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Plastic Free Cracker Challenge

7/31/2020

Plastic Free July arrived and a challenge was issued. Enviroleaders were challenged to roll up their sleeves, get into the kitchen and refine their baking skills! Create a tasty (yet easy) cracker recipe that can be made at home and reduce the need to buy crackers from the supermarket.

The challenge was accepted and entries refined over the school holidays. Crackers were bought to school, sampled by the Enviroleader team and voted on. Seedy crackers, spicy crackers, gluten free crackers and cream crackers were consumed, judged on taste, crunch, appearance and general 'crackerness'. There was no dud recipe and the consensus was that although there were some crackers more popular than others in the vote, the range of crackers suited the range of tastebuds. Tino pai Enviroleaders!

Trapping

12/13/2019

How grateful we are to Geoff and Carol Swailes, and the terrific team of trap makers who hosted some small groups of Enviro Leaders and shared their expertise and skills with us. They showed us what types of timber we would need to build the boxes for the DOC 150 traps we had bought with our grant money and then how to cut the timber to the correct lengths and sizes. Assembling the boxes was a bit challenging but incredibly rewarding. We were incredibly proud of what we were able to achieve with this support!

It was a lovely clear day as we headed up to the local QEII block to see if the traps that we had made, and those that we had purchased would work. Armed with our DOC150s, trapinators, some peanut butter, eggs and a whole lot of enthusiasm we set them in the bush, hoping for a great result when we returned. As we laid them out, we developed a whole lot more appreciation for those who do this on a much larger scale... those traps are a bit heavy and awkward to carry! It was a terrific afternoon out learning in the fresh air and we are very grateful for the opportunity!

With our fingers and our eyes crossed we headed back up to see what we had caught. It had been a fortnight and we were hopeful that there had been some success. We found a few cheeky possums in our possum traps, but were interested to see that there were no stoats in our box traps. We spent some time pondering why this may be and concluded that maybe our lure wasn't alluring enough to attract them in, or that there were plenty of mice to feast on due to the beech seed mast this year.

Researching, Information Gathering, and Planning!

9/21/2019

The Enviro Leaders at NLS are very excited about a grant we have been awarded to establish a Community Trap Library at school. Our involvement in tracking animals in our school and on the QEII block has inspired us to take this learning to the next step.

We have a vision to establish a trap library where members of our school and wider community can borrow pest and predator traps to use on their properties. How awesome would it be for someone to use a tunnel to find out that it is a possum eating the fruit off their trees in the orchard paddock, and use the appropriate trap to catch it, borrowing it from our Community Trap Library. The Enviro Leaders plan to learn to safely use these, the best practise when placing them and baiting them, and help reduce predator numbers But further to that, help teach our friends and wider community to use the traps safely so they can take them and use them at their place. The large majority of students in our school are living on lifestyle blocks and this would be a really exciting way to get all students at North Loburn School and our wider community to get out and be involved in predator reduction.

We have begun some research with the help of Sian Reynolds (from Doc) into what would be the best traps for use in our Trap Library and the best deal we can find to purchase them. We are really grateful for her expertise!!

Field Day - Sharing our Story

5/16/2019

Last week the Enviro Leaders were lucky enough to be asked to share with interested local farmers and businesses about what we have been learning about in regards to predator reduction, and our ideas about where this learning could take us. As winners of the Supreme Award at the Ballance Farm Environment Awards, Duncan and Tina Mackintosh held a field day to share their story and we were fortunate to be given a spot to share. It was great to be able to share about why we are Enviro Leaders and not only the learning we've been doing, but where we hope to take it. Ideally we're keen to be involved in the trapping of predators in our community and are exploring ways to make this happen. We answered a few questions and feedback was positive.

Cherry also presented about our fabulous Garden to Table programme. It was great to be able to share how our students grow, tend, prepare, cook and enjoy produce in our school grounds. Again, it's such a privilege to be able to share how at North Loburn School we love learning that is hands on, student centred and HEAPS of fun!

Exploring Tracking Tunnels in Native Bush!

5/16/2019

It was time!!
We were ready!!
We had spent a number of sessions exploring what animals were lurking around our school grounds and it was time to put what we had learnt into practise outside our school gate. Tina and Duncan Macintosh have generously allowed us to be involved in a QEII covenanted piece of bush on their property, Whiterock Mains. They are keen to get kids involved in it as much as possible and have a real desire to get kids out in our rural areas, hands dirty, learning.
We were all over that!

So, one beaut Friday afternoon we set out with tunnels, peanut butter and chew cards in tow. It was amazing to be out in actual bush, listening to the native birds and applying what we had been learning about outside the school gate. We laid both tunnels and chew cards.

