Glenham School – Monday 3 April 2017
Around 40 students from Glenham School arrived at the Community Nursery on Monday 3rd April, all ready to study native plants. Glenham students are in the happy position of having wonderful supportive farmers on their doorstep – David and Alana Clark. They have allowed the Glenham School to adopt an area of their farm, with a stream, to revegetate and turn into a place for wildlife. The children came armed with lots of knowledge and good questions as we looked at the “big picture” for making a nature area and then delved into the ways to make it happen! Mark Oster showed the children the big picture ideas of turning a paddock into bush, looking at Rances pond and planting areas and then exploring the tall bush. Meanwhile Chris led a group of seed collectors – finding, identifying and collecting seeds from flax (black seeds in black pods), Manuka (brown seed capsules), kohuhu (sticky black seed), koromiko (pods not ready yet), mingimingi (blue berries), Cabbage tree (white berries), to name but a few. Back at the Education Centre we looked at the seeds in more detail and talked about growing the plants that would be needed for their project.
After lunch in the Education Centre, Mark devised a game of exploring the paddock koru and then drawing the shape they thought it was, in the gravel of the carpark! They did an excellent job especially as you can really only see the shape from the air! – see photo.
Then onto a design project – the children mapped out on the ground the area of Clarks farm – with stream, culvert, fallen tree and planting area and chose native plants from a selection Chris had put out. These plants were then given to the School and the Clarks for incorporating into their project. It was a great day – thanks to Mark Oster, Principal, Mark Wiseman, teachers and to the great parent supporters who made it an excellent day.
Chris
Posted: 7 April 2017