275 Times. Dec 2015, Jan 2016

Our journey with waste: Kotiri Kindergarten
7
By Justine Skilling
“It all started with a worm
farm and a composting
course”, says Kotiri
Kindergarten teacher
Farzana Shahid.
The course was “an eye opener”
for the Mangere East kindergarten,
motivating them to look at what else
they could do to help Papatuanuku
(the land).
With a new compost bin in
operation, collecting the lunch
scraps became a competition
amongst the children and staff,
who watched closely to see
whether it would outperform the
old worm farm. The children were
given leadership of the process
and have become composting
experts, although they still open
the worm farm, throw the scraps in
and run away squealing, according
to Farzana. Grass clippings,
paper towels from the bathroom,
shredded paper and fallen leaves,
once waste items at the kindy,
started being collected to create
beautiful compost for the gardens
as well. The first batch of compost
has just been spread on the
garden ready for summer planting,
and children and staff alike were
amazed at what they’d produced.
Youth crew raising up a party
The Raise Up Crew, a youth leadership group, based at
Moana-Nui-a-Kiwa Pool & Leisure Centre have organised an
awesome Summer Pool Party Extravaganza for December
18, 4pm -7pm.
The team have been working hard for the last few months
organising this event and it's set to include live entertainment, a
bombing comp, face painting, bouncy castles, games, spot prizes
& more. For more information about the Raise Up Crew and their
Summer Pool Party search "Raise Up Mangere" on Facebook.com
“Knowledge, science and worms”
are all part of the learning here.
Sorting rubbish was next on the
agenda. Farzana sourced colourcoded
containers for the lunch
tables and kindy teachers did lots of
mat-time activities to help children
learn which bins to put things in.
“Knowledge,
science and worms”
are all part of the
learning here.
All this sorting has greatly reduced
their landfill waste. Their biggest
bin is now the paper bin that they
pass on to Paper for Trees, an
organisation that supports schools
and preschools to collect paper
and cardboard and swaps this for
free native trees. The kindy’s next
challenge is to get whanau involved
in reducing waste as well.
"It’s all
about caring for Papatuanuku and
thinking about the effect we are
having on our next generation."
EDITORIAL:
Season's greeting to you all. The holiday
season always brings with it so much
hope and excitement. Lazy hazy days
in the sun, catching up with family and
friends over good food and drink and
the chance to reassess your goals for
the year ahead are all reasons to enjoy
this festive period. But as we also know,
this time of year is also an opportunity
to remember another hope - that of
Jesus Christ, who's birth we celebrate
on December 25. Whatever your faith
tradition, or religious belief, we hope
you can take time to reflect on the life
and example set by this extraordinary
man, who did great things (by all
accounts), gave us amazing teachings
(which still inspire so many) and made
fantastic claims about what the future
could be. At 275 Times, we genuinely
believe he wasn't a liar or a fool as some
may say but in fact the Son of God
as he claimed and it's His Words and
deeds which inspire and motivate us to
produce this newsletter for you all. I trust
you enjoy it and see you next year.
Blessings, Justin and Jo Latif