Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas from the Gore Main School Envirogroup!  We have worked extremely hard over 2012 and achieved many great things!  We now say goodbye to some of our older Envirogroup members and will welcome some new ones next year! 

Merry Christmas!  Tune in to see what we are up to next year!

Mural

During Term 3 the Envirogroup decided it was time to beautify our grounds some more.  Ou grounds are a little boring and we thought that we could jazz them up a little.  We decided to paint a mural!  We chose the fence that surrounds the rubbish skip which makes this area look tidier..  We also want visitors to know that we are a happy friendly school and our mural represents this.  Check out the photographic diary to show how we went about the process...

First.... we designed templates that could be put on the fence and traced around..

Next... we nailed the templates up and traced around them!

Tracing and painting around templates

Yes... the clouds look great up there!

Tracing around a flower template

Great painting girls!

This is a very good ladybird!

The mural starting to take shape

Beginning to add colour!  Awesome!

Lots of colour added!

The mural... nearly finished (December 2012)

 

Raised Garden Bed

Term 3 was an eventful term for the Gore Main School Envirogroup.  On our vision map we indicated that we wanted a new 'raised garden' because the old garden was damp and the soil was hard to work.  After our garden had been robbed we felt discouraged with the old plot and we wanted a fresh new one!  So... we built 2 new raised garden beds!  Wahoo!  Our school community was behind the project 100%.  The timber for the project was completely donated by a Gore Main School family.  We had a group of helpers that worked together to plan and build the garden.  Once the timber framing was constructed the Envirogroup worked hard to fill the plots, firstly with gravel, topsoil and then nutrient rich fertilizer!  Once the plots were fill of soil each classroom at Gore Main School was given a vegetable to look after, for example Room 1 (carrots) and Room 2 (radishes).  This involved every classroom and child at the school and children have been popping down to the gardens to check on their plants.  Some children in the school decided to take on the 'duty' of ensuring that the plants had ample water.  The raised gardens have been very successful and the children are enjoying seeing things grow and being a part of the process.  The gardens have been an integral part of the curriculum over the last few terms, for example classes writing instructions on how to prepare radishes.   

"Where have all the helpers gone?"

 

Building the raised garden bed early on Sunday morning.

Pickup... the thick plank!

The raised gardens taking shape

Filling the gardens with gravel for a base

Loading gravel!

Gravel base

Truck bringing topsoil in...

Tipping off topsoil for raised garden

5 tonne of dirt!  Someone has to move that into the raised garden...

Meet the dirt movers....

Moving dirt....

And still moving dirt....

Still moving dirt.... roping in a teacher to help!

Our beautifu raised garden... full of vegetables (December 2012)

Our garden.... each classroom is helping and taking responsibility for an area in the garden!  Awesome!

  

Gore Main School Orchard

During Term 3 2012 we were lucky enough to have 6 different fruit trees donated to our school!  We now have our own school 'orchard'.  We are so thankful to the family who donated these amazing specimen trees and we look forward to the years of teaching and learning around these.  In the future we can learn many things based around the fruit trees, like pruning, fertilizing, pollination, harvesting, food processes (bottling, stewing etc) and production.  The fruit trees we now have growing are:  Apples, Peaches, Nectarines, Plums and Apricots!  Wow!  We look forward to seeing how they progress!

Check out our beautiful new orchard! 

Healthy fruit tree!  We can't wait till it bears fruit!

    

Assembly Three 14/6/12 Flags to keep children and grounds clean!

The Envirogroup has organised some amazing orange flags to go into the ground when the grass is muddy and dangerous.  Now that winter is here we need to look after our grounds and our clothes!  Thank you to the Hargest Family who donated the fence standards and PVC Plastics who made the orange plastic flags.  Check out the performance that occured in Assembly to educate our school on the purpose of the new orange flags!

Assembly Two 4/5/12 Worm farm performance

The Envirogroup performed in front of the Gore Main School children and whanau to reinforce the important message of reducing rubbish in our school and keeping our worms healthy!
Check it out!

Garden robbed

During the holiday period (Dec/Jan) the Gore Main School vegetable garden was ransacked.  On the 2nd of January 2012 Mrs M discovered that all the carrots had been completely removed and that the potatoes had been stripped.  This produce had been planted by a keen group of 5 and 6 year old children who were looking forward to being rewarded with carrots and potatoes when back from their summer break.  This was extremely devasting for Gore Main School as an 'Enviroschool' because of the time and effort involved.  The children had ownership of their garden and felt really dissappointed that somebody could just destroy what they had worked so hard to achieve.  Mrs M rung the police and the newspapers to see if they could help.  The Newslink and The Southland Times both reported great articles on the ransacked garden.  When back to school in February the children of Gore Main School wrote fabulous 'reports' about what had happened.  Here is some of the reports from the junior school.

