Making paper bin liners

Today we talked about how bad plastic is for our environment.

Did you know...

Plastic lasts forever in our environment.  It doesn't break down.

Bottle tops, clothes pegs, lighters, plastic cutlery etc are blown, thrown or lifted by rainwater and carried into the storm water system.  This puts them into rivers and streams that lead to the sea.

The size of floating plastic in the Pacific ocean is about 5.2 times the size of New Zealand.

Small bits of plastic are called 'mermaid tears'.  These are injested by sea birds and fish.

Do you use a plastic bin liner in your rubbish bin at home?  Here's one way to reduce plastic. We learned how to make paper bin liners.  So easy!  So cheap!  And they can be put into the worm farm. 

If you want to know how, ask one of our Eco Kids to show you.

Thank you!

Our Eco Kids Club garden is looking good thanks to Mr. Beere and some of our Group 1 people.  Well done.  We have carrots just sprouting and asian greens growing well.  (Where were the rest of you...? )

Look what Liam discovered!

Today Liam discovered a nest.  It is made out of dirt and sticks.  It is empty.
Awesome photography Liam!

Carrots get planted

Today, we began planting for Winter.  Group 1 sowed a row of carrot seeds.  Jada did an awesome job!

Thank you

A big thank you to all of you who brought in resources for the Eco Kids Club.  We will be able to use these in our activities.  A special thanks to Liam Cribb's mum for the seed raising mix.  Awesome!

2013

Welcome to a new year of eco learning!

We've had our first Eco Kids Club meeting and a huge turnout of 43 children who are keen to find out more and be involved in sustainability.

Our group is open to anyone in our school at anytime.  We would love to see more grownups too!

Keep checking our blog to see what we've been up to during the year!

Planting winter veges

Some of our Eco Kids Club weeded the vege garden today.  It was a great day for it and they did a fantastic job.  It didn't take long before the ground was weed free (almost!) and ready for planting.  At this time of the year the plants need to be hardy and able to cope with cold weather.  We planted Pak Choy - awesome in stirfries, broccoli and spinach. 

Welcome to Term 2

Today we had our first meeting and talked about the Kereru.  You might also know it as the Wood Pigeon.  Over the school holidays I was fortunate to be staying where there were several Kereru flying around close by, feeding from berries in the trees.  They make a beautiful sight and have a distinctive 'whoosing' sound when they fly. There used to be thousands of Kereru in New Zealand, but the numbers are dropping and they are in danger of becoming extinct.  Hundreds of Kereru are killed or injured when they fly into windows.  So are lots of other birds.  We made some paper snow flakes to put on windows to help stop birds from flying into the glass and being hurt or killed.

This term we are also going to plant up our vegetable garden with veges that we can use to make vege soup. 

Help!  Can you donate some onion bags?  These are the mesh ones they come from the supermarket in.  Bring them to Room 9 please.

Living Legends Muck In

Last weekend, some of the Eco Kids helped to plant 4,000 native plants in a protected area near Ahuriri Estuary. These plants will grow and provide a natural habitat for many of our birds. Ian McCrae was there to meet us too. He is a former All Black and has also worked in conservation, helping to protect our environment. A big thanks to Selena, Alicia, Becky, Millie and Ben for giving up their Saturday for this very worthy project. It was also great to see Brayden Leicester and his family helping too!

Brayden Leicester's family building a new vege garden

Brayden brought in a pendrive on Friday with photos of his family building their new vege garden. Brayden's little brother Nathan helped too! I bet you enjoyed helping to plant the new plants Brayden! Your scarecrow looks fantastic.

Living Legends

Living Legends is taking the field to the forest during New Zealand’s hosting of Rugby World Cup 2011.

During September and October 2011 we’ll be planting almost 85,000 native trees and honouring our Rugby Legends.


The Ahuriri Estuary is a unique and valuable habitat that resulted from landform changes associated with the 1931 Napier earthquake. This important wetland is a sanctuary for a wide variety of wading birds including grey herons, royal spoonbills and pied stilts and offers a significant opportunity for revegetation and ecosystem enhancement. Its closeness to Napier city provides great potential for community use and involvement in its development. The work already undertaken east of where Living Legends will plant provides a popular walking area and shows the value of native plantings in enhancing this environment.

