Kohen and Clara's Honshu Butterfly Recount

On Tuesday, the 26th February, Ngahere and Whenua had special guests Murray Dawson, Hugh Gourlay, Robinne and Fran Cohen. We Learnt about weeds in New Zealand and completed puzzles about them.

After they introduced themselves they gave us some paper and pens so we could draw our own garden and we could draw what we wanted in our gardens. We had a couple of minutes left when we were finished drawing our gardens. We sat in a big circle and then some of us showed our garden drawings to everyone.

When that was done we went into our classroom and there were microscopes all over the classroom. We all lined up to look at each one. Inside the telescopes there were seeds from plants. After that it was time to take a break and get some fresh air.

Next we did a web of life in the hall to see how different things in nature are related. After that had happened the two classes went into the hall and we sat in a big circle and Robinne showed us all the weeds that Murray had found around the school.

After second break they showed us the butterflies and caterpillars in a container! We all then went to the back of the school to release the Honshu White Admiral Butterflies in the bush where there was Japanese Honeysuckle.

After lunch we all met in the hall again and Murray chose some people to use some phones so we could use the iNaturalist app. We went into groups of three  and they gave us laminated pieces of paper that had plants on them that we had to find around the field. Once we found the plants we were looking for we took a picture of them and named the picture. After a long day it was time to say goodbye and go home.

We would like to thank the team from Maanaki Whenua and the Paroa Guardians for letting us be part of this biocontrol and can’t wait to see Honshu White Admiral Butterflies around our school.