Matariki Celebrations in North Otago School Garden Clubs

Matariki was celebrated accross the Norht Otago School Garen Clubs this year in the form of Star shaped scones with herbs from each school garden.

One Maori Legend was shared amoung the classess and some did a theatrical re-enactment of it.

"Matariki literally means the ‘eyes of god’ (mata ariki) or ‘little eyes’ (mata riki). Some say that when Ranginui, the sky father, and Papatūānuku, the earth mother were separated by their offspring, the god of the winds, Tāwhirimātea, became angry, tearing out his eyes and hurling them into the heavens."

Here Waitaki Valley School pick the herbs fresh from theor school garden for the Matariki scones. Tarragon, sage chocolate peppermint, lemon balm and marigold flower petals

Meg from Duntroon School is a keen garden club participant.  Here she shows off her thumb that is  rather green! Their class got busy potting up Kowhai seeds from DOC packs to help the Duntroon wetlands and to beautify their homes and school.

Waitaki Valley School fresh herb pickings.  Sage and tarragon

Students got to help read out the recipe and give the dough a mix. Some students were keen to try some lemon balm in their scones.

Baked with lots of butter, giving them a delicious smell and a good crispy crunch!

Bella and Lulu thought yumbo!! and Bella picked a bunch of herbs for her mum from the school garden

Papakio School made a great batch too,

Fenwick School have a great selection of flowers and herbs to add to their Matariki scones.
Nasturtium and even Nettle.

So great to get using the school kitchens.  Fenwick Schools is well resourced!

And the delicious taste test!

Happy Maori New Year everyone!

Bug hunt

Pembroke School Got BUG HUTING recently

Some good examples were found!!

We excavated the compost pile to find the creepy crawlies inside.  There were so many Slaters, some snails big and small and some lovely black beetles, a few grubs and some centipedes.

The compost was decomposing well

Among the hunt for bugs a delicios strawberry was found by Selici

Papakio School make a great start to Garden Club

One class has made a worm farm and are studying worms and learning the worm song!

Students collected the worm juice

There was a lot of worm juice to collect

A large load of compost from Alliance has been delivered and the students get busy feeding the top of their new planter box beds

Some seeds were planted and taken back to class to get growing

The boxes have been made and the compost laid. Time to start sowing the seeds and some bee food

One class has been studying Bees and got to try some Waitaki Honey.  They have been looking at the importance of bee food and what plants are pollen and nectar rich.

Waitaki Valley School get busy

Classrooms have been visiting the garden and getting busy with Kid's Growing curriculum

Students got a stone art/plant labelling session underway

Amazing designs were created and set out to dry

Finger painting made a come back

Other students have been tidying the weedy path and it is looking good

A spud hunt started

Weeding

The younger students have done a tour of the school, picking native plants and making them into cuttings

All the native seeds and cuttings found in the School grounds

Duntroon School gets planting. They also celebrate a soup day and learning in the classroom.

The Waitaki Communiy Gardens received Lotteries Commission grants to give out to 10 lucky School Garden Clubs.  Duntroon School received a $400 grant. The students and School Garden Co-ordinators, Mischa, Paige and Megan made up a wish list .

Hazelnuts, blueberry, cranberry, chestnut, pear and apple trees were purchased and a mass planting got underway.

Students excavated the worm farm for the vermicast to add to the soil for the new plantings

Some of the youngest students dug the first whole

River gives the soup a thumbs up.  As garden club did a fundraiser during lunchtime with a a potato soup from the school garden spuds.

Tasty soup Mischa!!!

Room 4 have been enjoying Kids Growing curriculum in their classroom each week.  Recently they made their own compost bags from food scraps.  It was amazing to see the bags bio-degrade so quickly!!! within no time it looked like black soil!! 

Students dug it into their class's garden patch

Student's love their new tunnel house! it was recently constructed and so warm inside

st josephs seniors make a bird house from recycled materials

Senior students of St Joseph's have been making bird houses

Recycled materials were gathered from the community and students set to deconstructing them

It is a bit like The Block, as they decided to do a girls vs boys challenge.

The girls opting for a fine mini house, while the boys are goings for a larger style.  Watch this space

Kakanui School get Garden Club get growing

Rock Art and plant labelling were a huge success at Kakanui School.

Check out their cool designs. The bees are for bee food.

The carrot shaped rock was  good find.

The whole group got involved in the activity

Students made a start on clearing an old glasshouse patch out and thouht a herb garden for the pizza oven would be great

Trimming the over grown hedge

Planting natives up by the chicken house.  Giving them a dose of compost.