Welcome to Kaitaiki Corner! This is a new section of our newsletter where we will keep you up-to-date about exciting Enviro initiatives we have been doing at KSS, and share with you how we have been getting involved in nature and caring for our planet 🌎

Paretai's Trip to the Springlands Reserve

At the end of Term 1, Paretai celebrated their learning about waterways by journeying to the Springlands Reserve.

We learnt so much supported by our CCC Educators, Sally, Celina and Pete.

Tōtara’s Garden to Table Program

This term, Tōtara is beginning an exciting new gardening and cooking program called Garden to Table. On Friday, we had our first session where we harvested beetroot from our very own vegetable garden, repotted strawberry runners, and made beetroot hummus and chocolate beetroot cupcakes. The tamariki had a blast, learning lots of cooking and gardening tricks and sitting down together to share a meal. 

A huge thank you to Whaea Susan, Whaea Jude and our wonderful volunteers for their support. Without their help, this program could not go ahead!

Tock 

Tock the robot came to visit us in Kūkūwai to teach us about Reduce, Reuse, Recycle and Reinvent. We enjoyed Tock's story, songs and learning about sorting our rubbish. 

Garden Visit with Matua Ross

As part of our focus on sustainability, some of the tamariki in Raupō took a walk to our own Knights Stream School vegetable garden and orchard. Matua Ross explained to the children how our school garden contributes to being sustainable at KSS. He explained to the tamariki all about the cycle of the garden. Where we plant, water, feed, harvest, eat, replant seeds and compost the scraps to continue to feed the garden ready for the next crops to grow.
The tamariki were able to taste some of the delicious vegetables, took a look inside one of the giant pumpkins and delivered their classroom food scraps to the compost bin. 

“I went to the garden! Matua Ross had a big sharp sword and he cut the pumpkin open and it was gooey and soft, squishy and full of seeds and it was an orange pumpkin! Then we peeled the corn. Next he showed us some strawberries”. Written by Saige, year 1.

“I liked looking at the pumpkin!” Written by Riley, year 1.

“Matua Rose took us to look at the carrots. Then we saw the strawberries and we saw lots of seeds!” Written by Lyuyi, year 1.

Litter-Free Lunch Inspo! 

We are absolutely loving all of the single-use plastic-free lunches at KSS this year! From beeswax wraps to reuseable containers, it is fantastic to see so many tamariki taking ownership of their lunches and saying no to litter.