We’ve had an incredible Term 1 filled with exciting activities! After a very wet and humid summer, our garden was well-watered, and we had a fantastic crop of fruits and vegetables.

The star of the show was our home-grown baby watermelon. The Year One Pipi class had the joy of nourishing it, and it was so sweet and juicy!

A real treasure hunt was exploring gem corn. It was so much fun to see the kids’ surprised faces when they found out that corn isn't always yellow and to see the variety of different colors. After drying it for a few weeks, we made popcorn on our last day before the holidays.

On Pipi’s teacher’s birthday, the class picked pretty garden flowers and were proud to hand them over to their teacher, Whaea Stephanie, who was truly delighted, there is something special about when children pick flowers, it comes from the heart ❤️

The highlight of Term 1 was our new garden addition - “Franky the Scarecrow”. We noticed that all the tomatoes were being picked by birds, so we decided to build a scarecrow to scare them away. The tamariki had so much fun designing, creating, and naming him Franky.

We also had a big celebration at the school assembly, PiPS won the TECT Sustainable Future Award! The entry video was filmed here at St. Thomas More Catholic School and we had the honor of holding the trophy first before it will be handed over to all our other PiPS schools. It was an amazing achievement, and everyone took part in it to win such a special award.

From Nina