Going bush and noticing lots of interesting aspects about leaves, trees and seasonal changes, these two classes then recorded what they had noticed and learnt about NZ native trees and in particular their school classroom trees in their nature journals. Leaf rubbings, tracing around the outline of leaf edges and recording their observations was complimented by well thought out questions and queries about trees, their life cycles and how they grow. These classes were espeically interested in the roles of birds with their classroom trees - from drinking the nectar of the flowers and pollinating these plants, eating the berries, to pooping the seeds out!
Bronwyn
Posted: 25 March 2021
Your Bioblitz Mission: find as many different species of bugs as you can…
Four amazing Year 1 & 2 classes from Windsor North School spent the day finding as many different bugs as they could, following on from all their learning about bugs this term at school. The students prior knowledge and inquisitiveness resulted in insects being found in all kinds of places - the paddock, under logs, in the bush, in the pond, and even in the worm farm! Questions and discussions highlighted where insects live, what they eat and who eats them, body parts, some basic identification and classifying. Amazing connections were made between the roles and importance of insects and human existence!
Bronwyn
Posted: 25 March 2021
Visiting with an Aurora College year 9 group to help with the identification of natives and the planting out a small section of their school garden section in these natives, resulted in not only the area being planted out with appropriate natives for the planting area, but a first discussion about a number of projects that could occur at this school site. Great connections were made and this is a school with great ideas to be planned out. I look forward to them visiting the Southland Community Nursery and seeing what areas of their school could look like.
Bronwyn
Posted: 25 March 2021
Learning about the rich biodiversity of life on a rocky shore and how to preserve these environments was the focus of an outreach visit to Ruru School, adding to observations and what already learnt on the fieldtrips that Ruru have done to this amazing environment type. Using photos, a few samples collected by Ruru, the artwork of the Southland Community Nursery and the Southern NZ Rocky Shore Guide we identified and talked about the characteristics that some of the common animals and plants living on the rocky shoreline have that allow them to survive in this constantly changing habitat. We learnt that sea tulips (a sea squirt) are an animal, not a plant and learnt how they feed while not being able to move like most other animals. Chitons with their eight shell plates, along with limpets, barnacles, anemones, rock pool fish and gulls were all creatures that the class discovered and their mission is to observe these on their next rocky shore exploration. Food webs, the tidal zones, the importance of rocky shores and how to protect and preserve them, and the connection between land and the coast rounded off our classroom discussion.
Bronwyn
Posted: 18 March 2021
We welcomed the staff from Otatara School to showcase our education centre floor map and how it can be used to tell the stories of Otatara - early settlement and access, whaling and sealing, the bush and sawmilling, flaxmilling, the New River Estuary shipping and reclamation, the moving school site, Sandy Point, recreation, and places we value today. After orientating ourselves we connected with those places that have special meaning to us, then information, photos, newspaper articles and props were used to tell many interesting stories, including about elephants, rabbits and love. The history of the Otatara environments and the people and places is amazing and intriguing and we had fun learning all about it.
Bronwyn
Posted: 18 March 2021