On 24 September 2011, volunteers will plant 4000 additional native trees at this site as part of Living Legends programme of work.

Some of those volunteers are from our school Eco Kids Club.
Porritt students - if you want to be involved, see Mrs. Anderson at school.
You can also visit the Living Legends website to find out more.

Rugby Legend - Ian MacRae
The man who spent seven years as an All Blacks centre has been chosen as the Hawke’s Bay rugby legend as part of the Living Legends project.

Napier’s Ian MacRae, 64, who played 45 matches for the All Blacks between 1963 and 1970, said the appointment was flattering and close to his heart.

“I am excited to be part of it as I started my working career as a forest ranger. I trained in conservation in the back country, trying to prevent erosion, so it’s quite fitting that now I am involved in this,” says Ian.

Keep NZ Beautiful Week: 20 - 27th August

Did you know...

In one month New Zealand's rubbish would cover one rugby field and pile it 30 storeys high!

What can YOU do to help this huge problem? Visit www.knzb.org.nz for ideas.

McCain's Veggie Patches

It's that time of the year again and we are collecting barcodes off McCain's frozen veges. There will be a collection box in the office to put them in.

Try and persuade Mum to buy McCains frozen veges this month and in September. Our school will earn points for the barcodes we collect. We can get cool stuff for our school garden.

Thanks from Oxfam

Porritt School have been awarded a 'certificate of appreciation' for helping to raise money for Fair Trade with our recent school baking sale. This certificate is on display in the Library. Well done to everyone who was involved.

Raising money for Oxfam

On Friday, the Eco Kids Club brought along delicious homemade baking to sell at our baking sale. The food was amazing and sold very quickly. We raised $167. This money will go to Oxfam who work with farmers who are struggling to develop their farming systems, like irrigation. We can also help them by buying Fairtrade foods.

Chocolate taste test

On Friday, the Eco Kids met and watched a DVD about the struggling farmers in developing countries. They found out that these farmers are very poor. They also found out that by buying 'Fairtrade' labelled food from our supermarket, we can help those farmers.

Taste test:
We had two plates of chocolate. One was Whittaker's Dairy Milk. (This chocolate is made using cocoa from Fairtrade farmers). The other chocolate was Cadbury's Dairy Milk.

Out of the 15 people who tried the taste test, 10 preferred Whittaker's chocolate. Five preferred Cadbury.

Next time you are at the shop, see if you can find any food with the Fairtrade label.

What did you do for Earth Hour?

Did you remember to turn off the lights on Saturday night? What have you decided to do to help our planet? It doesn't have to be a huge thing, just something that you can do easily.

Tell us what you will do by posting a comment to this message.

Starship Mobile Phone Appeal

We need your old mobile phones! Porritt School is registered for the Starship Mobile Phone Appeal. We can collect points for the phones we recycle and these are redeemed for ICT equipment for our school. All of the money raised from the recycling of these old phones goes to support the Starship Air Ambulance Service.

All you have to do is spread the word! Drop the old mobile phones into Porritt School in Napier or phone for collection. Tell everyone you know. Let's get behind this worthwhile cause and help our school at the same time.
For more information have a look at the Starship website: www.starship.org.nz

Earth Hour

Earth Hour is this Saturday, 26th March at 8.30pm. It will be celebrated all around the world by turning off lights. You can join in too at home. Why not commit to doing one thing to help our planet? Here are some ideas and there are more on the Earth Hour website.

Buy locally - don't buy food that has travelled hundreds of kilometres when it can be bought from a local producer. It tastes nicer too!

Don't use any plastic that can't be recycled.

Have a shorter shower.

Don't leave lights on if you're not in the room - no point really, is there?

Can you tell us what you will do? Post a comment to this message.

How to grow sprouts using teabags

Thanks Kerry for commenting on our blog. We used 'used' teabags as these have been sterilised with boiling water. Cut a small hole in each one and sprinkle in some alfalfa seeds. Place these in a seed raising container or something similar and keep damp until they sprout. Have fun!