Otatara School - Kōwhai Class Term 1 2022
The Kōwhai class of year 1’s started the term bush visits on 8th March by first coming up with great ways to look after ourselves, our classmates and the environment of the reserve when we go bush. It was great to see this put into practise as we wandered, seeing lots of interesting things in the reserve. We used our senses of sight, hearing and feel to immerse ourselves in what lives in the reserve. Great descriptive words were contributed as we felt the different leaves and bark of the forest, sparking some ideas for future class writing. Keeping silent led to an interest in what lives in the forest. On the 22nd March we headed to the bush with our nature journals and hula hoops! Finding an area of forest floor we drew what we noticed from within our hula hoop circle, taking close notice of the lines, spots and other patterns in nature. Some great observations made. We tried to make the link between the “kiwi who saved the forest” story and birds all living in different layers of the forest, to the different plants that we find in different layers of the forest. We learnt and sang the “kiwi bird” song with actions. Then we sat in a porowhita/circle of our own and listened for the forest sounds - lots of birds. We used the bird squeaker and learnt to make bird sounds using our knuckles and wet lips. On the 5th April and it was off to do a treasure hunt looking for seeds. We found so many different seeds today. Seeds discovered today included flax, mingimingi, tōtara, kōhūhū (so sticky), blackberries, toetoe, kōwhai and acorns. We learnt that seeds have a hard shell (a bit like a helmet) 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.
Bronwyn
Posted: 11 April 2022