Mid Year Brainstorm

During term 2 we had a big focus on our enviro-schools project. Children learnt lots about what wastage is and ways we can reduce the wastage. At the end of the term we decided that we wanted to keep going with our enviro schools but struggled to find time in a very busy timetable to include it in our week.
We liked the way we rotated around rooms during Read and Feed during book week. We thought we could adapt this idea and once a week on a Monday during Read and Feed teachers will rotate around the classes teaching/sharing/explaining ideas that can build on from what students have already learnt.

Mrs White will look at:

1. Food Idioms - what do you think these food sayings mean
2. Lunch Contracts - portion size/ likes and dislikes

Miss Young will look at:

1. Using Landfills
2. Don’t throw it out if it looks funny

Mrs Staddon will look at:

1. Food containers
2. Seasonal fruit

Miss Tanner will look at:

1. Landfill facts and what goes in them
2. Easy ways to reduce what goes into a landfill.

Watch this space to see what we get up to in Term 3....

What Changes Have Been Made Since ...

• Tom puts food scraps in the class compost container.
• Tama, Taylor and Nate froze their excess feijoas.
• Porscha-Lee built a compost bin.
• Tama's grandparents gave them a compost bin.
• Tama has sliced fruit instead of whole fruit for brain food.
• Riley has a compost bin at home.
• Maia gets less food put in her lunch box.
• Jade's Mum gives her lots of carrots for her lunch box.
• Annabelle has less food in her lunch box.
• Mac has apples instead of feijoas in his lunch box.
• Teagen has more fruit and vegies in her lunch box.
• Room 3 now has a class compost bin.   Finally!!!!
• Xander makes lots of fruit smoothies.
• Ava's family are buying bamboo toothbrushes
• Dominic's family is re-using plastic.
• Jay asked that left overs go in the fridge for him to eat the next day instead of going in the bin.
• Some people now have re-usable bags in the boot of their car.

Brainstorm Of What We Learnt

Room 2 wrote down all the things they had learnt from our topic Waste Not Want Not. Wow that is a lot of learning.

HOW MUCH FRUIT DO YOU HAVE AT HOME?

Let’s survey the Junior Team...

• The most popular tree in R9 was a feijoa tree. 6 people in R9 had a feijoa tree and 6 people also had a lemon tree.

• Room 9 has 24 fruit trees.
• The most popular fruit tree in R6 is feijoa. 13 people in R6 have a feijoa tree.
• Room 6 has 62 fruit trees.
• The most popular tree in Room 10 is feijoa. 5 people in R10 have a feijoa tree at home.
• 17 people in Room 10 have a fruit tree at home.
• 12 people in R5 have tomato plants
• R5 has 90 fruit trees/plants at their houses.

We don’t know how accurate the information from the junior team is because the children are so young.

Middle Team : Fruit Tree Survey

Today we surveyed the middle team to find out if they have fruit growing at their house and what fruit they do have at their house.

Room 4 do not have much fruit growing at their houses. The most popular was feijoa which was 6. Two people in Room 4 have lemon or apple trees. Room 4 have 12 fruit plants/trees/vines growing at their houses.

If Room 4 have excess fruit they like to sell it, bake with it, freeze it and make smoothies with it.

Room 3 had 39 fruit plants/vines/trees growing at their houses. The most popular was lemon - 11 trees.

Room 2 have 92 fruit plants/trees/vines growing at their houses. The most popular was feijoa and lemon both 17.

Room 7 had 38 fruit plants/tree/vines growing at their houses. The most popular was feijoa 19.

In the middle team there are were 181 fruit plants/trees/vines  

Senior Fruit Tree Survey...

In R11 ...

25 people have a fruit tree or vine at their house.

The most fruit tree was a lemon - 19 people in R11 have a lemon tree.  

The least popular tree in R11 is an orange tree - 4 people have one.

In R11 9 people have an apple tree, 14 have a feijoa tree, 8 have a grape vine, 5 people have a mandarin tree, 5 people have a grapefruit tree, 8 people have  plum tree, 7 have a passionfruit vine, 9 have something else.

In R13 ...

19 people have fruit trees or vines at their house.

The most popular tree is 17.

The least popular is mandarin 7.

8 have an orange tree

17people have lemon trees

9 people have apple trees

8 people have a grape vine

Other 12 (lots of grapefruit)

In R12 …

21 people have fruit trees or vines at their house.

The most popular tree is feijoa 12.

Least popular is a grape vine 3

Cherry 3

Blueberry 2

Passionfruit 4

Raspberry 5

Strawberry 9

Blackberry 4

Olive 2

Persimmon 2

In R14 …

15 people have fruit trees or vines at their house.

The most popular tree was lemon 14

The least popular was a grapevine 2

Mandarin 6

Apple 8

Orange 4

Feijoa 10

Action Plan

Room 4 came up with an action plan to reduce food wastage. Here are some ideas:

1. Shop smart

2. Buy exactly what you need.

3. Be realistic.

4. Buy funny-looking produce.

5. Have a Plan B.

6. Practice FIFO. It stands for First In, First Out.

7. Monitor what you throw away.

8. Designate one dinner each week as a “use-it-up” meal.

9. Eat leftovers!

10. Use it all.

11. Store better.

12. Repurpose leftovers scraps.

13. Check the fridge.

14. Preserve produce.

15. Donate what you won’t use.

16. Donate the gross stuff, too! Many farmers happily accept food scraps

17. Store food properly in the fridge.

18. Store things properly in the freezer.

19. Can it.

20. Pickle it.

22. Understand expiration dates.

23. Compost!