Landscaping the Food Forest

A few of the Year 4's and I were busy last week in the Food Forest getting the landscaping of the paths done. The teams worked really hard filling in the gaps with soil and laying weed mat and wood chip. I was really impressed with the students work ethic and perseverance. Way to go Year 4's - great team work!
Micheal, Ollie and Edward from the Christchurch Horticultural Society came in late last week to lay the rest of the leaf mulch on the beds. Once that was done we were able to plant some spinach and silver beet for our chickens, They'll be able to see it from their enclosure but they can't get at it! Once it's got a bit bigger the Year 4's can start supplementing their diet with it.
It was great timing as everything was done in time for our visitors over our 50th Jubilee weekend.

Happy Hens

Our hens arrived last week and they're so happy they all laid us an egg on their very first day! I'm guessing it down to their super luxurious accommodation and spacious enclosure. They seem very happy and the students are really enjoying having them. They are creating a lot of interest and the space behind Room 12 and 13 is now a busy space. Here's a few shots of The Girlz Shed.

The Girlz Shed looking colourful

Yarek collected our first eggs 

Happy Hens

The Hill Dream Team

I often ask for volunteers to lend a hand in the garden, and I always get a great response from eager helpers. I'd like to say to massive THANK YOU to my 'Hill Dream Team' who worked together in small teams to lay the wood chip on the pathway on the hill behind Room 19. I was super impressed in the way the boys organised themselves, worked collaboratively and persisted to get the job done. Well done Boys! Nice job. Here's a couple of photos of the boys after all their hard work. They look pretty proud of themselves.

The Girlz Shed aka our chook house

As well as our Food Forest getting under way the men for the Halswell Menz Shed were beavering away on our super, duper chicken house and enclosure. 'The Girlz Shed' as I like to call it, is now in situ and we are awaiting the arrival of our girls. We are adopting Mrs Birdling's three birds, and once they get settled in we'll add another three ladies to the mix, and we'll have six super laying ladies. Yarek (from Room 1) and I gave the chook house it's first coat of paint last week. All we need to do now is add the top coat and the curtains and our new luxury pad will be finished. Does anyone fancy making us a set of curtains to add the finishing touches to the place?
The students are SUPER excited about the arrival of our chickens and I'm sure the Year 4's will do a fabulous job of feeding and caring for them. They'll be the best loved chickens in the world.

Des and Graham happy at work

The Girlz Shed looking pretty swish

A mad busy finish to Term 3! Food Forest

Well it was a whirlwind finish to Term 3, but with a lot of juggling everything happened, and we're all ready to Go! Go! GO! in Term 4. In the last week of term Sasha and Micheal, from the Canterbury Horticultural Society, came into school and we begun planting our Food Forest. Our Year 4 students had a great time laying pathways, spreading leaf mulch, planting native and fruit trees. It's a work in progress and they'll be more to add, but we've made a great start. Here's a couple of photos of the team hard at it.

Garden to table | Catherine Bell | TEDxAuckland

Room 16 Bee-ing Awesome

Andrew's Mears from Mitre 10 MEGA Hornby and many others recently visited Room 16, to talk to our newest students, about bees. One of the students in the class got stung by a bee, and this sparked off lots of discussions about bees.
At the start of their learning many of the students were either scared, or disliked bee's because they sting. By the end of the unit, after learning a lot about the importance of bees, the students understand why bee's are important in our gardens, and they have developed a new appreciation of bees. They made honey sandwiches, planted bee friendly flowers in our gardens and learnt A LOT about bees.
Geoff Wallis, one of the teachers in Room 16, created a great video about the students' learning and he has entered it into a competition that is being run by the National Bee Keepers Association of New Zealand. There's great prizes to be won, so good luck Room 16! I think you did an awesome job.