and totally made by the hands of the Eco Kids.

Term 2, Weeks 4-5

The paths around the garden beds were quite muddy so we collected mulch from the field to spread over the path. Having a push on the wheelbarrow was fun.

Comfrey tea making time!  Comfrey is a broad leafed plant that grows abundantly around our garden beds. It is well known for it's amazing fertilising qualities. We picked leaves and mixed it with water to soak for a few weeks. It makes a brown liquid that people call, "comfrey tea." Soon we will pour it over the strawberry garden to give it a boost.

 Check out these baths in gardens. They have little worms living inside. Worms love to eat your uncooked left over kitchen scraps. The 'worm tea' drains off down the plughole and a bucket underneath collects the tea... or you can drain in back straight into your garden. Your veges will be healthier, more resistant to disease and much tastier.