Tōtara park and botanical gardens reflection

Introduction:

Our launch subject this term is Kaitiakitanga which means to protect and help the environment, or to provide guardianship to the land and sea. In our first launch workshops we started looking at what we can do to help the environment and what is harming the environment. After learning more in launch classes Miss Rowland announced the we were going on a field trip to Tōtara park and the botanical gardens. But first I will tell you about the differences and similarities about both gardens or parks.

Paragraph 1: The differences and similarities

Totara park and the botanical gardens have many similarities mostly about the scenery and plants but they also have many differences. First the differences Totara park has more green plants and more trees where the botanical gardens has mostly flowers and all kinds of different plants with different colors. Totara park has more interactive trails because you are able to bike or scooter through the park but are unable in the botanical gardens. Some of the similarities are that they are both parks and gardens and they also both have playgrounds. Totara park has the more traditional children’s playground but the botanical gardens has an interactive children’s garden right by the African plants. This is only some of the similarities but there are many more also including differences as well.

Paragraph 2: Tōtara Park

Our first trip was to Tōtara park. We arrived at school in the morning  and met in the hall to take the roll. Miss Rowland took attendance and sorted us into our groups for the day. After we were in our groups we headed out to start walking to Tōtara park. Earlier that day we had downloaded an app called seek which helped us identify what all the different plants were and their names. We did a very long walk and climbed at least 200 stairs, but one of my favorite parts was when Mrs Van Tonder found a wētā and it was so cool seeing one in person.

Paragraph 3: The botanical gardens

Next Tuesday we went off to the botanical gardens. The same thing happened in the morning for Tōtara park. We arrived in the morning and sat on the basketball court. After the teachers were done doing the roll and were all sorted we started our long walk down to the botanical gardens gate, which took us about 20 minutes. When we got there we went to sit right outside the cafe and got sorted into our groups for the day. I was put in a group with one of my friends Mya and her mum. Miss Rowland gave us a alphabet scavenger hunt and we set off.

Paragraph 4: The scavenger hunt

After Miss Rowland gave us instructions we got straight to it starting with the scavenger hunt. We had a lot of easy letters knocked out straight away but really struggled with letters like t, y and especially the letter u. While doing the scavenger hunt we found out something very weird and it was that the labels for the plants in the botanical gardens did not match the names we got on the seek app. Even though we had a lot of bumps along the way we still finished and we’re one of the only groups to finish.

Paragraph 5: The storm water trail

After finishing the scavenger hunt all the groups gathered back together to have morning tea. After eating morning tea we set off to go do the storm water trail. We found the sites and took photos to look at and think about later. At this point we were done looking at the storm water trail and hung out at this flower garden until we had to head back. After that we started walking back to the botanical gardens cafe to go back to school as a class. We got back and Miss Rowland did the roll and we all started walking back to school.

Conclusion:

After another 20 minute walk back to school we carried on the rest of the day like normal. But it was really fun and we learnt a lot of cool things that I never knew about. Overall it was a great experience.