Environmental Studies

Room 5 in Term 3 have been doing a study of our local environment related to the effects of trees and shrubs in our community.

“What is Arbor Day?” was an initiating question posed by the teacher, and it was obvious that there was very little idea. We looked at the impact of Arbor Day, where it started in New Zealand and the established date for planting. Greytown was the first place to set up Arbor Day and in New Zealand we plant every year on June 5^th.

Here is a student story about Arbor Day.

 ARBOR DAY

WHAT IT’S ABOUT

Arbor Day was first celebrated in Nebraska, USA April 10^th 1872. The idea was started by Mr J Sterling Morton and 1,000,000 trees were planted on this day in Nebraska.

New Zealand had their first Arbor Day in Greytown in Wairarapa on the 3^rd of July 1890. Wellington had Arbor Day in August 1892 with the planting of Pohutakawa and Norfolk pines.

Since 1977 New Zealand has celebrated this event on the 5^th of June to mark the start of the planting season.

Many native trees of New Zealand are planted to provide shade and shelter for our environment.

The indigenous wildlife need these trees to survive.

Many schools observe Arbor Day with conservation of forests and wildlife recreation areas.

 By Kaiya

A question from the teacher“Why do we plant trees?” gained improved responses with suggestions such as providing a home for birds, giving us shade, and cleaning the air by breathing out oxygen.

The Hastings District Council provided us with an opportunity to plant over 200 shrubs in our local community at the entrance way to the seaside village of Te Awanga. The day was utterly miserable with a cold wind, overcast conditions and a temperature no higher than 4 degrees.
But our parents arrived in force, transporting to and from the venue and assisting with the digging and planting.
Some photographs display how successful the day was for our pupils, parents and the community. 

Another focus was to look at images of tree shapes found in the world. Here is a creative story related to viewing images of trees.

   Describing a Dark Beautiful Tree.

A strong dark trunk touching mid-air was a long way over my head.

Tender sprouting leaves are making a bare tree look incredible.

The beautiful long searching roots spread longer then you could possibly imagine!

 Supporting twigs were there for the leaves.

The wind picks up, the leaves stalk behind me as I move away

I look out the window at the tree.

Ugly horrible, furry moss is finding a way around the outside of the dark, wet bark on a growing tree.

I see leaf beads growing taking in load by load of Carbon Dioxiode 

By Molly