Checking out the ponga fronds along the track to Waikoropupū.
Golden Kids Early Learning Centre ngā kōkiri rangi team have been learning about waterways and our beautiful awa, Tākaka, this year. We have investigated what lives in our local river, visited our special taonga Waikoropupū Springs and spent time with CJ Webster our Enviroschools Facilitator, looking at water health and checking the fish life in a creek on a local farm.
“Water is a key way we can tune into our local ecosystems, the taonga wai around us, the forces that shape our landscape, and the cycles of nature that supply all living things with what we need. By raising our awareness of water and its precious gifts we can design actions to look after the water that flows through our lives.” – pg4 Enviroschools Water of Life Theme Area resource
Many of our tamariki bring with them knowledge from their home lives of adventures in our wild Mohua environment. It’s important for us to pick that up and run with it and make that link to their home lives and to whānau aspirations of kaitiakitanga. Visiting our local waterways this year as we learn about the Enviroschools theme ‘Water of Life’ has been an exciting learning adventure and is easily woven into our vibrant local curriculum.
Our drinking water comes from Tākaka Awa. Our whānau gather kai here – fishing for trout and netting whitebait – and we love to swim in the clean cool water in summer. We learnt that our waterways come from high up in the mountains, flow down over Papatūānuku and then out to the ocean.
“The rivers come down from the mountains and go out to the sea.” – Sian
Golden Kids tamariki and whānau learn alongside each other at Waikoropupū.
The Waikoropupū Springs is a very special place. The water is tapu and we cannot touch it. Huriawa, the kaitiaki taniwha of the springs, keeps the water clean and clear by throwing out any logs and debris.
We visited a local farm where CJ from Enviroschools taught us about the different native fish that live in the creek, and showed us by gently scooping them up in nets and putting them into buckets for water and fish life sampling. She showed us what the fish eat in the creek and all the insects and larvae that live in the healthy water. We wriggled our toes in the sandy clay bank and waded in the cold rushing water.
Nives said, “The eels go to Tonga to have their babies, and Harlow said, “The babies swim all the way back to the creek in New Zealand!”
CJ talks to tamariki about the biodiversity of the waterways. The fish eat the insects.
CJ gently scoops the net along the stream to collect fish and insects for tamariki to observe.
“My family and I really appreciate how Golden Kids brings the environment into the classroom and the classroom into the local environment, something that connects closely with our home values of being kaitiaki, guardians of Papatūānuku in everything we do. It fills my heart with joy to see my child doing this every day at their learning centre, where their love of nature and the natural world is fostered through playing in local sand, soil and water under local trees visited by local birds, and her inquisitiveness of how the earth works is nurtured by her kaiako.” – Sid, whānau
Wriggling toes along the edge of the stream.
Budding scientists observing insects along the way.
Experiencing the cold rushing water flow.
Banner image: Learning in, about and for the local awa, Tākaka.
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