20 lead Enviroschools kaiako attended the hui at Lindisfarne Kindergarten and Waverley Kindergarten.
The Kindergartens South Enviroschools Facilitators ran a three-hour workshop during the July term break. This workshop began at Lindisfarne Kindergarten then moved to Waverley Kindergarten. These kindergartens are both really active Enviroschools – Lindisfarne Kindergarten has reflected at Bronze level and Waverley Kindergarten has reflected at Green-Gold. They had 20 lead Enviroschools kaiako from across the Association attend the hui, which ran from 10am – 1pm.
“It is great seeing other kindergarten environments.” – participant comment.
One objective of the workshop was to observe Enviroschools learning in action and to look at how this learning can be represented throughout a kindergarten environment.
Getting to know each other.
Enviroschools kaiako from across Kindergartens South got to see the programme in action and hear other people’s ideas.
“It was good to have an opportunity to bounce ideas off other kaiako,” said one kaiako.
“I felt my contributions were valued – I had time to reflect and answer, then acknowledge,” was another piece of feedback to the facilitators.
Another objective was to show how the activities in the Enviroschool Kit and the Theme Areas Resource can be implemented with either tamariki, colleagues or whānau.
Two activities from the Kit and one from the Energy Theme Booklet were undertaken as part of the hui.
Having fun working together on one of the Energy theme area activities.
The final objective was to revisit the Enviroschools Early Years Handbook, following on from a session earlier in the year with Katie Higgins (National ECE Enviroschools Coordinator), to discuss how ngā kaiako were finding it and to share ideas on how to reference it.
“I love these hui, as I feel reinvigorated and keen to revisit the Enviroschools handbook,” said one attendee.
Megan Bates from Environment Southland gave an overview of what is happening around the region.
This was a successful event and we had a lot of fun sharing our knowledge and ideas with each other.
“It has made me feel proud of the ways we are using Enviroschools within our Kindergarten environment,” commented one participant in their feedback.
Banner photo: Lindisfarne Kindergarten – proud to be part of the Enviroschools Programme.