Payton Rhutah, 11, and Dorothy the tree weta became firm friends during the outdoor classroom at Lismore Forest.
Photo / Bevan Conley
Payton Rhutah, 11, and Dorothy the tree weta became firm friends during the outdoor classroom at Lismore Forest.
Photo / Bevan Conley
Ruud Kleinpaste reckons an outdoor classroom provides learning opportunities across all areas of the school curriculum, along with fresh air and exercise.
The well-known New Zealand personality and bug expert was at Lismore Forest with a group of students and teachers from Whanganui Intermediate School (WIS) and his travelling companionDorothy the tree weta, who seemed to have taken a liking to Year 7 student Payton Rehutah.
"She doesn't like me at the moment," Kleinpaste said.
"I caught some carabid beetles along with the snails they were feeding on and a beetle released this defensive scent on my hand which she doesn't like at all."
Kleinpaste said the weta had "a complete weather station on her bum".
"It measures temperature, wind speed, moisture - there's a whole Jim Hickey [former weather presenter] located there."
Kleinpaste's visit was part of a prize package won by WIS as one of five New Zealand schools to win the Mazda TREEmendous environmental education award this year.
Bugman Ruud Kleinpaste working with WIS students and Dorothy the weta in an outdoor classroom at Lismore Forest.
Photo / Bevan Conley
Teacher Dani Lebo said there were usually 25 students on each of WIS's regular Forest School outings to Lismore Forest but they had a bigger group this week and extra support from teachers Hemi Gray and Louise Nightingale.
Children were working in groups, building fragrant fires with fallen branches and dry leaves and searching for life forms in rotten logs.
"By the time kids have been doing this learning for a term, they are really good at using tools and building fires as well as learning te reo and English language, maths and science," Lebo said.
For their prize, WIS receives $1000 to go towards its environment project, plus 200 native trees from Trees That Count for the school grounds, and Kleinpaste has been working with students to help them develop their ideas for their school project.
On Friday, he was joined by shark scientist Dr Riley Elliott to talk to the whole school about sustainability and the importance of looking after our environment.
