There is always a lot of fun and positive environmental action happening at our school.  Students learn through hands on explorations and researching issues that they are concerned about.  Our Living Room Specialist group have continued on the care and knowledge sharing about the Living Room since 2010, once the manual was completed.  This peer teaching has proven to be powerful, positive and reflective.

The Junior Enviro Elective have been learning about vegetable gardening and using different foods in cooking.  They made Traffic Light sandwiches, using foods for the different colours.

The Backyard Garden Group continue to provide food for our Community Table.  Check out the huge pumpkin we cut up for last week's table.

The Enviro Council are in action with Kai Pai Kiwi visiting classes who find different ways to help the environment and each other.

Room 6 are our week day chicken caretakers.  They are responsible for looking after the daily needs of the chickens with food and water and of course a cuddle and egg collecting.

The students in the Year 5/6 Sustainable Elective are continuing the planning for an outside kitchen space where they can do 'garden to table' food preparation.  They have regular cooking experiences to try first hand the skills required for safe and hygienic cooking and to help them decide the features of their outside kitchen area.  Last week they made Potato Patties using some of the potatoes harvested earlier in the year and herbs from our garden.  Their development of skills from measuring, cutting, grating, whisking and cooking over heat has been very rewarding to watch, along with their teamwork skills and preparation and clean up.

The students in the Year 3/4 Sustainable Elective have enthusiastically continued developing their knowledge about honeybees and the important role they have in our environment as food and plant pollinators. They are using specific scientific language with understanding with confidence. Although it has not been a very good year for honey production, the bees have still been pollinating our school fruit and vegetable gardens. Last week, our students experienced beekeeping practices, wearing their bee suits to check the hive and demonstrate honey comb building. This was a wonderful opportunity to get up close with our honeybees and appreciate how they are connected to our environment.  They also enjoyed making yummy food with honey.  We see honey as a bonus to us as pollination is our number one reason for having a beehive at school.

The Backyard Garden Group have been very busy, no matter what the weather has been.   They have been harvesting food for our Community Table and for their own food preparation.  High Energy Beetroot salad was a big success.  Apples were also preserved for use later in the year when apples are not readily available.  In the garden, students and helpers planted out our winter vegetables. It is great to share life skills and teamwork opportunities that students can draw on in the future.