Maungatautari trip

Last Thursday Room 13 and Room 2 and Room 6 went on a trip to Maungatautari Ecological Reserve.Maungatautari is a big mountain covered in forest with a pest-proof fence all around it to keep the native birds and geckos and tuatara safe inside.
We had a brilliant time.

We travelled there on the bus.

When we got to the reserve we went to Pukatea school first where Tom, the guide, told us all about Maungatautari and the project to keep the birds safe.

We got organised to start our big walks.

Here we are at the Tuatarium learning all about the tuatara that live on the banks of the wetland that is beside the Maunga. 

We had to walk really really quietly so as to not scare the tuatara away.

Here is one of the tuatara.

After that we went into the forest, cool and green and dim.

We found out how Maori used to trap kereru. The picture of the spear is the length of the spears that they used to catch the birds when they were feeding in a little waka filled with berries.

We wondered if a kiwi might have its burrow in the roots of this big old tree.

This might Rimu tree reminded us of the big Redwood at our school.
The guide told us that this Rimu is probably nearly a thousand years old!!!

Pierce's mum was really excited when she saw a kaka!

Here is Carl, our guide, attracting the kaka to come and get some peanuts.

Here is one eating a nut out of its claws.

Kaka have very sharp hooked beaks.
The Kaka Beak flower is called that because it is the same shape as the Kaka's beak.

What a wonderful place Maungatautari is. We hope that the native creatures that live there will be able to stay there safely forever.

We learned that we need to do our best to help keep predators and pests under control so that they don't kill our native birds and reptiles.

Enviroschools end of year celebration

Room 13 and some of Room 11 students went to Mystery Creek last week to represent Hamilton East School at the end of year Enviroschools celebration. There were children from schools all over the Waikato.

Each school was asked to present something that their school is doing.

We gave a presentation on making compost.

here we are arriving at the celebration

We went into the big pavilion

We really liked all the olden days things at Mystery Creek. here we are at the Garage.

Hmmm. I wonder if this might be a useful item for our school?

Here we are presenting our compost item to St Francis school.

We took examples of compost to show how it breaks down from food scraps to compost.

We invited the children to practice sketching insects that live in compost bins.

We took some slaters and worms and earwigs to look at.

Back in the pavilion there was a Wearable Arts show.

This dress was made from toilet rolls.

 

Here's the tin man and the scarecrow.

It was a great day out at Mystery Creek

Film Festival winning movie

Yesterday the ConnectED film festival was held at Southwell School.
The winning movie was  ......

Lost in Space: A Journey to Pluto !

You can view our movie here.

Lost in Space - Large from Ham East on Vimeo.