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Enviroschools stories

Enviroschools Marlborough / Enviroschools stories (Page 8)
Enviroschools Silver
July 10, 2019
Enviroschools stories

Kindergartens shine silver!

Two of our kindergartens reflected at Enviroschools Silver in Term 2: congratulations to Picton Kindergarten and Seymour Kindergarten. Tamariki at Picton Kindergarten have been doing lots of inspiring work in their local environment.  They visited Kaipupu Point Wildlife Sanctuary and planted native trees, helped to clean up local beaches, and learnt how to care for the creatures in the ocean.  They even upcycled old tee-shirts to make their own carry bags, which they can use instead of plastic ones! At Seymour Kindergarten the vision is 'looking after Papatūānuku, so she can look after us'.  Tamariki and their whanau learn about the natural environment in a hands-on way.  The kindergarten has a worm farm, compost area,...

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by Enviroschools Marlborough
BioBlitz Renwick School
July 2, 2019
Enviroschools stories

Renwick students lead BioBlitz

Students in Renwick School's 'Green Ferns' enviro-group organised and ran a BioBlitz this term, to find and identify many of the different kinds of living things at their school. The whole school was involved in the BioBlitz, with students ranging from new entrants through to Year 8s scouring the school grounds for living things to study.  The edible garden and school stream area were a focus, after the Green Ferns identified them as potential biodiversity hot spots. The Green Ferns, supported by Ms Tullet, did lots of mahi to prepare for the day.  They planned how the day would run, with different classes taking part at different times of the day and in different parts of the...

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by Enviroschools Marlborough
Room 12's recycling bins
July 2, 2019
Enviroschools stories

Recycling bin revamp at Bohally

Bohally Intermediate's classroom recycling bins got a makeover this term, as classes battled it out to win a mufti day. Each class was challenged to revamp their bins for general recycling and GOOS (Good On One Side) paper, in a competition run by the school's enviro-team.  The competition aimed to make students and teachers think about recycling, and to make sure that the bins were easy to find in the classroom.  Some classes went all out, completely redesigning their bins from the ground up, while others worked to make what they already had more eye-catching.  Judging took creativity, wow-factor, functionality, and the use of recycled materials into consideration, and gave bonus points to classes that had...

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by Enviroschools Marlborough
Hidden Treasures at MGC
July 1, 2019
Enviroschools stories

Thrift shop open for business at MGC

Marlborough Girls' College students have a new addition to their school: a thrift shop where students can recycle and purchase used clothing. A visit to Nelson College for Girls last year sparked the idea for this exciting new venture.  Since then, a group of keen students have worked with supportive MGC staff to take the thrift shop from idea to reality.  The students have created an inviting shop, bursting with donated clothing, shoes, and accessories.  They have used recycled materials as much as possible, including upcycled and repurposed driftwood poles, secondhand shelves, and picture frames.  Students wanting to dress up for house sports days and competitions will be able to select clothes and accessories from the 'house...

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by Enviroschools Marlborough
Tamariki share their love of monarchs
June 10, 2019
Enviroschools stories

Tamariki share love of monarch butterflies

In April a group of tamariki and kaiako from Picton Kindergarten visited the Kuini Harata Kaitiaki (Queen Charlotte College Kaitaiki team) to deliver a presentation about monarch butterflies. The tamariki were very knowledgeable and explained the life cycle of monarch butterflies, their food source, how to protect them, and what predators they are vulnerable to. The QCC Kaitaki students also learnt about the important work happening with the Monarch Butterfly tagging programme, so we all can find out where our Marlborough Monarchs go to 'overwinter'. Picton Kindergarten kindly gifted the kaitiaki group some swan plant seeds and their very own caterpillar who they have named 'Jo'.  Jo is doing very nicely, eating lots and getting big and fat.  The QCC...

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by Enviroschools Marlborough
Wrappin' at Blenheim School
May 1, 2019
Enviroschools stories

Wrappin’ at Blenheim School

Last term, students at Blenheim School took action to make their lunchboxes more sustainable. The whole school was involved in a beeswax wrap making day, where each student made and took home their own wrap.  Led by teacher aide and Enviroschools lead Tracy Holdaway, the wraps were made using a special recipe of beeswax, jojoba oil and resin (recipe and ingredients from Pure Nature), which resulted in a beautifully soft, pliable, and slightly adhesive wrap.  Once the students had finished, 60 more wraps were made to sell at a very affordable price from the school office.  The Envirogroup are hoping that this initiative will raise awareness about alternatives to single-use plastic wrappers in lunchboxes, and see a...

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by Enviroschools Marlborough
School Strike 4 Climate Action
March 27, 2019
Enviroschools stories

School Strike 4 Climate Action

A large group of empowered students and their supporters joined the School Strike 4 Climate Action at Seymour Square on March 15th.  The students did themselves proud: peacefully, positively and enthusiastically making their voices and their message heard.  The organising groups from Marlborough Boys’ and Marlborough Girls’ colleges did an impressive job of organising the local protest, and in the process, formed some new links between the enviro groups at the two schools.  They are now hoping to work together on some other projects, so watch this space! ...

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by Enviroschools Marlborough
Busy bees at Witherlea
December 15, 2018
Enviroschools stories

Busy bees at Witherlea

Students at Witherlea School have been busy taking action to reduce their lunch waste. After doing some work around waste and finding out that most people throw away up to 45 kg of plastic each year, Witherlea students wanted to do something to help.  They decided to begin their battle against plastic by introducing beeswax wraps to replace cling film in school lunchboxes.  Their aim is for each student in the school to make their own beeswax wrap, using MDC's beeswax wrap kit, locally-sourced beeswax, and cotton fabric.  So far, 80 children have made their own wrap, and the rest of the school will follow suit in Term 1 next year.  The students love...

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by Enviroschools Marlborough
Recycling soft plastic
December 4, 2018
Enviroschools stories

Community effort to recycle soft plastic

An exciting new collaboration between Riverlands School and local business Wineworks has led to the school establishing its own soft plastic recycling programme. Concerned that soft plastic wrappings commonly found in school lunchboxes weren’t able to be recycled along with the rest of the school’s plastics, students Sophie and Maia investigated possible options for dealing with this waste.  A connection with nearby business Wineworks, via a school parent, led to discussions between the students and Wineworks staff.  Wineworks recycle their own soft plastic, and decided to help, by adding soft plastics from Riverlands School to their programme.  The students visited Wineworks to learn about how the plastic is recycled, and Wineworks provided the school...

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by Enviroschools Marlborough
Resource Recovery Centre
November 22, 2018
Enviroschools stories

Tour Blenheim’s Resource Recovery Centre

Take a virtual tour of Blenheim's Resource Recovery Centre, Waste Sorting Centre, and Green Waste facility with students from Fairhall School. Emily, Fynn, Allie, and Max have made this very professional video that takes you behind the scenes to find out all about what happens to Blenheim's waste.  From recycling to reuse, compost to hazardous waste disposal - they cover it all! https://youtu.be/2yw5mkcVmvc This video has been added to our Enviroschools Marlborough google drive: you will find it in the Zero Waste folder, along with heaps of other digital resources.  You can also learn more about Marlborough's facilities for dealing with waste on the Marlborough District Council website.  Either search 'waste' and go from there, or visit this...

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by Enviroschools Marlborough