The burglars saw the potatoes and the carrots.  By Rhett

The robbers took the vegetables.  By Kade

The robbers stole the mash potatoes from Gore Main School.  By Danielle

The spirit of the Gore Main School children cannot be broken.  The garden has been re-planted out in potatoes and peas and we look forward to a successful harvest!

Here are the photos of the ransacked garden the day it was discovered!

The potatoes were strewn about. 

The robbed potatoes!

There are no potatoes left....

The once abundant carrot patch stripped bare.

The devastating theft of the Gore Main School vege garden!

Enviroschools in Assembly!

The Gore Main School Envirogroup now has a fortnightly spot in the whole school assembly.  This is a wonderful opportunity to share the Enviroschool principles with the school and wider community.  The Enviroschools group will be presenting different aspects of sustainability and Enviroschools principles in a range of ways.  We will share on our blog our different messages and ways of presenting.

Assembly One 3/4/12 Powerpoint presentation 

Gore Main School is an “Enviroschool”

The “Envirogroup”

Congratulations to the following children who will be representing Gore Main School in the Envirogroup…

Ben                                Maddison

Matthew                     Charlotte

Denby

Jade

Poppy

Emily 

What is an “Enviroschool?”

During Assembly the “Envirogroup” will share things that make us an “Enviroschool”  

Working Together 

Children at an “Enviroschool” all work together to make their place look better!

Our garden was full of weeds…

Look at us working together!

Some children at Gore Main School gave up their lunch hour to weed the school garden!

Weeding the potatoes!

Thanks… That is what an Enviroschool is all about!

Enviroschools 2011

During 2011 Gore Main School decided to take the year to 'consolidate' existing Enviroschool projects within the school and to focus on smaller projects with larger groups of students.  Here are some of the ongoing and exploratory projects that were undertaken over 2011.

Worm Farm:  The old worm farm that had been abandoned was cleaned up and rejuvenated.  It is a wooden box that now sits in the middle of the school garden.  Fruit and vegetable scraps are collected by individual classrooms and emptied into a 'main bin' which is then fed to the worms.  This process relies on children understanding about what can and cannot be put in the worm farm containers in each classroom.  The worm farm helps keep our classrooms free of fruit and vegetable scraps and provides beautiful lush fertilizer for our vegetable garden!

Sorting out the food for the worms.... make sure there is no plastic in there!

Healthy compost!  Lots of worms!

Making Bird Feeders:  To make our school grounds a more attractive and happy place to be in we decided to make 'bird feeders'.  We thought that attracting a different range of birds into our school would help with bird identification, beautification and also sustainance for the birds!  We mixed together dripping, jam and seed and spooned it into mesh bags that the birds could easily get to.  After that we went outside to scout out the best location for the bird feeders to be hung.  It was messy work but the results were worth it!  It was exciting watching the birds in the playground feasting on their delicious treats!

Making bird feeders with dripping, jam and seed!

Fantastic bird feeders!

 

Finding the right location to hang the bird feeders!

Paper4Trees:  Gore Main School has been involved in the Paper4Trees scheme over 2011.  Each classroom has a green bin to put any used paper products in.  These are then emptied into a large wool sack which once full is collected by the local paper recyclers.  We recycled 4 large wool sacks over 2011 and will be rewarded with trees for our efforts!  Our plan over 2012 is to continue to reduce the amount of paper waste at Gore Main School.  We can do this by ensuring everybody knows that paper can be used on both sides (GOOS - Good on one side) and by being responsible with our paper usage when photocopying or making resources.  We can all help with paper usage at Gore Main School!

Talents - "Envirostyle" focus:  During Term 3 2011 Gore Main School ran a Friday afternoon 'talents' programme with an Enviroschool focus.  This gave every child at Gore Main School the opportunity to experience different activities that promote sustainability while also discovering new talents in children.  Some of the experiences that were on offer were, making garden sculptures out of recycled materials, planting a native garden, keeping our school beautiful, seedlings, worm farming and native birds.  It was fantastic to see the amazing finished products and results that the children achieved. 

Painted terracotta pots all ready to be planted in!

Designing posters so that people know what they 'can' and 'can't' put in the worm farm!

We have had a terrific year during 2011 at Gore Main School!  We look forward to more 'Enviroschool' work over 2012!

Bronze Award 2010