Enviroschools Marlborough, Author at Enviroschools Marlborough

December 17, 2020

Enviroschools on camp at Pine Valley

Term 4 is traditionally a great term for getting out-of-doors and into the bush or stream, especially if you are on camp! At Mill Flat in Pine Valley, Anna and Angela have been working as a team so that students are able to study the diversity of life in the river and in the bush surrounding it as part of their camp activities. Mill Flat is the perfect location to explore our wonderful diversity of native insects, animals, freshwater life and plants. Adult (winged) Stenoperla Stenoperla (aquatic) nymph One of the insect species living in Pine Valley Stream is the endemic large green stonefly ‘Stenoperla’. Its presence in the awa...

by Enviroschools Marlborough

September 24, 2020

Enviroschools stories

Working with Envirogroups

Our Environmental Education team have been enjoying the opportunity to work with some of our Marlborough school envirogroups this term. Witherlea School’s 'Green Ninjas' have been meeting each week to explore what sustainability initiatives the school already has in place, and to create a map of where these things are happening. They are now exploring how they can gather ideas from the rest of the students, plus teachers, support staff, whānau and the wider school community to develop a whole school vision for enviro at Witherlea. They are practising some fun activities to help everyone think about how they would like their school to be, and students will share these with teachers at a staff...

by Enviroschools Marlborough

September 20, 2020

News-and-funding

Funding for student-led action projects

Have an action project in mind, but need some funds to make it happen? The Enviroschools Marlborough team have a small annual fund to help schools take action in the environment. It is as simple as sending an email to Annie (annie.mcdonald@marlborough.govt.nz) with information about what your students want to achieve, how much it will cost, and how the money will help them. We might email you back with a few questions if we need more details, but normally it's a quick and easy process. For more possibilities for funding projects big and small, take a look at our 'funding' padlet: https://padlet.com/EnviroschoolsMarlborough/funding. We'll continue to update this as new opportunities become available. ...

by Enviroschools Marlborough

June 29, 2020

Enviroschools stories

Harvest time for students

Autumn is harvest-time in our school's edible gardens: a time to marvel at what we grew and to enjoy some tasty garden treats! Grovetown School had a group cooking session using fruit from their orchard to make blackberry and apple tarts for the whole school. Laden trees of plums, apples and pears ensured they shared their mahi and kai with the wider school community. A bumper crop of late potatoes was the harvest highlight at Picton School. Using the tuakana-teina buddy system, older students introduced new children to the garden while digging potatoes. It was a great way to teach how to safely use the garden tools, but it soon became less about the tools...

by Enviroschools Marlborough

May 14, 2020

Enviroschools stories

Enviroschools Student Workshop

Students and teachers attend 'Leading Change' Workshop in Term 1 After a successful teacher workshop with guest expert Bek Galloway, we were excited to welcome 64 students and their teachers to a “Leading change” workshop. The workshop’s aim was to give student leaders skills and activities to take back to their Envirogroups and schools. Bek ran two sessions helping students to learn about purposeful action and perspectives. Our Education Team ran some leadership games and we had presentations from four schools and one kindergarten sharing the process they had used to take action in their schools or communities. Inspiring presentations from local schools and kindergartens Picton Kindergarten gave a presentation on their monarch butterfly project, including...

by Enviroschools Marlborough

December 20, 2019

Enviroschools stories

Hands-on learning about photosynthesis

At Witherlea School, the Term 3 inquiry topic was science: the perfect fit for gardening which is all about science. Students investigated photosynthesis: the process that plants use to make their food. The children learnt why the leaves are so important. They are mini food factories! The leaves use sunlight, water and carbon dioxide to make sugar which gives the plants the energy they need to grow. Chlorophyll is the amazing compound that mixes the ingredients to make the sugar. The whole process takes place just under the surface of the leaves in the chloroplasts. They found that the process of photosynthesis is not only important for the plants but also for us: this is because...

by Enviroschools Marlborough

December 19, 2019

Enviroschools stories

Blenheim School: Kaitiaki for the awa

Tamariki at Blenheim School have been thinking about how they care for a place that is very special to their school: The Taylor River. The Envirogroup got together to think about kaitiakitanga, and talked about all of the different kaitiaki that care for the Taylor awa. These include ātua (e.g.: Tangaroa and Tamanuiterā), taonga species (e.g. tuna | eels), iwi/mana whenua, council, and community members. The students discovered that they can be kaitiaki for the awa too, as the more kaitiaki the awa has, the healthier the awa will be! They all had loads of examples of why the river is special to them. It turns out that they have already been doing some things...

by Enviroschools Marlborough

December 18, 2019

Enviroschools stories

Learning about the humble spud

What do you get when you cross an elephant with a potato? MASHED POTATO! Term 3 is a popular time of year in the Kids Edible Gardens. For most children participating, they are chitting (sprouting) potatoes, eagerly waiting to plant them into buckets for class potato growing competitions or planting into their garden beds. There is a lot of discussion as to how they will cook them: mashed with butter and cheese, roasted with summer herbs, added to boiled eggs as a salad or simply boiled with mint and eaten with lots of dipping butter! The most excitement, however, is digging them up before leaving school for their long summer holiday. There is, of course, much...

by Enviroschools Marlborough

Author: Enviroschools Marlborough