Our Recycle Monsters

The Juniors made monsters out of recycled
rubbish.

We used plastic containers, boxes,lids,cans,tops and tins.
We had lots of fun.
Our monsters all looked different.

Written by Room 1 Juniors

Our Edible Garden

As well as making a worm farm we also planted vegetable, flower and herb plants in tubs.
Initially we decided against planting an outside garden because we were worried it would be damaged.
Michelle and Sally taught us how to plant our veggies and flowers.
We put a mixture of compost and soil in our pots and mixed them together like making a chocolate cake.

Then we put in our plants. We planted rainbow silver beet, pansies, thyme, rosemary, lettuce, strawberries and some seeds.
We put our tubs in a sunny spot that will also get the sun.

We are really excited about our plants growing. We are also going the use our worm fertilizer to feed the plants.
We have even dug up an old flower garden and planted it out with sweet peas, sunflowers, lettuce, strawberries, and some cool looking broccoli.

In groups we planted potatoes in a bucket and in the last week of Term 4 we are going to see who has the heaviest potatoes. We are really excited about this.
Who knew growing a garden was so much fun!

We would like to thank the Farmers Market Trust for their help and for donating the plants and tubs to grow our garden.

Written by Room 2

Our Worm Farm

Last week we had a visit from Michelle who works with the Farmers Market Trust, and Sally.
They came to help us with our worm farm and making an Edible Garden.
We split into two groups, one worked on the worm farm, the other on the edible garden.
Making the worm farm was quite simple.

First we torn some old newspaper into strips.
Then we added some water to make the newspaper moist.
Next came some compost. This helps feed the hungry worms. We also smoothed the compost out and made a hole in the paper/compost mix like you do when making scones.
This is a nest for the worms

Then we put in the worms. They felt tickly and yuck on our hands. The worms didn't like the light and tried to hide.

We put them in their nest and covered them over.
We put the lid on the worm farm and put it in the hallway where it is cool.

We are feeding the worms with our food scraps. They love the apple cores and banana skins, and even a little bit of egg shell, bread and paper.
They don't like citrus fruit like oranges.
We are going to use the fertiliser they make for our vegetable garden.

Written by Room 1 Juniors

Super Enviroboy

Everyone knows that Super heroes save the world and the people that live on it and they have powers.
We decided that the Earth needed a Super Hero now to help spread the environment message so we created Super Enviroboy.
His job is to help other children learn about how we can all save the environment by making even the smallest of changes.

Fruit and Vegetables

We have been learning about eating fruit and vegetables.
We played a game where we had to sort the pictures into fruit or vegetables.
Most of them were okay but we got stuck on tomatoes.






We also found out about serving sizes and learnt that a serving is the size of our palm.
We learnt that you need at least 2 servings of fruit and 3 of vegetables each day to be healthy.
And you need to eat your colours too.

Room 1 Juniors

Our Rubbish

On Friday Mrs Wilson tipped out our rubbish bin and we were surprised by the amount of rubbish we had, and the smell was something else - yuck!
Some of us had to go out for fresh air because we felt sick.
We found old sandwiches, apple cores, banana skins, plastic wrappers, chip packets, half eaten pies, yoghurt pottles and paper.
Because we are just a small school we didn't have alot of rubbish but we think we can reduce the amount of it by half.
We are going to look at ways of recycling the food waste and reducing the amount of paper waste from the hand towels. We already put our old cardboard and plastic milk bottles out on Wednesday with the blue recycle bin.
We are investigating the use of composting, worm farms or recycling through Envirowaste.

Healthy Eating

We have been learning about the Food Pyramid and healthy eating. We found that by eating healthy foods like fruit and vegetables we can have healthy bodies and be healthy people.
Eating fruit and vegetables is good for our planet too because you don't need packaging like plastics and the skins and rubbish can be recycled by composting which makes new food for the plants.

Our Lunchboxes

On Thursday 23 August we had a shared lunch with a differences. We had to design and make our own healthy sandwiches. We could choose any ingredients from the 'Eat lots' and 'eat some' sections of the Food Pyramid.
Most of us chose ham, cheese, lettuce, tomato, pineapple, salami, chicken, coleslaw, beetroot, and carrot - but not all together!
We put all our fillings on our plates and then had to assemble the sandwiches ourselves. Yum!
We also had apples and bananas as afters.

