Our Garden - Akomanga Rima

All of our class went down to the gardens with Sarah.

We looked at what was in our garden.

There was some potatoes that another group of children had grown.

"Hmmmmm... 

what should we grow in our garden?"

Sarah suggested that we grow some basil and lettuces. 

We were thinking that if our lettuces grew in time we could have a lettuce salad for lunch one day.

Sarah asked us if we knew how long it took for a lettuce to grow from a seed. We gave a lot of different answers. 

Sarah then told us it takes about 7 to 14 days.

We got to sprinkle the seeds on the soil.  

To help our seeds grow we had to water them. 

The watering can was quite heavy. 

We put in ice block sticks with lettuce and basil on them to remind us what we had planted and where it is too.

Not many of our swan plants had germinated. 

Sarah said that the pots we had put seeds in were environmentally friendly and we could rip them up and put them in our garden to help the plants grow.

  

Growing and Eating by Room 4

We love going to the Kitchen Garden. 

We especially love going with Sarah because she knows so much about plants.

We have planted seeds in our class garden.

We like to check up on how our plants are growing. 

We even like to dance in the garden - especially on the mosaic tiles.

We check on the plum tree to see how it has changed.

 We also like to harvest our vegetables.

Sometimes we go to the Cool Kids Kitchen. 

We like to bake with the food we have grown from the Kitchen Garden.  

Lavender by Room 4

Outside our classroom is a beautiful garden with lavender, camellias and rosemary.

If you look carefully you can sometimes see bees pollinating the flowers.

Recently we made some cuttings from the lavender so we can grow some more plants.

 

I like the lavender.

By Mathew

I like the lavender. It is very pretty. They were very colourful.

By Sky

 

I like planting the lavender. I like cutting the lavender.

By Cruz

I like my lavender.

By Anika

I like planting the lavender. I had to cut the bottom leaves. I also had to put lavender in the magic potion.

By Mia

I like the lavender. I got to have a turn.

By Abdirahman

 

I like putting the lavender in the magic soil.

By Raedence

I like the lavender. It is purple. We put the lavender in the magic potion.

By Katelyn

I love the lavender.

By Magdalena

Nature trail writing by Room 12

We walked through the nature trail and wrote stories about our experience. We are learning to look at the environment around us and use language features in our writing.

I'm in the middle of the nature trail when I heard a big crack. I jumped with fright. I carried on through the nature trail and the trees parted like I am the queen walking in the palace and the trees are the guards on the wall. The birds are singing like an orchestra at a play. The cicadas sit in the trees playing hide and seek singing to their friends to find them. I follow along the path where it is lighter. I see Putikitiki and the playground. It starts to spit as we get to Putikitiki and the trees drip water on us. 
By Emily

I was walking in the nature trail. I heard the bee's buzzing. I heard the call of the bird's song. I felt the tree leaves falling down. The cicada's are hiding away until it's transformation. The line of the nature trail ends. 
By James

Cicadas singing, leaves crushing as I walk through a green, bushy trail. Underneath my feet I hear a 'crack' and a 'crunch'. The sound of branches breaking. Birds flying through the air from tree to tree. We are quiet so we can hear the birds,insects and cicadas. The wind was blowing the trees like they were nothing. I could feel the cold, breezy air rushing me towards the steep banks. The hill going down was tricky because it wasn't even. The nature ends with two plants on either side and it leads you down bottom.
By Ariana

In my tummy I felt excited to go down the stairs. I loved the leaves falling on me. It was ticklish. Some of the nature trail was dark. 
By Jessica

 

Reuse Recycle Reduce by Room 15

Reuse, Reduce, Recycle!

This year Room 15 has enjoyed learning in our environment.  Our city is a beautiful place and we want to learn how we can look after it.

My city is
A fast waving river called the "Waikato"
Swimming in the pretty gardens.
The best netball "Magics" winning the champions cup.
The winning mighty "Chiefs" rugby team.
Running along the wet silky playground grass.
Hot air balloons blowing into the sky.
Fairfield bridge arching up and down.
The beautiful town shops.
Healthy trees growing on the farms.
..and that is my Hamilton.
By Lilli

My city is 
Peaceful rivers.
Ducks squawking out for bread at the lake.
Sweet little fantails tweeting aloud
Kowhai tree flowers slowly drifting down to the ground.
The lovely totara and kauri trees
Hot air balloons flying up in the sky.
..and that is my Hamilton
By Alice


  We have explored many ways we can reuse, recycle our resources and reduce the rubbish we make.  

In our garden we had crop of marigold flowers.

At the end of summer we preserved some of our beautiful flowers in a flower press.

Composting

What happens to all the leaves that fall to the ground?

Dugan explained how our oak tree leaves break 

down and decompose. They help to form the top layer of soil. 

Sketches of leaves showing their veins.  

I like raining leaves.  They look like flying angels gliding through the air.  Red and gold, orange and brown and yellow too.  All falling down to earth.  Autumn is my favourite season.  We can play in the leaves and jump in it.  Down on Putikitiki it was windy.  
By Namrata

Making  a Worm Farm

Bang!Bang! We created drainage holes in our containers.

The worms are slowly breaking 
down some of our lunch scraps. 

We made sketches of the worms we studied.

We have enjoyed recycling our waste paper this year.

Little Recycled Drums

We wanted to make our drum  bright and colourful.

We can reuse rubbish.

We collected cylinders to make into musical shakers.

We need to cooperate to tie the ends on.

Look at our recycled creations.

   Paper Beads

Bead-making production line

Colourful recycled bead necklace

The designing of patterns

Autumn Art and Writing by Room One

At Hamilton East School, 

we have lots of trees. 

 We celebrate autumn - we play in the leaves, we collect leaves and sketch them.

We draw them in Kidpix and we use sharpie and dye to copy the shapes and colours.

 

Latoya
I  saw  a  pile  of  leaves  on  the  ground.  They  floated  there.

They  float  like  a  feather  but  they  feel  crunchy.

Aniisa

The  leaves  are  falling  off  the  tree.

The  leaves  are  turning  yellow  and  orange  and  brown. 

The  leaves  are  crunching  up.

Ava

Today  I  threw  leaves  and  they  went  into  my  hair.

I  saw  kids  throwing  the  leaves  up.

Then  I  played  with  the  leaves  and  they  went  in  my  hair  again.

 Alexus

I  picked  up  the  leaves.

I  threw  the  leaves  up  in  the  air.

It  was  fun  throwing  the  leaves  up  with  my  friends.

Joshua

I played  with  the  leaves.

It  was  like  leaf  rain.

It  was  so  much  fun.

They  floated  down  so  fast.

I  like  playing  with  leaves.

Some  came  on  my  head.

It  made  a  big  mess !