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Author: Enviroschools Marlborough

Enviroschools Marlborough / Articles posted by Enviroschools Marlborough (Page 8)
Canvastown School House plants

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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NZ Biodiversity strategy

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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Sustainable Action Ideas

Sustainable Action Ideas | Term 3 2019

Looking for some ideas or inspiration for teaching in Term 3?  Take a look at our list of ideas - there's something for everyone! Tracking tunnels & traps: DOC have confirmed 2019 as the biggest mast event in 40 years.  The rats, mice and mustelids are fat and breeding prolifically.  It’s the perfect time to track what is living in or around your school, set up a trapline, or visit a local trapping programme. Take a look at our ‘Animal Pests’ resources here, and look at this workshop that DOC is running later this term for beginner trappers. In the garden: it’s a good term for learning about the soil and worms!  Visit...

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Enviroschools Silver

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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BioBlitz Renwick School

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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Room 12's recycling bins

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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Hidden Treasures at MGC

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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Tamariki share their love of monarchs

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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Wrappin' at Blenheim School

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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School Strike 4 Climate Action

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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