Hello to the beasties of the beach

SHORE THING: Wanganui East School pupils enjoy a beach education day.

School groups last week hit the beaches for Seaweek and Wanganui East School spent the day at Castlecliff Beach learning about the life forms that reside in the waves and sand.

Hosted by the NZ Association for Environmental Education (NZAEE) the theme for this year was "Look beneath the surface " Papatai o roto " Papatai o raro" and students were encouraged to find as many plant and animal species as they could.

On hand to assist were educators from Castlecliff Coastcare, DoC, Whanganui Museum and Sarjeant Gallery.

Adele Meyer from DoC said the department joined forces with Coastcare for the week to talk to children about the diversity of the coastline.

"It is about raising their awareness of all the life forms on the beach - there are around 15,000 different life forms along this bit of coastline."

Whanganui Museum Taonga Maori educator Awhina Twomey was conducting "Sing with Tangaroa" sessions on the beach showing children how Maori made instruments from shells and wood found on the beach and demonstrating the different sounds the instruments made.

"Not all the schools have been able to get down to the beach this week so some of them have been coming in to the museum and learning about the instruments there," said Awhina.

The museum's outside classroom educator, Margie Beautrais was working with students to find coastal invertebrates that live on the shore while the Serjeant Galley's Sietske Jansma was helping another group make treasure boxes in the Duncan Pavilion.

"We are rotating the groups so they get breaks from being out in the sun and they can use their treasure boxes for their beach finds or put other treasures in them," Sietske said.

Graham Pearson of Coastcare said the beach education is a great thing for young children and there are long-term beneficial effects for the environment.

"The children realise that things live in the dunes and hopefully when they come back as teenagers they will remember that before they ride motorbikes through them.

"We plan to have schools come and help with the winter plantings next term."

The Wanganui East students conducted a beach clean-up before they headed home for the day.