Summer Swan Plants

Swan plants


Monarch butterflies are a lovely addition to any garden. Children love them and observing them is a great way of learning about life cycles. And the best way to attract and feed monarchs is by growing a swan plant. Plant your swan plant in full sun in a corner of the garden. Remember to wait two to three weeks for the plant to get established and any residual spray to disappear before putting any caterpillars on it. Once you’ve got some caterpillars try to limit it to 2-3 per plant. Too many caterpillars will eat the whole plant!


Maraetai Beach School has a wonderful Butterfly Sanctuary behind room 11 and 12 where our juniors enjoy watching this wonderful life-cycle.

Enviro Newbies

Welcome to Benji and Brooklyn our new members to the Friday Enviro Group.

They were soon mix blood and bone with their gloves and apron on to feed the young trees in the orchard.  The other members made them welcome and we went to see the lettuce and beans growing in our new greenhouse!  The worms were happy with lots of food to digest too...

TREES FOR SURVIVAL HALL OF FAME

Some interesting information came to hand today on the formation of Trees for Survival, please have a read!

Trees for Survival and the Business Hall of Fame

Mr Noel Holyoake was recently inducted into the New Zealand Business Hall of Fame. As part of his citation, Mr Holyoake referred to his founding of Trees for Survival as one of his most rewarding contributions to New Zealand during his long and very successful business career. He remains a member of the Trees for Survival Trust Board, and we value his wise counsel and contribution.  See: http://www.businesshalloffame.co.nz/addresses-and-acceptance-speeches/2016/noel-holyoake/ Further, Trees for Survival  Patron, Mr Rob Fenwick, was inducted into the New Zealand Business Hall of Fame on the same evening! See: http://www.businesshalloffame.co.nz/addresses-and-acceptance-speeches/2016/sir-rob-fenwick/ Our congratulations go to both, and we are proud to have such esteemed governance.

MBS CARE CODE - Designed by pupils, teachers, the Enviro Group and Debbie Rister

After a lot of discussion and brainstorming between all parties at MBS it is very exciting to see our school CARE CODE come together.  Abbi Tubbs, Debbie Rister and myself have been pouring over amazing mock ups of the logo our school will show itself as an Enviroschool member.

What began as a single idea from myself with the ripple effect and what emerges from the school is now part of a bigger picture which identifies the Maraetai community in it's entirety.  With the guiding principles framing the picture of a seaside community, it certainly contains all the appropriate messages that we hope makes for a simple and clear identity of the school and what this stands for as being Sustainable and Environmentally aware !!

We look forward to our Colgate Friendship Park Bench arriving in the next few weeks.  On returning to school this week a message from Colgate confirmed it's manufacture is in progress.  Watch this space!!

BRONZE GRADUATION

It is with great anticipation that MBS will be receiving this award next Friday at our Celebration of Lee arning Assembly.

Nicky Elmore will be present to present this upon the school.  Nicky is the Enviroschool Facilitator from Auckland Council.

Nicky considers that MBS has all the attributes to move the school forward in the next step and journey with what is/has been happening in the school.

She will arrive on Friday to be taken around the school on a guided tour of the Enviro Group gardens and new greenhouse, the orchard, chicken/hen house area, classroom gardens, Native bush and butterfly sanctuary.  This is similar to the previous visit when the Local Council came along too.

However, this time the Enviro Group will be presenting the Guiding Principles as well and discuss how these are being actioned in and around our school, ie empowered children will be planting and watering and showing other children how this is done.

SPRING LAMB!!

Enviroschools stepped up the pace with all MBS classrooms handing in their Care Codes.

A lot of effort has been put in to get the ideas of 20 or more children on one page!!

There will be a lot of consideration put in to selecting the final Care Code.  This might mean the artistic side of one class and wording from another...  we will see!

SPRING FEELING IN THE AIR!!

Thanks to a brilliant line up of designs for our Colgate Park Bench competition.

Reeth Milsom is the lucky winner and will have his design logo with the Maraetai School values inscribed in Maori on the back of the bench with the sailing ship logo.  There was a lot of discussion around the final piece that is at present being put forward to the manufacturers of these seats.

