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Learning about the sea
At BestStart Tory Street we celebrated NZ Sea Week from 2-8th March. It was great to learn all about the sea, sustainability and pollution and how we can be Kaitiaki of the sea and its creatures. This is a New Zealand Māori term used for the concept of guardianship, for the sky, the sea, and the land. A kaitiaki is a guardian, and the process and practices of protecting and looking after the environment are referred to as kaitiakitanga.
We have seen and learnt all about the types of mammals and sea creatures that live in the sea as well as how rubbish and plastic affect them. We discovered that whales and turtles eat plastic bags that are floating in the water because they do not know the difference between that and their food. This then makes them very sick. We talked about what we could do to stop this from happening. Some suggestions from the children were to not throw rubbish on the ground so it does not get picked up by the wind and fly to the ocean.
Another idea was to recycle or even reduce our usage of plastics. We could use reusable products instead of using plastic and recycle/repurpose our rubbish into something new. We also got to experience going down to Te Papa to join in on their wacky Wednesday learning time which was focused on some creatures we can find in a rock pool. There was a big rock pool (Large blue blankets) set up on the ground with hidden creatures (Laminated pictures) under rocks (cushions) that the children could look for and find. Once they found a creature, they took it over to a big display to find out more information about each creature. Then we talked about how we are kaitiaki and we always put back anything we find in the rock pools so it can go back to its home. We also got to have a wonder around the new Te taiao / Nature exhibit and learn even more about the Sea, conservation, and sustainability.