Caring for Our Earth – Term 3 in the St.Thomas More Catholic School Garden

This Term, our Tamariki at St. Thomas More Catholic School have been busy learning all about Caring for our earth. We explored how even small actions can make a big difference for our planet. Our focus was on recycling, reusing, and reducing waste. We discovered what happens to rubbish when it ends up in landfill and how it can harm our soil and waterways. The children were surprised to learn how long it takes for plastic to break down! We sorted different types of packaging and materials, discussed what can and can’t be recycled, and came up with clever ways to reduce waste at school and at home—like bringing lunch in reusable containers and making sure paper and food scraps go in the right bins.

One of our big garden projects this term was removing a broken garden box that used to be our herb garden. The tamariki worked together to dig out buckets of soil, move the herbs to their new home, and refill a new box. It was awesome teamwork! We then planted our brand-new Sentinel Garden, which we’ll be learning more about in Term 4.

Winter was also the perfect time to prune our fruit trees, and the tamariki became little tree experts in no time. They learned how to spot crossing branches, dead wood, and skinny stems that needed trimming. The trees are now looking happy and healthy, ready for spring growth.

We started our first summer crops—pumpkins, tomatoes, zucchinis, and capsicums in punnets, and sunflowers straight into the garden. The Little Pipi class planted radish seeds, saved bok choy seeds for our next season and built a brand-new bug hotel out of old tins. Each little space was filled with treasures from nature—pinecones, twigs, and leaves—perfect hiding spots for insects to hide.

We also grew mustard plants to chop up for mulch, making our soil rich and ready for summer planting. Towards the end of the term, we harvested a colourful mix of rhubarb, kale, cauliflowers, and leeks to take home. On our last day the whole Kina class including their teacher  planted lots of native seedlings around the school to invite birds and insects to visit, and the Paua kids helped me to plant  a banana tree—our newest fruit tree!

It’s been a fun and busy term full of teamwork, learning, and laughter. We’re so proud of how our tamariki care for Papatūānuku, and we are looking forward to more garden adventures in Term 4.