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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 decided it would be a great idea to build houses to keep them safe from harm. First they drew plans of what their houses would look like before they got to work making them. They made them out of bamboo that whānau and community members bought in. The tamariki cut up the bamboo to create an entrance at one end. Then they coloured them in so they were camouflaged and then took them home to hang in a tree.

Whānau were encouraged to send in pictures of the tamariki with their wētā houses. Check out the great picture that a parent sent in of some wētā that made one of the bamboo houses their home

Sophie told everyone, “I hung mine in the fruit tree”.

Another of the tamariki came in excitedly telling everyone that “there is baby wētā living in my wētā house!”.

What a wonderful discovery to see that the wētā love their homes. All this learning has even inspired the Kindergarten to purchase their own soft toy wētā. The tamariki have named it Spikey. Every weekend Spikey gets to go home with tamariki for some awesome adventures.