Enviroschools stories Archives - Page 4 of 12

February 21, 2023

Witherlea School’s Ngahere expansion

The Enviro Team at Witherlea School were excited to be granted with an Enviroschools Action Fund for the expansion of their School Ngahere. They used the money to purchase a variety of native trees, climbers and shrubs to add to the expansion of their School Ngahere. Originally they had two separate forests divided by a flying fox. When the flying fox came down they were left with a large gravel area. They filled in this gravel area with soil and purchased native plants with the Action Fund. The children chose plants and trees that would attract native birds and a variety of insects. A big thank you from the Enviro Team! ...

by Enviroschools Marlborough

February 7, 2023

Enviroschools stories

Building a Sustainable Community through Kids Edible Gardens

Initially organised for the beginning of the year to kick start our focus on Sustainable Communities, it was great to finally see this workshop take place in term 4. Tamanuitera shone, though Tawhirimatea made his presence known, and we were able to start in the Kids Edible Gardens of Blenheim School talking about some of the companion plants we could see growing and nibbling on the new leaves of the prolific broad beans. Identify Getting down to the nitty gritty we identified what a Sustainable Community could look like. We found that in building a Sustainable Community we are also building our hauora as we connect with nature and foster relationships with people around us. Explore Kids...

by Enviroschools Marlborough

January 20, 2023

Enviroschools stories

Nature Play – Springlands Kindergarten

Under the warm rays of Tamanuitera| the sun the tamariki| children at Springlands Kindergarten gather together ready for their weekly hikoi| walk to McKendry Park. A place that they have become very familiar with and comfortable to explore, discover and play. As they pass through the kura| school grounds they wave and say hello to past students before arriving at the large open space. The park is spotted with multiple plum trees and a gentle stream running down one side. Identify Recognising the importance of connecting with nature and the benefits it offers, the kaiako at Springlands Kindergarten decided that they wanted to find a way to integrate more of this into their programme. They identified...

by Enviroschools Marlborough

October 6, 2022

Enviroschools stories

Renwick Kindergarten Enviroschools journey with Rousehill Reserve

When we started out on our Enviroschool journey in 2013, it started out with wanting tamariki | children and whānau | families to have a sense of belonging here at Renwick Kindergarten. We never envisioned what we would learn, create and change along the way. Our decision to weave the Enviroschools guiding principles into the fabric of our Kindergarten saw us gain Bronze in June 2014; Silver in December 2016 and GreenGold in February 2019. Bringing in water to water the trees Identifying the current situation: As part of our mission towards Silver, our practice and thinking evolved. From promoting sustainability within our own Kindergarten, our eyes looked towards the horizon to...

by Enviroschools Marlborough

September 27, 2022

Enviroschools stories

Classification of Living Things

The students at Richmond View School became Botanists this term as they explored the classification of native plants on the Taylor Awa. People have always given names to things that they see, including plants and animals. So, of course most of us turn to names as the first form of classification. It was a scientist, Linnaeus, that first developed a hierarchal naming structure (of 7 parts no less). This conveyed information about what a living thing was and also its closest relatives. Earlier this term, if you happened to be walking your dog down the Taylor Awa, you may have come across Richmond View School students studying the Tui to Town plantings. Their inquiry for...

by Enviroschools Marlborough

July 20, 2022

Enviroschools stories

Matariki Planting Project

Credit: video by Toby Bell Teamwork makes the dream work ….. What a great team we all made. Matariki 3 days 3000 trees 15 schools 206 students 60 parents and teachers 12 organizing volunteers per day 3 planting crew -1 C frost 1 awesome native ngahere planting project!!!

After weeks of rain, Tamanuitera made his presence known by bringing us beautiful fine weather as we came together to plant a new ngahere to celebrate Matariki. We had put an invitation out to all Marlborough Enviroschools to take part in a collaborative planting project on the Wither Hills and had a great uptake. We were blown away by the enthusiasm and spirit of the students who participated. Each session of planting was finished in record time, with...

by Enviroschools Marlborough

May 23, 2022

Enviroschools stories General

Wētā houses at Picton Kindergarten

The tamariki at Picton Kindergarten have been learning all about Wētā. This evolved through their exploration of te ngahere and how to care for the native flora and fauna through pest control. It began when one of the tamariki discovered a wētā family in her woodshed. She recognised it as one of our native insects and sent in photos to Kindergarten for everyone to see. Jo, then bought in a real live wētā from her home and they made a habitat for it. This lead to learning about what they like to eat, where they live, how many eggs they lay as well as what predators endanger them. When the tamariki learnt that cats, dogs and hedgehogs endanger wētā, they...

by Enviroschools Marlborough

May 9, 2022

Enviroschools stories

St Mary’s Fruit Tree Orchard

St Mary's School Enviro Team wanted to provide fresh fruit for their hāpori whānui and community. They wanted to encourage students to eat more fruit, learn about growing and taking care of fruit trees as well as encourage wildlife to their school like insects to pollinate the flowers. To do this their Enviro Team proposed a space that they thought would be a great place to make an orchard. It was beside an existing garden shed, sheltered from the wind and easily accessible by vehicles. The area was very dry though and the rainfall in Blenheim is often low. So they knew they would also need to think about how they could provide a watering...

by Enviroschools Marlborough

April 11, 2022

Enviroschools stories

Fairhall’s Native Garden Entrance

Fairhall School's native garden entrance has a makeover Fairhall School has a meandering native garden created to grow beside a stream space that only has water in it for part of the year. It has a bridge over this space and is an area the school highly values. Over the years it has been added to and this time it was the native garden entrance that got a makeover. One of the senior classes and their teacher has been busy doing some planning and work to the entrance. They recently overhauled the Marlborough Rock Daisy garden at the entrance to the garden/ngahere. As part of this space they have created a bark mountain to...

by Enviroschools Marlborough

December 21, 2021

Enviroschools stories General

Kids Edible Gardens at Redwoodtown School

Redwoodtown School have been busy redesigning their Kids Edible Gardens Like many schools around Marlborough, Redwoodtown School is a construction zone of new classrooms. As part of the renovations, a decision was made to shift the Kids Edible Gardens and update the garden area. The Envirogroup took up the challenge to investigate where the best place would be and design a new Kids Edible Garden. Although it was tempting to rush in and build a new garden, they wanted to engage the whole school and seek feedback on how all the students would like their gardens to be. “It took a lot of time and effort. We thought it would be something that was quick and...

by Enviroschools Marlborough