A day at the Show

What a great day to go to the Canterbury A&P Show with our class - in fact, the whole school attended.
We didnt see Prince Charles & Camilla today,  though we did see a whole lot of animals, and had lots of fun!

We went in the school buses, and arrived early enough to see most things setting up. The children were brilliant, and we walked them around the animal section before lunch, had lunch all together, and broke into our little groups again to spend some time walking about until the buses arrived at two to collect us.

It was lovely to hear the children's comments about the animals. Most of them are born and bred City children. They havent seen a lot of farm animals before, this was a revelation to them. The cows were cool, the calves were neat, but the bulls were stinky (not really, they were all show quality and well cleaned and polished! But the feed (baleage) smelt pretty bad!)  Actually, the bulls were huuuuge!! and we had various comments about double-chins and long tails and... oh, whats that underneath???

It was nice to see some of the horses, we also caught up with the Adopt-A-Greyhound group. The children lay all over the dogs who just took it all, very calmly, licked them, and handled themselves beautifully. What gentle dogs!

We saw lots of machinery, old and new, and the old traction engines fascinated one of children in my group. Hes a smart cookie and couldnt get enough. He had questions beyond my knowledge, so we stopped and had a chat to one of the men.

Not long enough, and it was home time,  the children were loaded on the bus, and we were back at school!

What an awesome day!

Til next time,
Take care
E BUTTERFLY
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Using Lettuce For Good :)

All this talk about Child Poverty in New Zealand, and how it impacts on child health etc... well its had us (in the Parents Group) all thinking about how we could help in our own community.
I had a look around my garden and realized I have far too many lettuces for us to eat - so what to do with them?
How could I share them with the school, and make it available to everyone. Or, should I just take them to the food bank and be done with it...?
I took an idea to school this morning, then to Parents coffee group, and wah-la! We now have a plan.
These ladies are AWESOME, and between 8-10 of us, they can brainstorm like you wouldnt believe (we are also organizing the school end of year event!)

Next week we are having Healthy Sandwich Day.
It is a fund-raiser, ($1.50 a sandwich) that hopefully, will generate some cash for the Parents Group to continue their  future projects, feed our children something healthy and inexpensive, and extend teaching to the children about what is healthy and acceptable to eat - they're already having *No-Wrapper Wednesday* which sounds great...
NO-WRAPPER WEDNESDAY
The challenge there, to the children (and parents) is to have lunches that are wholesome and contain no extra wrappings such as chip packets, muesli-bar wrappers etc. (Prizes will be given!)
So we are having Healthy Sandwich Day and all our parents at our coffee group are donating the requirements to make them, and giving their time to butter bread, grate carrots and shred lettuce etc...

It is all being done to celebrate 5-plus-a-day Month.
Again, Im amazed and happy to see the forward-thinking that happens at Linwood North Primary School.
The teachers, the community and  the parents care, and it makes so much difference to the children attending school to see this in action!

Hopefully if things go well, it will become a regular event throughout the school term!

Better move along,
Lunch is over and Ive got some weeding to be done :)

Til next time,
EBUTTERFLY
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