Some of us went back for seconds.

We didn't realise that it was so easy to eat our 5 + a day, or that veggies could be so tasty.

Earth Wheel

As part of 'Tuning In' for our Inquiry we did an activity called an Earth Wheel. We had to work by ourselves to begin with using words and pictures to put our ideas down for
- things on earth that are abundant
- things on earth that are scarce
- ways we harm the environment
- ways we help the environment

We then came back as a group and share our ideas and made a large chart for the wall.

Written by Dillan and Ethan

Healthy Lunch boxes

Last week we looked at healthy lunch boxes with Mrs Odgers. This was because of the new rules from the Ministry of Education about healthy canteens.
We found out that we need healthy food in our lunch boxes to help keep our bodies healthy and give us brain energy for school.
We wrote letters to the Board of Trustees suggesting what food we could have in our canteen.

Written by Reuben S, Blake and Jade

Term 3 Inquiry

This term we are involved in an Inquiry Unit that involves several schools in our ICT Cluster.
The overall theme is Saving the Planet in 10 years.

Our Big Idea is 'Healthy People make a healthy planet'.
Our key understandings are: - Healthy people are healthy in mind, body and spirit
- Our actions impact on the lives of others
- Changes in any part of the environment affect the
relationship between the plants and animals that live
there
- We can do many things to reduce waste

Over the next few weeks we will be posting blogs showing how we can all make changes that can help save the planet.

We are looking at ways to be healthy and to protect world. Instead of polluting it, saving it.
So far we have found out that we can stay healthy by:
- fitness
- lots and lots of walking
- eating fruit and vegetables
- drinking fresh water
- having plenty of sleep
We also know that some of the things that make people healthy also help the planet to be healthy too.

Written by Tamara, Kendra, and Brooke

Computer work at Tomahawk School

On Monday Mrs Odgers showed us how to email and make slideshows as a part of our ICT. We have been sending emails to each other. We like emails because we find out things and we get to write to people. We also like to get comments. So leave us a comment and we will write back.
Written by Timothy, Ethan and Reuben S

Stars on Stage

Stars on Stage is about an idea or theme that schools use to make into a dance. It involves exiting songs and dances. You can come watch every second year. They use unusual constumes. We did it this year, we did Goldilocks and the Three Dudes, which is a take off of the Goldilocks and the Three Bears. In it Goldilocks is turned into a dancing queen. Our whole school of 24 children was involved. We went to Nova. It is a restaurant and o ur whole school got a hot chocolate.
Written by Brooke and Emily Rose

Visit from Amadeo

We had a visit from Amadeo the Otago Museum as part of our Dinosaur Inquiry.
He bought fossils with him. We got to look at fossils of a Plesiosarus paddle, a tooth from a mammoth, shells and a fern.
He showed us how to make a fossilised footprint in mud and made a Tamarasaurus footprint.
It was really great talking to a real Palentologist and getting to hold real fossils.

Written by Kendra and Tamara

Our Visit from More FM

This term we had a visit from More FM. They brought Elvis the Pigeon and let him go to fly back to the station. They came because Tamara rang in and said our school was cool. When they came Tamara won a bag of treats and a cool T shirt and we were all excited.

Written by Tamara and Kendra

rugby

On Saturday morning at 10 o'clock we have rugby games for 50 minutes. That's 25 minutes a half. We have practice on Wednesdays for one hour long, then our parents come to pick us up. It is a good way to keep fit. The New Zealand rugby team is called the All Blacks. Who is your favourite rugby player and what Rugby team is your favourite?

What we have learnt this term

We have been learning about all the colours in the rainbow and the order they are in. When you look at a tree the light reflects off the tree and shines into your eyes so you can see what you are looking at.

When we were learning about toys we went to the Early Settlers Museum and dressed up as old people and walked through the museum like that! Can you imagine!

Tamara and Reuben learnt how to make a podcast. We are having fun listening to our voices. You will be able to visit our podcast page soon.

In Art we have been looking at Picasso paintings and drawing pictures with paint and dye and vivids (felt tip pens).

In physical education we have been doing swimming and guess what... we have our own swimming pool at our school.