LATEST STORIES
New trees and plants in our learning spaces
At BestStart Wolverton Street we had a vision for children to be immersed in more natural environments and we were very grateful and excited to receive additional funds on 2020 to make this vision come to life! One of our teachers Serena is the gardener of the team and this was definitely a project for her to lead. Serena started by visiting our local Bunnings store and asked if they would visit our centre and offer us some ideas of what we could purchase and what plants and shrubs would work best in what spaces. It was not long until two lovely Bunnings team members came to visit and walked through our centre offering ideas and inspiration!
Serena swung into action drawing plans with the teachers and children for each room and the excitement and anticipation only grew. Soon the orders went through and the deliveries arrived. It was an exciting time for our tamariki as not only could they see beautiful plants and tree’s arriving, they also got to watch the huge truck arrive and offload all of the soil, planter boxes and worm farms.
Each day over the following week Serena became the ‘Santa’ in the centre, arriving to each room and delivering tamariki and Kaiako there new plants and trees to prepare, plan, plant and care for. Many discussions took place between tamariki and kaiako around healthy eating, planning and organising their gardens, and taking care of their environment, there was many leaders amongst us, excited to take on responsibilities with their new gardens. Tamariki used patience as they spent many days planting, watering and learning all about the different plants and trees and understanding what care they required to ensure they grow big and strong and thrive in their new home. There were some researchers, investigators and horticulturalists in the making!
Our tamariki are learning the bicultural connections and significance of Papatuanuku the Earth Mother and the importance of protecting and acknowledging that our land, soil and water is a taonga (treasures). Our project is still underway, there is more to come, including worm farms!! We are excited, motivated and eager to learn all about our worm farms and what we need to do every day to support these and our other plants thrive. Our tamariki are continuing to make new discoveries as they watch harvesting, growth, life cycles and tasting their very own home-grown vegetables. There is more to come whanau!