Seedlings

Message from the Educator

Kia ora koutou,

In these uncertain times, I was thinking about how I can best support you as teachers or as parents. So this special edition of Seedlings is focused on some activities that kids can do to explore their own backyards.

I've picked a few things to share as I've noticed that, day by day, more organisations like Predator Free and Project Crimson Trusts have posted to social media ideas and activities for kids to do.

If you are a teacher and looking for more ideas to support your students whilst they are at home, then contact me and I'll help in any way I can.

Kia kaha, and stay safe.

Naku noa,

Sarah Williams, Environmental Educator

WE ALL LIVE IN AN ECOSYSTEM

Every animal and plant lives in an ecosystem. An ecosystem must contain producers (such as plants), consumers (which eat plants or other animals), decomposers (which eat dead plant or animal matter), and dead and inorganic matter itself. Even a puddle on the ground has an ecosystem. We all live in an ecosystem. Our gardens and backyards are all ecosystems.

Image - a typical ecosystem (taken from DOC)

EXPLORING YOUR GARDEN OR BACKYARD

Investigating the different parts which make up an ecosystem can help to understand how everything is interconnected and interrelated, where each animal or plant depends on others to survive.

Here are some activities on bugs, birds and trees to start exploring the cool ecosystems at home, when you open your back door.

Download the activity sheet here.

Bug Hunting

Invertebrates, or bugs, are important parts of any ecosystem. There are pollinators, such as bees and butterflies; herbivores such as stick insects; predators like spiders and preying mantis; parasites such as ticks and lice; detritivores i.e., animals such as worms which break down leaf litter and other organic matter; plus they are also food for reptiles, birds, mammals and other invertebrates!

Bird, what bird?

New Zealand is all about the birds. With the absence of native mammals (except long and short tailed bats), birds visibly dominate the landscape.

Birds are another important cog in our ecosystems. They are the primary pollinators and seed dispersers in NZ native bush for plants such as flax, kowhai, kawakawa, and tawa.

There are lots of resources out there to explore birds in the bush or backyard. Here are just a couple to look at for an introduction to identifying birds.

This great resource from DOC has a number of activities. Its quite long so here are a few tips:

Learning to identify birds is a great skill to have, use the ID sheet on p8,
A follow up to this is carrying out a bird survey in your backyard. Go to p11 for the instructions and use the recording sheet on p20 to note your sightings.
Challenge yourself. Many of our birds are likely to be heard rather than seen. Listen to their songs and calls, then try sitting in the garden with your eyes closed, and identify what you can hear. A bonus to this resource is that these can be downloaded to your own device.

Trees, trees, trees!

New Zealand has many unique plants and trees. 80% of our plants are endemic (found nowhere else but here).

Did you know all trees are plants, but not all plants are trees? Lots of native trees can be found in gardens and backyards. But can you name them?

DOC has another great resource which has some activities to start learning exploring native trees. It has lots of amazing activities for different age groups.

Tips for learning trees start with knowing the different leaf shapes, textures, whether their edges are toothed, and how the leaves are arranged on their stem. For example, the image above of the patē, or seven finger, has hand shaped long leaves with 7-9 ‘fingers’. Leaves sit opposite each other on the stem.

Using the chart on p12 of the resource, look at a range a leaves and identify their shape, whether the edges are toothed, wavy or smooth, and their arrangement on the stem.

Drawing leaves will also help students to explore their leaves in more detail and make additional notes on other features they have noticed such as ….

Texture – how does the leaf feel? Is it thin, thick or leathery?
Is the leaf shiny or dull looking?
Does it have fine hairs covering it?
What colour is it? Does it have any stripes or patterns?
Is the leaf the same colour on both sides?
Does it have a smell? (e.g., Lemonwood leaves when crushed smell like lemons!)

All these additional features aid identification. There are also some great ID sheets at the end of the resource for our common native trees.

LET'S TAKE SOME ACTION!

If you are done exploring, what next?

Investigating bugs, birds and trees can give you an idea of whether your garden or backyard has good habitat for our wildlife.

Have a look at your results, are there things missing from your garden? If you didn't find many birds, or only had introduced birds, what do our native birds need to have to live in your backyard? Were there lots of places in your garden for bugs, or not many?

Here are some examples of how you can 'take action' on making your garden or backyard bug and bird friendly:

Research what habitats our birds and bugs like to live in;
Are there bird and bug friendly plants you can put in the garden?
Build a bug hotel or weta motel;
Have you any animal pests? Check by putting out a tracking tunnel.

A FEW MORE ACTIVITY IDEAS

DOC have a great series of resources in their Investigating your Green Space series.

Kiwi Conservation Club (KCC) has lot of activities which can be done in your backyard.

For a rainy day, make bird masks. Research online on what your chosen bird eats and how it moves around to find its food. Practice moving around your environment like your bird.

Find the treasure in your backyard with a nature scavenger hunt.

Native bird and tree colouring sheets from Trees that Count.

Wild Eyes - nature missions for kiwi kids