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Enviroschools stories

Enviroschools Marlborough / Enviroschools stories (Page 8)
Mudfish project
October 22, 2019
Enviroschools stories

Students study endangered species

The children in Rooms 3 and 4 at Richmond View School worked hard throughout Term 3 investigating New Zealand’s native endangered species of fish and birds. Each student picked a species to study, researching their habitat, adaptations and the issues that have put the species in danger.  Alarmingly, they found that New Zealand has 4000 species currently on DOC’s endangered list. The children also discovered plants, insects and animals are all connected. In te reo Māori, this is called whanaungatanga, and it describes why protecting our native biodiversity is so important. Losing one species has a carry-on effect; if we lose a tree, an insect can lose its home or a bird may lose its...

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by Enviroschools Marlborough
Renwick clean up
October 22, 2019
Enviroschools stories

Enviro week at Renwick School

Ellen Theobald, co-leader of Renwick School's 'Green Ferns' enviro group, wrote this article to tell us about the school's recent Enviro Week activities. Our Green Ferns organised a really fun Enviro Week to coincide with the Climate Strikes and the work done by Climate Karanga and George Varney (Climate Youth Action Team) at the tree planting opportunity that was offered to schools. We also decided that we need to raise the profile of recycling within our classrooms as school systems changed and we needed to educate everyone to let them know what to do.

The Green Ferns ran a competition where classes were encouraged to decorate their cardboard and paper recycling bins (Thanks...

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by Enviroschools Marlborough
Canvastown School House plants
September 12, 2019
Enviroschools stories

Canvastown kids explore their Living Landscape

The kids at Canvastown School have been fully absorbed in discovering what creatures live in the school’s wild places this year. They have poked under logs and in tree-stumps, crawled through long grass, shaken the branches of trees and picked through the edible gardens, seeking out all manner of living things. They used the Living Landscapes kit to take a closer look at the birds, bugs, plants and fungi, finding names for them and learning about their interesting habits.  Angela visited and helped them with some activities from Tiro One One - our Marlborough living landscapes resource.

We flipped over a tree trunk and found heaps of insects on the bottom. - Finn Wendy from...

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by Enviroschools Marlborough
NZ Biodiversity strategy
September 10, 2019
Enviroschools stories

Students have their say on NZ’s biodiversity plan

St Mary's Envirogroup students submit on NZ's biodiversity strategy. Can you imagine what our world would look like if there was only one type of tree or bird or one type of apple to eat? The children in St Mary’s Envirogroup didn’t want to imagine that type of environment.  Healthy biodiversity is important to them.  They know that Aotearoa New Zealand’s biodiversity is amazing! About 90 % of our insects, 80 % of trees, ferns and flowering plants, 25 % of bird species, all 60 reptiles, 4 frogs and 2 bats are found nowhere else on earth. The current Government strategy on biodiversity is 20 years old and expires in 2020.  The Department of Conservation is putting...

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by Enviroschools Marlborough
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