Harold Visit

Do you know who this is? That's right. It's Harold.

Harold and the Life Education bus came to visit us at school this week. All the classes will be going to see Harold.







Jacob is looking confused and no wonder! He is looking at all the ooey bits that we have inside us, like our heart, liver, lungs and kidneys.

We are learning what these parts do and how to keep them healthy. Do you know that your brain feels like mushed-up avocado, looks like a walnut and smells like blue cheese.

We also looked at drugs. All medicines are drugs but not all drugs are medicines. Some drugs are helpful because they can help you get better, but some are harmful. You should never, ever take anyone elses medicine because it has not been made especially for you.

We like Harold coming to school because we learn heaps.

Sky High 2008

Look at this lovely, luscious lot!

This is the cool crew in Room 5 this year. Some of these children are in Year 5 and some are in Year 6.

We have been busy creating our CV's so that we can apply for all the jobs that the senior class has to do.

Our first unit this year is 'Amazing Me! What Lies Beneath?' We are going to be looking at all the important parts that we have inside our body. Stay tuned and you may find out some interesting (and yucky!) facts.

How to Bokashi!

We decided we'd collect all our scrap food in a 'Bokashi Day Bucket'. You can put just about any food you like in a bokashi as long as there is no liquid like orange juice or left over coffee etc. It also won't compost bones.





Each afternoon our Bokashi Boys sprinkle some magic zing into the bokashi bucket.








They cut up the food so that it is in smaller pieces and add that to the bucket.







Then they use their hands to push the food down - this takes the air out.


Pop the lid back on tightly and wait until the next day's food is added.



When the bucket is full, you keep the lid on for two weeks and then your compost should be ready. We will leave ours over the holidays and see what happens.

KNZB

Yesterday we took part in Keep New Zealand Beautiful clean up week. Some people brought gum boots to school so they could jump the fence and collected rubbish from the swampy creek in the paddock next door. Some of our rubbish blows through the fence and into neighbours paddock so we thought we'd better pick it up for him. After that the rest of the class went down Bradford Street collecting rubbish. We collected three bags full of rubbish, not much from the street though.

Blogged by Gabby & Elliot

Our Compost Journey

How exciting! Look at this big long box that has just arrived. We can't wait to see what's inside so Nikita, Troi and Christina are opening it.







We've found some buckets and some bags of sawdust stuff.







And some instructions.
These guys will have us all up and working in no time.

Our Compost Journey

WOW! Look at the amazing pile of food that we throw in our rubbish bin each day. There must be a better way to deal with all this unwanted food.

We decided that composting would be the best solution but we had some questions / concerns as to whether an outside compost bin would be best:
1. Where do we put it? Too close to school and it may smell or attract unwanted animals. Too far away and it would become a problem to add each days food.
2. Who would be responsible for it? As well as adding the food each day, who is going to be responsible for turning the compost to keep the air in it?
3. Do we have enough other materials to make really 'good' compost? We learnt that a compost system needs 3 layers - a green layer (which could be grass), a brown layer (which could be twigs and bits from trees) and a food layer. We'll definitely have enough food but would we have enough of the others?

So ... we were thinking that it may not be the best idea after all when Mrs Tobin said - 'Bokashi'.

What's bokashi? Connor looked it up on the internet when he got home and found out that it was a composting system that could be kept inside and that uses ONLY food. That sounded perfect so we ordered one.

Now we'll have to wait and see what we get.

Getting rid of Rubbish

We were amazed at the landfill to learn of all the different ways we SHOULD dispose of our rubbish. Here's what we found out:


If you have a lot of tree branches, hedge clippings or garden waste, ask Connor or Amy what to do with it. They'll say that if you take it to the landfill it will be shredded and put onto the compost heap. The compost starts to steam as all the waste decomposes. People can buy the compost for their gardens - you never know, you may get your own tree branches back!

Mitchell and Chelsey had to think hard about what to do with the cardboard boxes that tomato sauce and some juices come in. They found out that the boxes have a lining on tin-foil on the inside and the cardboard has a plastic coating so it can't be recycled. It must go into the landfill to be compacted and covered with clean fill.

Batteries is another item that had us wondering. Elliot and Charmaine thought that you should just throw them in with the rest of the rubbish but that's not right. Batteries have acid in them and if thrown in the landfill, the acid may leak out and get into the soil, stream etc. There is a special bin over at the Dangerous Goods part of the landfill that all batteries should go in.

And did you know that any furniture, books, toys or anything else that you don't want but is too good to be thrown away can be given to the Recovery Store at the landfill. Angel and Darian found lots of interesting items that people could buy for a very cheap price.

The Green Island Landfill really is a very interesting place and it's doing a lot to recycle, reuse, reduce, repair and rethink how we dispose of our rubbish.