Te Whanau Hou Grovetown Lagoon visit
Meet just over the bridge beside the carpark on Steam Wharf Road Thursday 20th June, 3.30 - 5 pm Originally named Big Bush by Settlers, Te Whanau Hou Grovetown Lagoon is one of just a few natural wetlands remaining on the Wairau Plain. The beautiful oxbow lake was formed when the Wairau River changed its course roughly 155 years ago. Hear more about Grovetown Lagoon, its history, native flora and fauna as we walk around this amazing Place . Bring walk clothes , comfortable walking shoes and a water bottle. RSVP to Angela angelg@wenties.nz Fri 14 June...
Read More On a cool Spring day on the Taylor River the 21st poem was unveiled.
Written by Mia Lasenby from Wairau Valley School, this new poem forms part of the Writers Walk. Springlands School students who were passionate about the environment start the project in 2009. The students had been learning all about the Taylor River including its water quality and came up with an idea that would make a difference then and in the future.
With support from Marlborough District Council, who provided the large rocks. Sowmans Funeral Home who set the poems on plaques. Cathee Wilks and Ali Kay, teachers and project champions. 14 years on, the project is still going strong. They have...
Read More Hear how Enviroschools resources and activities can be used to support you in teaching the New Zealand History Curriculum.
Explore links and activities that are place based, experiential, and grounded in local Wairau spaces, landscapes, and stories.
Open to Principals, Curriculum and Enviroschools Lead Teachers.
Thursday 18 May 3.30 – 5 pm
Join us from 3.15 for coffee and cake before hand.
Venue: REAP 65 Seymour street, Blenheim.
RSVP Friday 12 May
angela@wenties.nz...
Read More Linkwater School is celebrating winning this year’s Lions Youth Environment Award for the upper South Island and West Coast region.
Linkwater School is a small rural Green-Gold Enviroschool in the Marlborough region, so named because it sits between Tōtaranui/Queen Charlotte Sound and Keneperu Sound.
Students and teachers at the school are passionate about their environment. Much of their curriculum is based on students’ learning about and taking action for sustainability, supported by their wider community. Linkwater School is also part of the Marlborough District Council's “Kids’ Edible Gardens” programme.
Earlier this term Linkwater submitted their Sustainable Outdoor Classroom development to the Lions Youth Award for District 202E (upper South Island and West Coast) supported by the...
Read More Grovetown School’s Waihi class has embarked on a special project this year to save the fantails in their school forest.
Identify
The project came about as part of an inquiry: ‘How is our place unique?’. The class began by exploring and learning about the native, endemic and introduced animals and plants in their school. During this exploration, some of the children found empty fantail nests which prompted thinking about why the nests might be empty.
Some of the students’ ideas were:
“rats have eaten them" - "it is too cold for the eggs and chicks so birds don't lay eggs in winter" - "the fantails think it’s too dangerous because of the rats and possibly stoats so they won't...
Read More Springlands Kindergarten successfully reflected at Enviroschools Silver this term, the day before the national lockdown in August!
It was fantastic to see all the great work that kaiako and tamariki have been doing at Springlands Kindergarten, especially linking to the Enviroschools guiding principle of Sustainable Communities.
They are a green-fingered group and have been growing and making lots of things to share. We especially loved the relationship they have formed with a local rest home. They collected and made plum jam and then shared it with the residents at the rest home. How cool is that?
There were some other clever sustainable ideas like homemade natural glitter, hand-dyed shirts using natural plant dyes and some special activities...
Read More Seymour Kindergarten's new butterfly house has become a cherished space, with tamariki and kaiako benefiting from the opportunities it provides.
The different life stages of monarch butterflies have long been an area of fascination for tamariki at Seymour Kindergarten, and kaiako have supported their learning in a variety of ways over the years. Their latest innovation has been the construction of an impressive butterfly house.
Tamariki have experimented with different methods to find the best way to capture caterpillar eggs and transfer them into the butterfly house. They tried taking eggs from the swan plants outside and raising them inside before transferring them. Sometimes this was successful, however, it took a lot of work as...
Read More Students at Grovetown School have created a ‘bird scavenger hunt’ resource for use at Grovetown Lagoon.
Grovetown School has had a long-standing connection with the nearby lagoon, being involved in regular whole-school tree-planting days and hosting a shade house where lagoon volunteers propagate and grow native plant seedlings. This project was part of a student inquiry looking at connections with the local community and local places.
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- Shadehouse at Grovetown School
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- Grovetown Lagoon
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- The ‘hide’ is a great place for bird-watching.
Students in Waverley class came up with the idea of creating a resource during a class visit to the lagoon when they photographed and observed the birds that they saw. Students worked in pairs to research one of the birds that they had seen and to make a...
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