July 23, 2019
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 the Winter Resources / Activities folder (in the Kids’ Edible Gardens folder of our Google Drive) for ideas, activities and information.
- Also in the garden: get ready for the spring planting rush! Take a look at your seed stocks. Do you have the seeds needed to replant your garden in spring? Have some expired? Are they all the same shape and colour? Play a seed guessing game. How do we plant seeds? Why is spacing and depth important? You could make your own seed tape using this resource. Or make bird feeders to feed hungry birds through the winter.
- Art projects: if you’d rather stay warm inside, you could work on art projects for the school environment, e.g. colourful panels or murals, signage, artwork to enhance natural spaces, carvings. Check out Witherlea School’s bright new artwork for the school ngahere, above!
- Clean up projects at school or in the wider community: these can be as simple as giving purpose to a walk, or could be part of a larger event, such as GJ Gardner Homes Clean Up Week (9 – 15 September). Why not do a waste audit when you’re done? Let us know if you’d like to borrow our Zero Waste Kit, which has most of the stuff you need to do this.
- With the Tuia 250 celebrations coming up in Term 4, it is a great time to think about what Marlborough’s landscape would have looked like pre-human colonisation, and to consider changes made by Māori and European settlers to the region. Look at our local resource Tiro Oneone – pages 14, 71 & 72. Take a look at this information about the Wairau Bar archaeological site. Plus check out these links: How it all began: Wairau Bar; History of the Wairau Lagoon; The Prow.
- Do some learning about climate change: check out our Climate Change folder, and this list of websites with the latest information, resources, calculators (work out your ecological footprint or carbon emissions) and action ideas.
- Learn about the children of Tāne, Rongo and Haumie, and find them at your school. This resource, in the Māori Perspectives + Environment folder of our Google Drive, will point you in the right direction.
- Explore the stories behind the original names of Marlborough’s rivers and mountains with this resource, in the Māori Perspectives + Environment folder of our Google Drive.
- Find and try out some recipes to reduce your food and plastic waste: https://lovefoodhatewaste.co.nz/zero-waste-recipes/. You might even be able to use some produce that you have harvested and saved from your school’s edible garden.
- Create a campaign to make a change. Find something that you want to change in the world and write letters / make posters / approach local businesses / make a short video to get the word out.
Nationwide events to get involved with
- The Outlook for Someday’s annual film challenge: create a short film on a theme of sustainability – human, social, economic or environmental. http://theoutlookforsomeday.net/about/film-challenge/
- Māori Language Week: 9 – 15 September. Resources available in your Enviroschools Kit and at https://www.tetaurawhiri.govt.nz/
- GJ Gardner Homes Clean Up Week 2019: 9 – 15 September. See Zero Waste folder of our Google Drive and www.knzb.org.nz.
- Conservation Week: 14-22 September. Visit www.doc.govt.nz/conservationweek for info.