Harry Hobnail is back!!!!

Over the holidays we got the exciting news that Harry Hobnail has been returned to the school!  He looks like he has had a bit of an adventure while he has been away, and now has a pirate patch!  He needed a bit of surgery to replace his broken bones (stakes), and is now back in his place in the garden, scaring away the birds 🙂  Thank you very much to the Whakatane Beacon for running our article and helping us to get Harry back.

Holiday Gardening

We had a special gardening day over the holidays!  Catrina Manning (Alex and Anna’s Mum), came along with her garden expertise and helped our bunch of very keen gardeners prune, weed, plant, and build a frame for our courgettes and cucumbers to grow up (we are still weaving the net out of flax).  It was great to get this uninterrupted time in the garden and we got heaps of work done.  Thank you Catrina and children for giving up your sunny day to help us get our spring planting finished.  🙂

Our Bug Hotel

We now have a bug hotel – a special place where bugs can live.  Jules Lemman (Zacks Mum,)  came to school with 2 of her WOOFERS (Joshua and Julia).  They showed us how to make the bug hotel and we learnt lots of cool skills like sawing bamboo, building, decorating, learning about bugs and how to find them.  Check out our photos of our amazing creation!  We had so much fun and have many keen bug hunters coming to check out the bugs everyday.  Thank you Jules, Joshua, and Julia – we really enjoyed spending this afternoon with you in the garden!

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Where is Harry Hobnail??

Harry Hobnail has been stolen!  When we looked out of our classroom window we noticed he was gone.  The Beacon came and took a photo of all of the children who helped to make Harry.  they ran this article in the paper – hopefully we get him back soon 😦

http://www.whakatanebeacon.co.nz/cms/news/2012/10/art100012685.php

Scarecrow Competition

Landscapes for Lifestyles in Whakatane held a scarecrow competition.  Phoenix’s wonderful Grandparents took Harry over to the competition.  We went to the sausage sizzle lunch and open day to check out the other scarecrows.  here are some photos of the other wonderful scarecrows that have been made by schools and preschools in our area.

MI Week Garden Decorating

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During MI week a group of enthusiastic artists worked with Mrs Craig, Whaea Julie, Whaea Debbie, Miss Farrell, Mr Rishworth, Miss Baker, and lots of wonderful parent helpers to decorate and beautify our garden and school.  An amazing amount of work was done and it looks absolutely wonderful.  Here are some photos of some of the work that was done.

 

Our Possum Problem

We have a possum problem in our garden!!  The possum has been eating all of our broccoli and cauliflower.  Whaea Julie (a keen possum trapper) stepped in to help during MI week and took an enthusiastic group of children possum tracking.  They managed to track the possum to a tree in the garden (they followed the possum poop!)  Environment BoP gave us a possum trap and we now have a trap ready to catch the pesky possum before he eats all of our beautiful yummy plants!

 

Mr Harry Hobnail

During MI week we made a scarecrow.  It was really fun and we did all of the work on him ourselves, even stitching his pants.  Lots of different people got to help build Harry and he is now standing between the two gardens outside of Kahukura.  He is doing a great job of scaring away the birds (and Miss Baker when she looks out of her window!)  Thanks to Miss Farrell and Whaea Debbie for all of their help   🙂

 

 

Strawberry Mountain

Introducing our newest addition to the garden…. Strawberry Mountain!  All of us LOVE strawberries and we are so excited about our new strawberry patch.  We spent two days building up and shaping our mountain, covering it with black plastic, cutting in holes, and carefully planting our strawberry plants.  It looks absolutely fantastic and we can’t wait until all of our strawberries are ready it eat!  Thank you Catrina Manning and Whaea Debbie for our plants 🙂

Harakeke

This term we have been learning about Maori legends.  Kahukura (Year 1) read the book‘Kahukura and the Sea Fairies’ . They  decided they would like to try to weave a net out of flax.  We raided Mrs Jackson’s flax garden and started learning about weaving protocol and how to weave.  It was so much fun we decided to make it a part of our lunch time garden activities.  We have had some lovely sunny lunch times sitting in the garden weaving.  We have made harakeke ropes to string up the beans, and have started making a net for the cucumbers to grow up.  Mrs Irving has also joined us and has been teaching us how to make special flowers and fish.  This has been so fun and we have such a keen group of weavers!  I have loved seeing how everyone happily helps each other and shares their knowledge.  I can’t wait to see what else we can create.

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