Conservation Week

To mark the beginning of Conservation Week 2023 Piwakawaka decided to get their hands dirty.  We thickened up the plantings at the St Albans gate with more hebe. It is looking really great and we are looking forward to seeing this grow up over the next few years. Hebe are great for attracting bees to our school grounds and the flowers on the hebe will make the entrance way attractive for our visitors.

  

We learnt how to plant the plants to give them the best chance of survival. First we cut away the carpet that has been laid to suppress the weeds. When planting the hole needs to be the size of the pot you are transplanting from. You don’t want it too deep, but the roots need to be at the same level as the ground. Then you loosen the soil by pressing on the side of the pot gently and turn the pot upside down to get the plant out. Put the plant in the hole you have dug and place the soil back around the plant.  Once the plant is in the soil you need to compress the top layer by gently standing close to the plant without standing on it. This helps the plant stay upright. We will need to make sure we keep the water up to them until they are established, but with all the rain we are having that should not be a problem.                                  

We also put in some Koromiko. This will add a bit of height and variety to the plantings. Awesome effort Piwakawaka.

Piwakawaka Energy Projects

Piwakawaka have been studying energy. Thi has included personal energy and solar energy. We created  exercise programmes, solar ovens and wrote explanations. Our solar ovens were used to cook Somores for the class, YUM! We have also learnt about energy in space, learning about aurora!

Piwakawaka Stream Health Survey

 We have been learning about water quality and how it impacts on stream health. We surveyed two streams in the local area. One was in a forest and the other had recently had a slip run down it.  We put out fish traps the night before but were not lucky enough to catch anything. Some of the tasks we completed were a survey of the macro invertebrate populations, the speed of the water, water clarity and temperature, and the composition of the stream bed. We wer e supported by Rhianna from Landcare Trust and Zoe from Enviroschools.

Piwakawaka Planting

 Scratch, scratch, scratch the shovels scratched the long grass away from the soil. We are digging holes for the plants we had donated to the class, thanks Mrs Phelps. These are all native plants that included little rimu trees, lancewood, toetoe, broadleaf and mahoe.

It is nice to think that in years to come we will be able to see the results and there will be more habitat for the insects. 

To plant you need to loosen the soil around where the plant is to go in, dig a hole slightly deeper than the root  ball, place the plant in the hole and refill it with dirt. Finally you have to compact the soil around the plant root to ensure it stays straight.

We will need to make sure that the long grass is kept away from the plant so it does not get suffocated.

Kowhai Seed Planting

 Piwakawaka Year 4 students spent our Friday morning planting out our kowhai seeds.  We had sandpapered the edge of each seed and soaked them to improve the chances of them germinating.  All together we planted one hundred and four seeds. Hopefully we get the same number of plants to grow on for planting; either in the school grounds, or in the community. 

                                                                         

Learning about Energy in Piwakawaka

Our focus for this year is ENERGY! We have made mind maps of all the different types of energy we know about. In term 1, before Covid we took part in a Food for Thought programme with Jess from Foodstuffs. She taught us about the energy in food.we have learnt so much more since then. We made our mind maps in groups, harnessing the energy of the group through co operation. First we brainstormed the ideas on ti a slide and found images in Explore. We tried to group our ideas of similar types of energy then find the best images to represent that idea. We found we needed to compromise and share our ideas until we all agreed. Sometimes that is not always easy. Have you ever had to collaborate on a mind map?

                  

                

Propagation

Piwakawaka students learn how to prick out plants, and pot on older plants as part of their responsibility for the school propagation tunnel. The plants grown are for use in the school grounds and for riparian planting.