Bird feeders

Our Enviro Group have decided to build bird feeders after visiting the Birdlife Park last term. We are designing these this week and building them with the help of our technology teacher Mr Dubnic next week.

Have a look at the websites on this blog to help with ideas of what to build.

Maori Potato Planting

The enthusiastic Enviro Group have planted Maori Potatoes behind the Year 7 block. This is our third year of planting Maori potatoes at Queenstown Primary. It is part of the Tuhuri Whenua Project to increase the supply of Maori potatoes within New Zealand.

We were given 60 potatoes by the Tuhuri Whenua Project 2 years ago and from that crop we have collected the seed each year to plant the following year. Some of our school families have taken some of these plants for their own gardens and we hope to be able to offer more seed to families next year after this crop.

Trip to the Birdlife Park

Kowhai and native fuscia plants

Kereru or Wood Pigeon

On Wednesday of Week 10 the Enviro Group visited the Birdlife Park during their lunchtime. We spoke to Marion about plants that will attract more birds to our school.

We learned that Kowhai, native Fuscia and Flax trees are good for providing nectar for the Tui's and Bellbird's. The bees and butterflies like the nectar too.

We could have bird feeders with sugar and water in them to encourage more birds.

Our predators are Mo (who might try to catch the birds while they feed) and rats and possums. Falcon's and hawk's are predators too and we were able to look at in a falcon in the Birdlife Park. They can eat small birds.

Thanks to Marion we are better informed and can plan an area in our school to attract birds. We have been invited to revisit the Birdlife Park and use their super knowledge again to help us with our planting.

Simon talked to our three classes about landfills, recycling, reuse, reduce, composts and worm farms. We brought rubbish from home and discussed which objects were reusable at home or school, which objects were recyclable (please clean them out carefully) and which were waste that ended up in the landfill.


We all thought the diagram of the energy it takes to make a glass bottle was very informative. We decided that recycling the bottles used less energy, saving money, oil, gas, the planet and our environment.

The next day a group from each of our three classes worked with Simon to come up with the perfect place to house our worm farm.

That's it! right where James is hiding, under the cabbage tree between the swimming pool and Room 22.

We now have a worm farm and we will keep you up to date with our ...VERMICOMPOSTING The art of converting kitchen scraps and other household wastes into organic food for our plants and gardens with the assistance of earth worms.

Enviro Trip

Click the volume picture at the top of the slideshow to turn the music off.

Glad Wrap Competition

During Term 3 we will be holding a 'Zero Gladwrap' Competition. All classes have been provided with a bag to collect in their gladwrap each lunchtime and these need to be delievered to Room 30 by morning tea every Friday. The class or classes with the least gladwrap will go into a draw to win a lunchtime treat.
This was trialled during week 11 of term 2, and here are the first winners, Room 1.
Well done to the following rooms for getting their bags into the competition - Rooms 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 7, 13, 16, 17, 23, 24, 30, 31 - It's great to see classes from across the school taking part!
WELL DONE ROOM 1! KEEP IT UP NEXT TERM.

More Wanaka Enviro Hui Photos

Here are some more photos from our day in Wanaka.

Wanaka Enviro Hui - Term 1

Hello,
Sorry this has taken so long to report back on but we have been experiencing some issues with attaching photos and had wanted to add a slide show. Anyway, better late than never!
During Term 1, Georgia, Kiki and Bonnie attended an Enviro Hui in Wanaka, with Miss Reed. It was an amazing day that involved heading to Rippon Vineyard to hear about their wonderful sustainable practices. We learned a lot about their grapes and how they produce the best grapes they can, using the soil qualities and home-made compost. We even got the chance to taste some of these juicy grapes.
After lunch we spent some time sharing our achievements from school. It was really great to meet with other schools and hear about what they are doing. We told them about our various veggie gardens, our zero waste lunches, our sandwich wraps, worm farms, recycling, etc. They were very impressed and loved our wraps. We have since heard that other schools are now making these in their classes.
We also spent some time exploring the nursery they have there, which grows native plants for Wanaka Council and other groups. We took part in a competition to find all the different names - and WE WON! Yippee!
The day ended with a bit of a nature hunt, and all in all, we had great fun.
We can't wait until the next opportunity to meet up with other Enviro Schools. Check out some of our photos from the day.

Room 28's Vegetable Garden

Mitre 10 donated some vegetable plants for our new garden outside Room 28. Room 28 planted these vegetables and cared for them. They weeded the garden and watered it over the summer. When most of the vegetables were mature they made a vegetable quiche with Room 29. Doesn't it look tasty!

Thanks Mitre 10, growing our own vegetables was very satisfying.

Reducing our Waste

Our Enviro Group are coming around to talk to your classes about reducing our schools waste..
Our school problem is - that we create a lot of waste everyday. This is mainly coming from our lunch and morning teas. This rubbish goes into our school skip. The skip goes to the rubbish dump and sits in the ground, it doesn't break down.
We need to bring our snacks and lunch in reusable or recyclable wrappings. You could buy large packs of things, like chips,raisins and yoghurt and put them into small containers to bring to school.
We would like to have a gladwrap free school so we are having a Anti Gladwrap Competition. Watch Thursday QPS news for details.
Here are some ideas of lunch containers

Our Enviro Group

Here is our keen Student and Teacher Enviro Group.

Year 1 - Esther and Ben Room 3

Year 2 - Louisa Room 7 and Isabella Room 6

Year 3 - Danielle Room 24

Year 4 - Alfie Room 12 and Zara Room 15

Year 5/6 - Austin and Kiki Room 28

Lauren, Reuben and You Bin Room 19

Amelia Room 20 and Britta Room 22

Year 7 - Siaun Room 32, Scottie Room 30 and Petra Room 33

Teachers - Miss Reid, Mrs Walker, Mrs Gray and Miss McIntyre

Student Enviro Group

Queenstown Primary have a Student Enviro Group.We are meeting once every two weeks during a lunchtime to brainstorm ideas to help our school be more environmentally friendly. The group has 2 students from each Year Level so we can keep everyone informed about our ideas.