A key aspect to the Enviroschools journey is reflection. “Reflection is an integral part of the learning cycle, helping us to make sense of our experiences, deepen our learning, and gain direction for the journey ahead”.
Renwick Kindergarten have been a Green Gold Enviroschols since 2019. Earlier this year they decided to reflect on their journey. They had completed all their “next steps” from their Green Gold reflection and felt it was time to identify some new ones. Renwick Kindergarten tamariki, John Leggett and Anne Best test out the new water access at Rousehill Reserve As their team reflected on the last four years it quickly became apparent the Enviroschools kauapapa is no...
Read More This year we have access to some funds through Enviroschools from the 1 Billion Trees Fund. Through this fund we have been able to help Waikawa Bay School purchase trees to plant and restore the stream that they have been successfully trapping for a number of years.
Angela, one of our Environmental Educators worked alongside some of the Waikawa Bay School students involved in the trapping and replanting project to identify which trees would be the most suitable to plant and encourage birds to return to the area. Names of plants are important especially for trees with large numbers of species and varieties such as Comprosma and Pittosporum. A name can tell you how tall...
Read More 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! ...
Read More Our term one Sustainable Action Ideas newsletter explores the Enviroschools Guiding Principle of Respect for the Diversity of People and Cultures.
It highlights some of the changes we have made to the delivery of the programme as well as some ideas for taking action. On page four you will also find this terms PLD opportunities and awareness dates. Click here to access our online Padlets to view this newsletter and previous ones....
Read More Seaweek is an opportunity for all ages to discover the many ways that our lives are connected to the sea....
Read More Outdoor Classroom Day is a global movement to make time outdoors part of every child’s day. On two days of action each year, teachers take children outdoors to play and learn. All year round, the Outdoor Classroom Day community campaigns for more time outdoors every day....
Read More 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...
Read More Our Sustainable Action Ideas newsletter is filled with exciting upcoming events and dates as well as ideas to connect with your environment and community.
Click here to access our online Padlets to view this newsletter and previous ones....
Read More 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...
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