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Enviroschools Marlborough / Enviroschools stories (Page 11)
riverlands cloches
September 5, 2017
Enviroschools stories

Kids’ Edible Gardens Update

Riverlands School Children at Riverlands School began last term’s ‘Edible Gardens’ sessions by introducing both themselves and their garden to Mrs A: their new gardening facilitator!  While walking around the garden and showing Mrs A the vegetables growing in it, they also checked for seeds that could be saved for future plantings.  They found some bean seeds inside their dried-out pods.  Together they picked them, and put them into a bag to store for planting out in the spring. Having not been used for a number of weeks, the garden needed tidying.  While the students were weeding, they discussed the topic of composting, and learnt that it was all about putting goodness back into the...

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by Enviroschools Marlborough
Tuamarina School Pollard Park
September 4, 2017
Enviroschools stories

Tua Marina School visit Pollard Park

Last week, the children in Room 4 at Tua Marina School spent a fabulous sunny day visiting Pollard Park in Blenheim. The park curator, Brad, met the group, and showed them the huge flower beds.  Next they delved into the potager garden, where they learnt about growing fruit trees, herbs, and vegetables, and the importance of growing flowering herbs to attract bees into the garden.  The students were very interested to learn how a large garden and park is cared for, and they also had the opportunity to discover some of the history of the park.  After lunch, the children chose a plant and made their own botanical drawings, successfully using their artistic and observational skills to create informative and...

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by Enviroschools Marlborough
Fairhall School Kids Edible Gardens
August 30, 2017
Enviroschools stories

Kids’ Edible Gardens Update

Fairhall School The focus for Term 2 was compost making, starting with the critters that help with that process – the ‘Recycling Gang’!  The children laid out samples of compost onto tarpaulins, then used their observation skills to look for and identify some of the bugs living in their compost heap.  They found worms, slaters, centipedes and slugs.  Next, they watched a video clip on a bug that we don’t want in New Zealand: the brown marmorated stink bug.  Now that these students know how to identify insects, they will be able to be super sleuths in our gardens, protecting our fruit and vegetables from unwanted invaders. The next topic explored was winter pruning.  The...

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by Enviroschools Marlborough
Gardening at Blenheim School
August 18, 2017
Enviroschools stories

Kids’ Edible Gardens update

Blenheim School It was a very wet Term 2 at Blenheim School – it seemed to rain every gardening day!  The children found plenty to do inside the classroom.  They investigated how plants talk to them and what it means when the leaves of some plants turn yellow.  Their citrus trees had yellow leaves, and the children discovered that the trees were probably suffering from a lack of nitrogen or iron.  Between showers, the children gave them a good feed with layers of lawn clippings, blood and bone, compost and mulch.  Back inside, they talked about replenishing the soil and resting beds. Having planned to build another compost heap, it rained yet again.  Instead, the...

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by Enviroschools Marlborough
Bottle compost at Witherlea School
August 10, 2017
Enviroschools stories

Kids’ Edible Gardens update

Although it has been cold and wet outside, Marlborough students have been keeping up with their winter gardening tasks.  Over the next few weeks, we'll be sharing some of the learning that went on in Term 2 at schools in Marlborough's 'Kids' Edible Gardens' programme. Witherlea School While the growth of vegetables slowed with the onset of winter, the children kept busy by investigating composting.  Before getting started, they looked at soil with very little organic matter or compost and compared it to soil in their vegetable garden.  The soil from the vegetable garden was darker, fluffier and had lots of insects living in it.  It was a good way to learn how compost improves the soil.  After talking about what goes...

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by Enviroschools Marlborough
Grovetown School planting
August 1, 2017
Enviroschools stories

Stream-side planting at Grovetown School

Hard-working students, teachers and whānau at Grovetown School came together on the last day of Term 2 to plant nearly 600 native shrubs and trees alongside the school creek. Most of the plants were donated by Champion Freight, and some were grown at school.

The planting project followed a ‘School Creek Day’, when the whole school spent time learning about the creek, and thinking about questions like: ‘Where does the water in our creek come from?’ 'What would we have seen here if we stood here 400 years ago?’ ‘How healthy is the land beside the creek?’ ‘Where does the creek flow to’, and ‘What creatures live in and around our creek?’ Once they get...

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by Enviroschools Marlborough
Seymour Kindergarten Bike Track
July 27, 2017
Enviroschools stories

New Bike Track at Seymour Kindergarten

Tamariki at Seymour Kindergarten celebrated the opening of their new bike track on Tuesday morning.  It looks amazing, and will clearly be well-used and encourage the tamariki into another outdoor space. This is the first project to have support from the Marlborough Enviroschools Action Fund alongside some great community and business input.  Applications for the action fund are open until the end of this term. We encourage you to work with your students to put in an application, and look forward to seeing more innovative ideas....

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by Enviroschools Marlborough
Bike to School Day
July 6, 2017
Enviroschools stories

Bike to School Day

Despite it being the shortest day of the year, students at all three Marlborough colleges celebrated 'Bike to School Day' last week.  Students who travelled to school by bike, foot, skateboard or bus were rewarded with hot drinks and prizes. Three Queen Charlotte College students biked all the way from Havelock, picking up another cyclist from Momorangi Bay along the way (pictured above)!  Top marks for dedication, people! Thank you to our environmental leaders at Marlborough Girls' College, Marlborough Boys' College and Queen Charlotte College for making a difference by organising the celebrations and encouraging their classmates to consider using environmentally-friendly transport to get to school.  We can't wait to see what else you have planned for...

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by Enviroschools Marlborough
Plastic Free July
July 6, 2017
Enviroschools stories

Plastic Free July

It's not just July, it's 'Plastic Free July'! A group of students at Witherlea School have got a head-start on Plastic Free July, and have spent all term learning about what happens to our waste.  They have visited Marlborough’s landfill and the resource recovery centre, which has given them a whole new perspective on how much work goes into taking care of the things that they have thrown ‘away’.  Following their exploration, the students have taken action, by designing and then creating useful objects out of recycled materials – particularly single-use plastics. Check out some of their creations:

    Using plastic bags and bottles to make something useful slows their journey to the recycling centre and...

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by Enviroschools Marlborough
Matariki at Dawn
June 29, 2017
Enviroschools stories

Marlborough Kindergartens celebrate Matariki at dawn

Marlborough Kindergartens celebrated Matariki with a special event at Monkey Bay early last Sunday morning. Children and teachers from kindergartens throughout Marlborough were welcomed to Monkey Bay by the sound of the putatara.  They sang waiata, enjoyed shared kai, listened to korero about the Matariki story, and were treated to a bonfire and a beautiful dawn at the beach. The celebration, which is in its third year, was the culmination of all of the learning and celebrations that have been going on at individual kindergartens throughout June.   It is wonderful to see our tamariki, whānau and kaiako coming together for this very special New Zealand celebration.  We would love to hear about other celebrations that happened around Marlborough...

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by Enviroschools Marlborough