Seed Planting Community Impact Project (C.I.P)

Around this time of the year, winter will be starting to occur. Since we are trying to plant several types of vegetables in our school; we need to find vegetables that will stay and can survive through autumn and winter. In exact we need to find 6 seeds that we can plant.

1.Chard (55 - 65 days to mature) (16 seeds for $2.95 'online' /45 seeds'mitre10' $3.66)

(Very much like the leeks we can cut out the roots since we do not eat them and replant it.)

2. Collard Greens (60 - 80 days to mature) (

(we cut the roots again like so and can be replanted.)

3. Onions and Shallots (100 - 175 days to mature)

(Again we can cut the bottom roots and replant)

4. Parsnips (120 - 180 days to mature)

(Similarly, we can cut the top, "not the bottom" this time and replant it to reuse them.)

5.Leeks (25 - 40 weeks to mature)

(since the only eaten parts of the leeks are the top part or above the roots, we can replant the roots to reuse the roots.)

6. Garlic (9 months to mature)

(Quite different from the other plants to grow, we can take a clove and let a stem to sprout on top and then plant it in the soil so that the stem is out the soil.)

I have chosen these vegetables because they can survive through winter and they can be harvested during it. Not only that but they are very versatile vegetables and can be used in many recipes.q

"Treaty of Waitangi"

This week 7/8 AL has been working on learning more facts and information about "Waitangi Day".

We then read articles about what has happened in those times, the people involved in liberating this country we call our home now. In it we learnt also about the conflicts and a great war that happened in 1845 between the Maori and the British; it has since then finished a year after and in when we finally made peace with the British. After reading an article that we were in we then had to answer questions about what we've read and also make a short summary of it. Now students are to create blog posts about what they've done which many have done at this moment.

Scones Making Extensions

Aim: Research these 3 ingredients. What do they do when making scones?

• Baking Powder

• Butter

• Milk

Baking Powder - It is a very common raising agent, the chemical makes the batter rise. The reaction is that it makes the air bubbles in the batter are enlarged by the baking powder making it rise or enlargen.

Butter- a commonly used the ingredient to enhance the flavour of a dish or pastries like scones they implement on the texture of the pastry and its mouthfeel.

Milk - Milk, on the other hand, helps to create the strong batter/dough that we need to make our scones. It also contributes to the texture of our pastry and even a crisp crust as well.

Gardening

This session of the Community Impact Project, we started focusing on 3  main activities that could help with our project. The 3 choices were as follows: gardening, compost and jam; to help make a positive impact in the school. In gardening, we solely focused on having the right habitat and environment for our plants, having the right soil and taking care of the "parasite", which in this case are weeds. We did this by pulling the roots of the weeds so that they don't grow anymore. It had been quite a dirty work, to add to that it had rained the previous night making the grass and soil quite moist; with some turning into mud.

Aside from that, it had been quite enjoyable as I used to love gardening(still do) but especially when I was younger; as it was around that I "forced" my great grandma to take me to her farm/garden a few blocks away and farmed around that area.

With the remaining choices, the next one being "Jam" is quite direct though the group is not making jam but only making labels and posters for the jam that have been made the week before. The reaming group "compost", have been doing fantastic work on cleaning the rubbish over at our "compost heap" over at the community garden in the school.