Otatara School - Horopito Class Term 1 2022
It has been my absolute pleasure to head out weekly with the New Entrant class of Otatara School during term 1 of this year. The Horopito class and Ms Williams had started exploring their local environment looking at horopito, blackberries, fungi and wild flowers. 1st March it was great to join them and see their already growing knowledge of their class plant - the spicy leaf! (aka pepper tree or Horopito). Interspersed with running, playing and swinging I heard about the spicy leaf, we noticed bugs under the logs and tree rounds and heard and spotted birds.
8th March we focused on observing - looking around us to notice all that there is to spot! We walked to the grass area where we talked about deciduous and evergreen trees (a lot of NZ natives are evergreen) and worked out what season it is! The children noticed ferns - so we compared the ferns growing around the edge of the forest versus in the forest - where many more were found. We spotted the horopito again! We then did lots of running - using our observation skills to see and run to something white, black, yellow, blue, brown, orange and green! What fun!
15th March we headed out with Mrs Werder and Mrs Filmer. Today we met the tōtara tree, noting it was prickly and spikey, and learnt about the canopy of the forest (it’s like an umbrella). We got to the hut and noticed that green-leaved trees and branches had been added to the built structure - oh no! “If it’s green, don’t be mean” was discussed, building on our knowledge not to pick any of the vegetation in the reserve. We stood listening and spotting lots of birds - tui, pīwakawaka and kererū. So much to notice with our expert noticing skills which are improving every week. I used my bird caller again and everyone in the class had a turn, as they had shown me on previous visits how responsible they are. Great turn taking tamariki. We sounded like a group of pīwakawaka as we grouped in the hut and tried making our own bird noise with wet kissy lips and the knuckles of our fist. After a run in the grass area, it was then off to the bush kindy place, on the way showing Mrs Werder the Horopito tree - the spicy tree! It was great to see perseverance, taking responsibility, turn taking, and looking after each other evident as the students swung, climbed, balanced and played. We looked under some logs again, finding hoppers, spiders, beetles and wetas. A great session spotting spikey trees (tōtara) and spicy trees (horopito) all the way back to class.
22nd March: Today we took Ms Williams back to the hut and showed her how the hut had been added to, using green vegetation - “if it’s green don’t be mean” - and how important it is for everyone to be kaitiaki in the reserve as the reserve is for everyone to enjoy. We also showed her our knuckle/lips bird noises and had another turn on the bird squeaker, meeting some of my friends (the toy korimako/bellbird, pīwakawaka, kererū and tui) and listening to the songs they sing and discussing some of their characterstics like beaks. And so exciting … we were joined by a pīwakawaka and two kererū. One kererū was preening and a feather floated down to us - a treasure/taonga for their classroom nature table. We read some of “Whose beak is that” and left this and “Whose feet are those?” with the class to read more about bird beaks and feet. We noticed the wet on the grass, learning that it is dew, not rain, and that you often see this in Autumn/Ngahuru. We looked for bugs and learnt that the hill is a sand dune. Great observation in the ngahere today.
The 29th March and after heading towards bush kindy the past few weeks, it was off in a different direction today into the Otatara Reserve, with our looking eyes turned on to find some more NZ native trees. Horopito and tōtara are well known now, and today we discovered some more Otatara School class trees - kapuka, mānuka, kōtukutuku, kahikatea, tī kōuka and kōwhai. Using the “find a leaf” cards we looked closely at the pictures and matched them to leaves in nature - looking at leaf size, shape and colour. We also noticed lots of berries on different plants - including on the mingimingi. Meeting the kahikatea was great as this is going to be their new class tree once they move classroom following renovations. We had pīwakawaka and kererū join us and we heard tui and bellbirds. Another great session in the bush.
5th April and it was off around the boundary of school with the reserve - so much to see in this small area. We did a treasure hunt looking for seeds. We found so many different seeds today - either as part of a berry or in a seed pod. Lots of rattling to see if there were seeds inside pods. Seeds discovered today included flax, mingimingi, tōtara, kōhūhū (so sticky), kōwhai and acorns. We learnt that seeds have a hard shell and on the inside is enough food for a plant to grow. We used our bodies to roll into a seed shape and then imagined our roots growing down into the ground, and shoots growing up - turning our bodies into seedlings (small plants). We saw that some seeds are big and others are small, and some can be blown by the wind, or eaten by birds and pooped out elsewhere in the forest to grow.
12th April we went into the bush with our birds, and found material to build them a nest. We looked at the real nest and noted it had twigs and mud. How clever birds are to build a nest just with a beak and legs! The class heard how different birds build different types of nest - the kererū makes a very simple messy nest of sticks and hopes for the best, while other birds like the pīwakawaka weave immaculate homes to lay their eggs and raise the baby chicks. We also talked about birds that are nocturnal. Birds not only have different beaks and different feet, but they build different types of nests and live in different places (or habitats). It was then back to school to name a plant the class had noticed growing outside the library - we had to use the iNaturalist app to help us! To finish of the term we learnt the words and actions to a native bird song - lots of fun! A great group of learners.
Bronwyn
Posted: 12 April 2022