It has been decided a Friendship Bench is the ideal way to incorporate this into the Junior area for new students to enjoy and share with their friends.  Nicky Elmore our Enviroschools facilitator also agrees this is will be most beneficial, seeing it work well in other schools in the area - who also have a Friendship Bench.  Imagine sitting on a lot of recycling oral care waste, it will be fascinating to see!!

The Care Codes are on their way in classrooms.  We suggest putting the finished articles on show for everyone to share and comment on.  Children have amazing ideas and suggestions

THE MOST IMPORTANT ONE!!

We are all in this like it or not!!

Enviro PD term 3 week 3

Nicky Elmore our Enviroschools Facilitator from Auckland Council came into school and took the staff through a process of getting a Care Code established.  We worked in groups and came up with ideas as to what a Sustainable community looks like!

Social, Cultural, Economic and Environmental issues were discussed from the chosen picture we took to look at as a group.

There was a taonga as part of the grouping system to work in and there was a lot of fun and learning taking place!!  Look at the photos... comment if you wish!!

The next step is for all staff to spend an afternoon taking their class through a similar process and by the end of week 5 we should have a Care Code established.

SPRING BULBS!!

The Enviro Group have been able to sell produce from the classroom gardens on the weeks that Friday Assemblies take place.  The vegetables include kale, cabbage, silverbeet and mandarins. Therefore it would be nice to buy some bulbs with the money raised!

We are thinking about planting some spring bulbs at the school.  Does anyone have any ideas where this might be nice to have, and could be appreciated by all of the school?  Do we have daffodils which could coincide with the Cancer Day Society appeal - Bluebells - Freesias.....

On Tuesday we have our Professional Development with  Nicky Elmore, we look forward to getting our Care Code on it's next step to completion.

The orchard area has been a little bit boggy to say the least and has limited us with treading over into this area of the school.  Hopefully with spring on the way and some mild winds to dry the area up, lots of new growth will be on it's way.

COLGATE ORAL WASTE RECYCLING

Congratulations are in order for our school on winning the Colgate Park Bench for the school.

The Enviro Team Leader - Mrs McNab received a phone call on Wednesday morning from Emily, the HR personnel from Colgate to say we have been the lucky receipients of a 1.5m Park Bench, and we are able to design the back of the seat to customise it to however we want it to look like!!  

Well done to Room 11 and 2 in particular who have sent in hundreds of items, and will be the first classes to sit on our royal 'Friendship Bench'.  

The bench will sit somewhere around the Junior area of the playground and will be made in the colour of the school's Blue.  A competition is in progress for the design and this will be sent off next week to be received by 12 August.  From then on in, we will wait 6-8 weeks for it to be made.  Imagine sitting on one of many thousand pieces of recycled waste!!  Awesome.

Enviro PD term 3 week 1 - The Guiding Principles

The Care Code -

Abi took this session with the staff, and took them through the Guiding Principles as part of our establishing the Care Code and being part of the Enviroschool Bronze programme.

These links will be posted up as part of the PD that took place.  The next session in week 3 with Nicky Elmore our Enviroschools Facilitator from Auckland Council will take us on the next step to look at establishing our Care Code - that will have had input from all MBS staff 2016.


Trees for Survival

We have further saplings arriving with potting mix in the next week (week 2 term 3).

The saplings already with us have been potted on into the trainer pots and are looking well established with all the sun and rain we have received this winter 1st August.  Now we will wait patiently for the rest to catch up.

Enviro School Gardens

Over the school holidays Noel has been busy rearranging the Hungry Worms to their new abode. They are now sitting nicely on a bench, which will enable the worm tea to be emptied into a bottle to sell.  We think the worms may have gone into a dormant stage as there is little activity in the containers, because of the cooler conditions.  Noel has observed this with his own worm bins at home.  Important we don't overload these littlies at this stage!

Classroom Gardens

The classroom gardens are looking amazing with big cabbage coming out on Friday, kale and spinach.  MBS Enviro Markets to commence this term.  A generous amount of fertiliser will be added coming into spring to get the growth of new fruit and vegetables happening.

The Colgate challenge of recycling all oral care waste packaging is now half way into the competition.  A kilogram of recycled oral care packaging was sent off to Terracycle.

