Saturday 27 May 2017

Term 2 Week 4

Sadly, on Monday we arrived at school to find some of the plants had been pulled out of our raised beds again over the weekend. We replanted the ones that weren't too badly broken and are hoping that some of them will survive. 

Now that the chicken coop has been repaired we are very happy that our chickens have been able to return to school. We hope there will not be any more vandalism to their coop or else we may not be able to have them at school anymore. This would be very sad for all of our students, and the children at Birchwood kindy too who help to take care of them. 

The Nelson Nature Team at Nelson City Council heard about our problems with vandalism and have kindly donated the following plants to the school...

1 x Carpodetus serratus (Marble leaf)
1 x Lophomyrtus obcordata (NZ Myrtle)
1 x Hoheria angustifolia (Lacebark)

2 x Plagainthus regius (Ribbonwood)

On Wednesday after school Miss Raven and her son went to collect them from Titoki Nursaries in Brightwater.


On Thursday we had our Enviro Kids Lunchtime meeting but only a handful of children came. The children who came thought this was because Remix was on at the same time so we will have our meeting on Monday next week to see if we can get more keen Enviro Kids to attend! The children who did come watered the surviving seedlings in our raised beds, put on some new snail bait, fed food to our bulbs and had a look at the beautiful new trees we have just been given. We will carry on our Biodiversity investigation next week.



On Thursday after school Miss Raven went to the Nelmac Nursary in Atawhai to collect these plants which they have also kindly donated.

40 x Gossamer Grasses 
80 x Carex flagillefera (Glen Muray Tussock)

1 x Titoki tree
4 x Mahoe trees

Both these varieties are great bird trees.


We look forward to seeing them incorporated into the new garden that is currently being planned and watching them grow big and strong. Hopefully we will be able to help plant them too.

Friday 19 May 2017

Term 2 Week 3 BIODIVERSITY HUNT

On Thursday this week Max and Ava from Room 7, Cade from Room 6 and Daniella, Mikaela and Abby from Room 11 came to our Enviro Kids Club lunchtime.

Cade brought in some praying mantises he had found to show us all. He and Max are holding them in the photo below.



Then we talked about what Biodiversity means and had a look at this Department of Conservation Website about biodiversity before going for a walk around the school to look at the wide variety of living things that live in our school habitat. Here are some photos of what we found...

We found these fungi:




We found these native trees:







Next week we are going to use different guide books and internet sources to try and find the names of the plants and fungi we saw and learn more about them.






Friday 12 May 2017

Planting Our Daffodil Bulbs

Term 2 Week 2

On Thursday at lunch time it was really wet so Miss Raven dug holes for our 50 bulbs in the nicely softened soil in the bed at the end of Room 9 ready for us to plant our daffodil bulbs.

On Friday at lunch time Macy, Alecia, Ava, Mia, Talia, Thea-Jane, Jahzel, Bella, Holly, Maddison, Mella and Tyler all came and helped to plant our 50 bulbs.

We can't wait to watch them grow and flower in the Spring time!


Here are the holes before we put in the bulbs...


Here we all are after putting all the bulbs into their holes...


Here are the bulbs in their holes. We had to make sure we put them in the right way up!


Here are Holly, Jahzel, Maddison and Bella covering the bulbs with soil.



Wednesday 3 May 2017

Term 2 Week 1 Planting our seedlings...

On the weekend Miss Raven bought some seedlings for our raised beds... Today we planted them carefully. There are beetroot, broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower, spinach, silverbeet, kale, leek, celery and onion seedlings. We carefully put them into our raised beds and watered them. Now we have to hope they will grow so we can make some yummy things with them!