Being a part of the 1 Billion Trees Project has been an amazing experience Glenfield Kindergarten wanted to share with our local community.  Through this project the New Zealand government set a goal to plant 1 billion trees by 2028, and we were lucky enough to be involved and gifted an assortment of Native trees for our Kindergarten.

When we received the news, we excitedly got to work, preparing our plan with tamariki about where our native trees would be planted, what we may need to prepare our whenua and how we could make this event special not only for us but also our local community.

Whanaungatanga is at the heart of our philosophy and we value the meaningful relationships and interconnectedness we share with our Kindergarten whānau and wider community so when we invited whānau, local schools, the council and our local Bunnings store to join us they shared the same excitement to be involved.

The support and gratitude filled our hearts with harikoa as we were lent spades and gardening tools, gifted Bunnings vouchers to buy supplies we needed including compost and fertaliser for our rakau to thrive and for our local schools to join and share in this event with us.

We held two special days, firstly our whenua preparation day and then our tree planting day. Mānuka and Windyridge Primary schools Enviroschool groups came to join us and we welcomed them into our Kindergarten with our mihi, shared waiata and a Karakia.

Together these students, our whānau and tamariki began digging and preparing our whenua. The Kindergarten was alive with joy and excitement, tuakana teina relationships shining in each corner of the garden, kōrero and laughter heard all around.
We welcomed past Glenfield Kindergarten students from these schools as well as some new faces, all these students worked so hard helping us together with our tamariki.
After all the hard mahi we shared Kai with our helpers before they set off to explore and play united as one. We shared the same kaupapa, joy and excitement on our Tree Planting day, this time everyone’s hard mahi rewarded with the planting of our stunning Native rakau. We were joined by Laura Wieland from the Auckland Council who supported us and shared her abundance of knowledge. It was a beautiful two days filled with love for our environment and Papatūānuku and real community connection.

Our rakau are now lovingly planted and it is our job to nurture and protect them for our future years. Our doors are open for our community to revisit and share in the beauty too.

We are so proud of our Kindergarten tamariki who show true aroha, respect and connection with nature. They demonstrate responsibility, respect, knowledge of sustainable practices and manaakitanga.

Kaiako will continue to empower tamariki to play an active role in caring for our environment and to be confident to lead our vision, demonstrating responsibility, leadership and a passion to be active kaitiaki.