On Wednesday 24th of
March, Room 24 at Rototuna Primary School went to help the Mangaiti Restoration
Trust plant part of the gully floor. This was an important day for our school
as the children made the connection between what is happening in the Mangaiti
section of the gully and our school section.
They could see how the plants that we were raising and planting in the
gully, had specific areas they needed to be planted in. This also helped to build our awareness of
‘whanaungatanga – relationships. The
children saw how working as a team could make great change for the people,
flora and fauna of the area. They thoroughly enjoyed working and learning from
an exciting team of volunteers. Rototuna
Primary gifted a range of native saplings to the Trust as a koha for their
gully. These saplings had been grown from seed by the school children and had
been donated to them from Trees for Survival and Enviroschools. This was a gesture that was significant as
the children learn to give back to those who have helped them. In 2015, the Trust donated saplings for us to
plant in our ‘Annual Gully Plant Out,’ we were very grateful for this gesture
and we hope that this partnership continues to grow in the future. As a result
of this day, Rototuna Primary School have been invited to build Bat
Houses. These will be donated to other
gully restoration teams, as we continue to build positive working relationships
with our community. We look forward to seeing our Bat Houses in the gullies
around the area.
Here are the important voices –
the words of the children about the experience.
“It inspired me to look at
insects more instead of freaking out about them.”
“We brought nature to life.”
“We all work together as team on
planting the flax, harakeke.”
“All of us are digging a hole,
then putting in the flax, then planting the flax to grow by saying, “Kia Kaha –
be strong.”
No comments:
Post a Comment