Our kindergarten recently took a bus ride over to Henderson, to visit the Waste-Wise ‘Zero Waste Zone’ at the Waitākere Transfer Station.

To support our ongoing work within the Enviroschools programme, and our community’s interest around all things sustainable, we spent the morning with one of the facilitators, learning so much, and being challenged to look at new ways of being sustainable.

Our facilitator talked to us about what rubbish we can Refuse, Recycle, Reuse, Rot, Repair and Reduce. We had an up-close look at how the local community bring their rubbish to the Transfer Station, and how it is sorted, reused, repaired and sometimes sold back to the community.

We discovered how paper and glass is made, and how plastic is made from oil created over millions of years. We got the opportunity to look closely at tiger worms from a worm farm with magnifying glasses.

We played in the ‘Loose Parts Playground’, and explored the amazing garden with flowers that encourage lots of bees, medicinal plants, and a water feature powered by human power! Upon our return to our kindergarten we created a huge wall display of photos from the day, so the tamariki can continue to talk about all our new learning, and remember the fun we had.

The facilitator aimed the discussion at the level of both tamariki and whānau. She used discussion, hands-on exploration, time to think and reflect, and fun activities to keep everyone engaged all morning. This is a great excursion, with so much new learning and ideas to think about. It is an excursion that we try to make each year.