Nicky Elmore our Enviroschools Facilitator came into MBS to discuss our Care Code - The Ripple Effect and discuss the five Guiding Principles.  In term 3 we will be having two Professional Development sessions around establishing the Guiding Principles and how this will look like in our school and the childrens learning.

Wednesday Litterless lunches are a focus for some classrooms in term 3.  Room 9 did some great learning in the area of recycling with Mrs Laker.  All the children bought their lunch boxes to the mat after lunch eating and discussed the amount of empty packaging there was for one lunch x by five lunches x by one month and then one year.  No wonder the grounds of Mt Eden could account for the amount of rubbish accumulated over one year in a recent poster displayed around the school.

If we start small then bigger things will come out of what children are learning!!  Like reusing plastic containers to hold our chippies, fruit etc.

The classroom gardens are looking healthy and a lot of produce has been taken out of the gardens in the past term for our MBS markets run by the Enviro Group.  These are dedicated children who give up their lunch times to get involved in planting, fertilizing, weed pulling and general jobs around the school to make our environment that much more enjoyable to look at!!

Thanks to Julie Keane who donated a lot of her plants to local schools.  We have an amazing mass planting of Dietes (Iris') outside the resource room - they will look blooming great in summer!!

Kaupapa philosophy of creating a healthy, peaceful, sustainable world through people teaching and learning together.

Now Maraetai Beach School has entered the Enviroschools programme, we aim to make Bronze our aim for this year.  This means the understanding of the five guiding principles under the banner of
Kaupapa philosophy of creating a healthy, peaceful, sustainable world through people teaching and learning together.

This means we have a whole school approach to the integration of sustainability into the:-

Place/Wahi - the physical surroundings including buildings and grounds

People and Participation/Tangata - how decisions are made, how people relate to each other

Practices/Tikanga - day to day operations

Programmes/Kaupapa Ako - the curriculum

Room 1 and 3 love gardening!

Room 1 and 3 Love gardening from Liz Whittaker

PLANTING WITH ROOM 9 CHILDREN, PARENTS AND AUCKLAND COUNCIL

On Wednesday 1 June (first day of winter, and it felt like it!!) we set off down to the far end of the beach to meet up with Robynne the A.C. facilitator.  The children were given a brief talk about the reasons for planting on the beach.  Many children understood the reason we had for growing the grasses to stop the sand eroding.  Here are some photos of the day.

The awesome Enviro group have recently got together and are putting on the MBS Friday Markets.

Fresh fruit and vegetables are available for sale.

Today we made $25.00 selling bags of spray free mandarins (so more of these will be available next week).  Bundles of Bok choy, silver beet and kale were flying off the table at a $1.00 each.  

Lavender sachets are also becoming a best seller too.

Thanks to all the parents.  Next week we will be having a blackboard outside the front of reception written up with what is for sale.

See you there...

On another note, we have had crates of young manuka, totara and flax leave our Enviro area to go to the planting out in Clevedon.
This will be done by Room 12.  Gum boots to the ready on Wednesday 1 June - Planting Day.  Good Luck to all the pupils and parents.

Room 9 will be walking down to the end of Maraetai Drive to plant on the foreshore.  Grasses will be provided and a lot of digging will take place!!

Enviro at MBS 2016 -

Welcome back to a new year and some fun happenings!!

Last Thursday Week 4 we had our Wheelie Worms delivered to the school.  This is to replace our old worm farm that has been donated to the local Learning Centres.

Mr Kerr kindly delivered them to their new home and children from Room 9's Enviro Group assisted in settling in the 'new entrants' to their new home.  After the coconut pulp was soaked in a good quantity of water, it was time to release the tiny worms.  We will go on to collect the worm juice to sell and to use on our gardens and orchard.

The worms were hungry so we managed to find plenty of left over fruit and veggies.  Next week we will gently stir the worms around to help them find their food.

On Friday Week 4 we had our Wastewise Assembly.  It was terrific to finally get awarded for all the work our school has been involved in.  A beautiful plaque will be placed at our school entry to show the community our involvement as a school with our environmental issues on sustainability.  The local board member Angela Fulljames, Cara and Amber Pierce from Enviroschools came along to the assembly.  Eve, Ella, Francesca, Rico and Elizabeth did a great job in student lead learning at the assembly, alongside a great power point show.