We were very fortunate to have one of our school dad's with us who is an expert in these things. He taught us heaps about how to successfully attach chew cards, where to lay the tunnels most effectively and had lots of tips and tricks along the way.

Did you know that ferrets and stoats are attracted to the smell of fresh dirt?

One of the surprising things about our trip up to Whiterock Mains was how interesting 'scat' is (Scat is the fancy name for animal poo!). We got really good at keeping an eye out while we were setting the tunnels for different types of scat, identifying signs of animal life. Some of us had a good look (and a bit of a poke) at what we found, and those that were really brave gave it a good sniff, seeing if we could tell difference between different types of scat, and identifying the animal. It's fair to say the cattle had most impressive sized poo, but pig scat smelt really strong!

We are really keen to get back into the classroom and investigate the tracks and chew marks that we have found. We're interested to know what animals are lurking in the bush, and what impact they are having. We enjoyed a quiet rest once we had finished laying the tunnels and could identify a few native bird calls. It's fabulous to be out learning about our unique environment and how we can work to protect it!

Waste Audit 2019

3/26/2019

A team of happy waste auditors worked this week on analysing the waste that we make in one day here at North Loburn. Waste for the day was collected and sorted into like piles such as landfill, recycling and organic material. It was weighed, recorded and compared to previous year's results. We have results going back to 2010 and it's quite interesting to see how initiatives introduced have impacted our waste reduction. Toni Watts, our fabulous Enviro Schools Advisor, lead the team through this process. There was a lot to consider, compare and think about. They were pleased overall with the results, and have a few action points to follow up to refine and improve what we are doing!

More tracking! What will we find?!

3/26/2019

We're going on a Predator hunt??!! I wonder what we'll find!

After the limited success (due to the torrential rain!!) last year, we are having another go at seeing what is lurking in our school grounds after we are all home. Using the tracking tunnels from last year, we carefully inked and baited them and set them around the school tree lines. We also plastered peanut butter on chew cards and hope that we'll have some interesting teeth marks to examine. I wonder what we'll find this time?

It's a Seed Library!

3/26/2019

Seeds, seeds and more seeds! A couple of NLS artists painted some upcycled old school desks to use in the Oxford, Kaiapoi and Rangiora library. They will be used for storing seed in a new seed exchange programme. Check out the desks and the article from the paper.

Tracking Tunnels

12/4/2018

The Enviro Leaders made tracking tunnels to see what predators and other animals we have around the school. We also made chew cards to identify the pest bite marks. We spent some time discussing what a predator is, what they do that may be harmful to our environment, how we find out if there are any at NLS, and what we could do about it. There was lots of spirited discussion!

Making the tracking tunnels:
We made tracking tunnels out of old real estate signs (thank you Harcourts!). We folded them into a triangular prism, taping them firmly. They are fitted with a long slip of paper and and ink pad in the middle. We baited the tracking tunnels with peanut butter to attract them. The pests then walk over the ink pad and we can identify their footprints.

Chew Cards:
We bent some coroflute and smeared peanut butter onto the card. We nailed the chew cards onto the nearest tree by each tracking tunnel. The reason we did this is to identify the bite marks from the predators that try to get the peanut butter.

Laying the tracking tunnels:
One lunch time while the seniors were at camp, Toni Watts helped us to lay the tracking tunnels around the school. We laid them 50 metres apart and attached the chew cards on a tree beside them. We lay them along the fence lines and in the trees in the carpark as this is where we thought the predators would most likely be.

What we found:
Using a trapping website, we carefully examined our tracking sheets and the footprints on them. It was quite tricky to tell the difference between some of them!
We think we in our school grounds we have… possums, mice, lots of hedgehogs, and possibly cats, stoats and a skink!
We also found that a lot of rain washes the peanut butter off the chew cards.
We plan to repeat this next year when the weather is drier!

Term Three Class Projects

10/5/2018

Term Three is the term the Enviro Leaders and teachers brainstorm lots of different ideas for enhancing our school through upcycling, beautifying and working together. This year we were very busy! There were lady bug and bee planters made by Totara students from old tyres to make our grounds look fabulous. Kauri and Kahikatea worked hard to decorate the Warburton Wall and court with a range of artistic additions. Manuka designed and painted aprons for our volunteers in the Garden to Table kitchen, while Rimu upcycled gumboots into planters, and tin can into windchimes. Kowhai were busy painting signs for the vegetable gardens, planting seeds and planter pots. Due to some wet weather not all projects were finished by the end of the term, and will continue to be worked on in Term 4. Keep your eye out when you're out and about in our school playground and see what new additions you can spot!