ENVIRONMENTAL EDUCATION

Manchester Street School Enviro-Action Day 

Manchester Street School hold an enviro action day each term. This term they hosted students and teachers from Shannon School. The days are an opportunity to engage the whole school on thinking about a sustainable future and sharing knowledge, this term the theme was Pi (Bee) Awareness Month, and everyone was asked to dress in yellow and black for the day. The day consisted of a range of activities including a scavenger hunt, happy hen visits, gardening, fence painting, bee activities and classroom visits from the students who are part of the Waiora Group, who presented to other students on ways they have been learning to test water quality as part of their long term project on measuring stream health around the Manawatū. Shannon School are now looking forward to implementing their own whole school enviro action day in the future.

Conservation Week 2022

This year Conservation Week ran from 5th -11th September. The theme was "take a moment to act for nature". Schools from Whanganui visited Bushy Park over the week to learn about the ngahere and what taonga native flora and fauna you can find here. Students learnt about the predator proof fence and why this is so important to keep some of our vulnerable native species protected, and completed a range of activities including pest animal tracking and trapping, fungi and tree identification, and learning about wetlands. Together with the Department of Conservation, we supported the week by providing bus transport for students to get to one of the iconic sites in our region. 

Environmental education kits for loan

If you are keen to do a more in-depth inquiry into our waterways, pest trapping or invertebrates we have kits available to borrow. These kits allow students and teachers to connect more with their natural world in an easily accessible and achievable way, and are great to use for long term projects. If you would like to borrow one of our kits please fill out our online form.

Waiora Stream Study Teacher Workshops

We are in the process of finalising professional development workshops for teachers interested in using our Waiora Stream Study kits and learning how to conduct their own stream study. Proposed dates are Tuesday 24th & Thursday 26th January with locations for Palmerston North and Feilding to be confirmed. To register your interest email us and more detail will follow.

ENVIROSCHOOLS

Mosston School - Bushy Park 

Mosston School focus this year has been on wetland ecosystems. In Term 3 Horizons' staff came to talk to them about the importance of wetlands and what native fish they may find in a wetland and threats to these species. The best part about learning about nature is getting out into it, so the school visited Bushy Park to share their knowledge where they fished for invertebrates in the small wetland at the park. They also took part in a range of activities exploring the ngahere, and how surrounding landscapes can affect wetland health. Other activities they completed included learning about the special native birds found in the sanctuary such as the tieke (saddleback) and hihi (stitchbird), and how to protect these special taonga. They also went on a fungi hunt seeing some amazing varieties such as puff balls, birds nest and a velvet earthstar.

Congratulations to......

Schools have been back to holding reflections in person again so we are excited to celebrate this term with

Bulls Kindergarten who celebrated their Silver Reflection 

and

Riverdale School who reflected at Bronze

Pat Kelly Enviroschools Action Fund 

If you an Enviroschool in the Horizons region, don't forgot to apply for our 2022-23 Pat Kelly Enviroschools Action Fund. This year the fund has a water conservation option where projects can apply for up to $2,000.  

For full details and to apply head here

Applications close 2nd December. 

IDEAS AND RESOURCES