Kowhai, Miro and Matai - Tuesday 19 March 2019
The procession of Otatara School classes to the Southland Community Nursery continued today with the new entrant/ year 1 rooms 1 (Kowhai), 2 (Miro) and 3 (Matai) visiting today. Around 40 excited children walked through the apple orchard, then checked out the tunnel in the education centre seeing what kind of plants and animals can be found living in different Southland habitats.
Having three classroom trees to focus on and learn about saw us concentrate on looking at leaves and identifying which plant is which. We noted that kowhai have little round leaves, yellow flowers and seeds, Miro looks like a comb and has big red berries, and Matai is the scruffy “ugly duckling” of a tree as a juvenile (or baby). It was also noted how beautiful a Matai is as an adult tree! It also became apparent that room 3 have the wrong potted plant in their room so their mission is to go on a treasure hunt around school to find the Matai. We also listened to the tui, bellbird, and Kereru (soft toys with sounds) as the birds that are closely associated with these tree species, in particular with Kereru being the only bird able to eat and distribute the big Miro berry. We also talked about the paintbrush type tongues that the tui and bellbird have to help with drinking nectar from the likes of kowhai flowers. Information about attracting birds to your garden can be found at the Community Nursery website link - https://www.southlandcommunitynursery.org.nz/restoring-your-patch/planning-your-project/attracting-birds/
After directing the children to stand in two rows it was pointed out that all three of these classroom plants have leaves in two rows - how cool! I wonder if the classes will now line up like their classroom plant leaves? We walked down to the pond to check out a kowhai growing near the water and noting kowhai seed often fall into the water which helps them grow when they reach land. Most of the children thought the pond had always been there, it looked so nice and were surprised it had been “made”. We then headed back to the bus. We look forward to seeing these classrooms next time and having fun with the many activities we offer at the Southland Community Nursery. Thanks also to Katrina Ferns who came along to help.
Bronwyn and Chris
Posted: 21 March 2019