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Thursday 24 March 2016

Food Forest... and our chickens

The chickens had a great morning working in the food forest. They have made a real difference under the fruit trees. While they were doing that we had some students moving bark to put on the path after we had cleared the path of left over flowers. All the scraps have gone into the chicken run so they will be working on that over the weekend.

There will be lots of nice yellow yolked eggs after all these greens....




Friday 18 March 2016

Silverbeet Surprise

We had some of the Year 0's from Room 14 cooking with us today. We made silverbeet surprise which had silverbeet, leek and courgette in it.

 The Juniors cut silverbeet, peeled and grated courgette, cut up leeks and then cooked it all up.

As usual the Year 7 & 8's supporting them did a great job.




When we had finished cooking it we served it up on rice crackers and delivered our food to Room 20 and 21. We also took a plate down to the office and the library.



The students in Room 20 and 21 loved trying the food the younger students made.... All the scraps got taken down to the chickens.

Thursday 17 March 2016

Update to chicken names

After today we may need to change some of the chicken names to Houdini.... I had put 3 of the chickens into the chook tractor with lots of fresh greens to eat, water and plenty of shade...

However, they didn't want to stay in the chicken tractor and managed to escape... I was called and told they were out but by the time I got there, Mrs Birdling was doing a great job as a chicken wrangler getting them all back into their enclosure.  
I might need to make some alterations to the tractor!!

Chicken Names

Our chickens have now got names ... and a mugshot gallery on the side of the chicken run. Next time you are passing see if you can spot who is who....



Compost

The compost bins have been the bane of my gardening existence... So much fruit is put into them that last year we had a horrible fruit sludge instead of compost.

This year we have made some changes... firstly we have our class compost monitors who know what goes into the bins. They remove any rubbish from the class bin before it gets to the compost area. They also put a couple of handfuls of bark in with the food scraps. This gives the compost some fibre and lets air move around. There is a sign which tells the students which bin to put the scraps in.

The students are very proud of this job. I had a student tell me today that they are finding some rubbish in the class bin, they have told their teacher but the teacher hasn't told the class yet... 
We have also just appointed 2 seniors who will be our compost kings. They are going to keep the bark containers full for us.

I have been turning the compost over and also covering it with black plastic. Looking under it there are a huge number of worms....

As a result of all these things we are actually starting to get some good looking compost coming through. It wont be long till we can start putting it on our vege garden.



Friday 11 March 2016

Garden Show Photos

Here are some more photos of our display and our gold award!!




Thursday 10 March 2016

GOLD MEDAL !!!

I am very proud to be able to say that our display at the Oderings School Garden Show, Oaklands School won a GOLD MEDAL.

Well done to all involved..

And the chickens laid an egg in the display to celebrate!!!

Wednesday 9 March 2016

Garden Show - Garden to Table to Chicken

All the hard work in preparing the display has been done and now it is almost all assembled on site at the Woolston Working Mens Club. I had 6 Year 8 boys helping Mr Rush and I to set up a display that looks pretty amazing.



Everyone is very excited that we are going to have live chickens as part of our garden.


The boys will also be making some beetroot relish to share with visitors to the show. If you are in the area pop into the Woolston Club between 10 - 5, Friday and Saturday or 10 -3 on Sunday. Remember to vote for the peoples choice award and try our yummy relish.
I would like to say a big thanks to our great sponsors for their support with this project and the rest of of our garden.
Also thanks Mr Rush for coming to help today with our set up.

Thursday 3 March 2016

Year 8's Showing Community Value

While the Year 7's were away on camp the Year 8's demonstrated our value of Community around Oaklands School.
The students collected seeds from the food forest with the Year 4 students. This is the end of the plant cycle in the food forest and the seeds will be stored ready for planting next year.

One group of Year 8's also had to build a chicken tractor using the materials supplied. There was some great problem solving and discussions as they worked out the best way. 


Students also spent time in the Junior Classes supporting the learning of the Year 0/1's. Our Year 8's helped with individual readings, created blog posts, taught juniors new games and demonstrated Excellence in everything they did. A particular focus was the Playground values which  is our school wide focus this week.
Finally our Year 8's harvested our maize maze and tidied up this area of the school.
The Year 8's have blogged about what they did and how they felt about.
One comment made was " I really enjoyed helping the juniors. It made me feel good to help"

The Year 8 students have worked hard over the 3 days. Thanks for all your help.