ENVIRONMENTAL EDUCATION

Exploring the environment with Cloverlea School

Year 2 students had an awesome day at Tōtara Reserve Regional Park learning how some of our littlest animals have important roles in river and forest ecosystems. Students looked for invertebrates (bugs) in the bush, fished for macroinvertebrates in the Pohangina River and learnt how they can help us understand the health or our streams. They also went on a nature treasure hunt looking for natural materials on the forest floor and on the river banks which they used to build little boats to race down the river. Prizes were awarded to first across the line, best looking raft, and best team working together. The school is planning more activities to help tamariki explore more of their natural environment in Term 2

Juniors exploring water quality in the Tutaenui Stream

Term 1 brought us settled weather with lots of sunshine hours and little rain. This has meant that the water levels in many of our streams and rivers have been quite low. Despite this, junior students from both Marton Junction School and South Makirikiri School explored the water clarity and fished for macroinvertebrates (bugs) in the Tutaenui Stream in Marton. They were very excited to find bugs such as this dainty damselfly larvae hiding out in the algae. 

New fund open for climate-related projects

Horizons Regional Council's new Pūtea Hapori Urupare Āhuarangi - Community Climate Response Fund supports climate-related projects that are by the community, for the community. Up to $15,000 is available per project to non-profit organisations (or individuals partnering with them) including schools, early childhood education providers, iwi/hapū groups or marae.

The aim of the fund is to help communities to build resilience to the effects of climate change, and/or support the shift to a carbon neutral regional economy. The more we all work together to take action against climate change, the better the outcomes and wellbeing for all.

Applications close on 31 May. Find out more and grab an application form here

ENVIROSCHOOLS

Congratulations to......

Despite Covid restrictions, two of our early childhood centres wanted to keep their momentum going and held their Bronze reflections in Term 1, albeit in a different format.

Congratulations to Kimbolton ELC and Manchester Kindergarten who both held their reflections on Zoom. 

Whole school enviro-action days - why not?

Enviro-action days are a chaotic and fun way to engage the whole school. Many Enviroschools, especially those with large student rolls, use these as a way to get everyone thinking and learning about a sustainable future, and to take action for our environment.  Check out this article which has some top tips on holding your own enviro-action day, plus read the two stories below about how we supported two Enviroschools who held their own days in Term 1.

Making piwakawaka nests with Westmere School

Westmere School held their first whole school enviro-action day in March. The school has been developing their nature walk area to increase biodiversity and reduce pests. Piwakawaka are regular visitors to the school’s nature area so we helped them explored how amazing these birds are at building their own nests. Senior tamariki worked with their junior buddies to construct different types of birds’ nests and realised how hard it is to do with two hands let alone a bird doing it with just their beak. The tamariki now have a greater appreciation for the work birds go through to make a nest to live in.

Supporting tamariki to explore their school environment 

'Me in My Environment', part of the Enviroschools resource kit, involves investigating and understanding the school in the context of its history and ecology. Learning is focused on developing an understanding of whanaungatanga / interrelatedness. This is one of the core parts of being an Enviroschool since it encourages us to consider the world that we are part of and how we can make decisions to improve the physical and social environment of our school, our community and our world.

Many activities from this resource were on offer to tamariki at their whole school enviro day at Longburn School. Teachers and Enviroschools facilitators supported activities such as origami seed pot making, nature art, preparation of the school gardens for planting, building birds nests, and learning the story of Ranginui and Papatūānuki. 

Exploring their school grounds is the first step towards taking action for the environment. Students already have some goals such as to continue with planting the vegetable garden, focussing on controlling weeds in their school nature reserve, and are already more conscious of their impact on nature and the surrounding environment.

Creating a whole school vision for sustainability

Creating a vision map is a key component in the Enviroschools process. It helps to bring tamariki, teacher, whanau and community voices together, guide future actions, and is a great tool for reflecting and monitoring progress.

Last term we ran a whole staff vision mapping workshop with Ohakune Primary School to get them started in the vision mapping process. A date has also been set to run a similar session for the schools student enviro-leaders in early term 2.

IDEAS AND RESOURCES

Applications are open for the Blake Inspire Teachers programme

The programme hosts up to 90 primary and intermediate teachers from all across Aotearoa with a week of hands-on environmental learning and ways to translate that environmental knowledge to students and encouraging them to take environmental action and conservation, and sustainability projects with their schools.

It is fully funded by the Ministry of Education excluding travel. Apply on their website  by Monday 9 May