Sloshing mud, snail eggs, seeds & so much more!
Well I felt this pic was a great place to begin…
another wonderful term with the delightful kids here at St Thomas More!
After the term break we got straight into our māra to check out what was happening. Observation is one of the most important skills in gardening, and these kids are getting pretty good at it!
The girls in particular were slug finding virtuoso’s… they even managed to locate some eggs, which the boys quickly rushed away to research. Turns out these foggy plastic-like balls are
snail eggs :)
The boys were pretty keen to experience the garden with all their senses. They wanted to taste everything and when it came to spreading the compost & top soil in our new garden they just had to take their shoes off and get amongst it!
Noting the abundance of winter produce in the garden, the kids showed initiative. Showing their head, heart & hands, they harvested the produce, boxed it all up and offered it around to all our wonderful whānau here at St Thomas More Primary :)
And with spring just around the corner, the kids turned our garden shed into a makeshift greenhouse and sowed up a storm! These seedlings are now being nurtured and, once big enough, will be transplanted into our gardens and sold at our upcoming community seedling sale.
This will help us raise funds to do even more fun stuff.
Did I mention they’ve done this all without using a single scrap of plastic? Matua Leo’s waste education must’ve made an impact!
And with Te Wiki o Te Reo Māori, we thought we’d seize the opportunity to learn from the one & only Whaea Elicia. She told us all wonderful stories of her kuia (grandmother) and her garden. We were also extremely blessed by a fantastic waiata - which she created especially for us
and our gardening journey.
——
Whakapai i te whenua, i te whenua
Prepare the land
Whakatō i ngā kakano
Plant the seeds
Whāngai i ngā kakano
Nurture the seeds
Auē!
Hutihutia i ngā tarutaru
Pluck the weeds
Hauhake i ngā hua whenua
Harvest the vegetables
Hauhake i te māra, māra pai
Harvest the garden, the good garden
——
Kia pai ō koutou whakataa
Have a wonderful holiday everyone :)
Yours in growing,
Matua Jake & the team here at St Thomas More Primary