Ryan and Emma have both taken a keen interest in the work I have been doing at Rotokare and especially the translocation.
I am very lucky that they have been supportive of what I am doing, especially with the amount of time I have spent away from home over the last 5 months.
I have to thanks Kevin and Simon for allowing the kids to come with me. I know at times it meant that I couldn't help out with certain jobs as the kids need watching, but the experience it gave the kids is something that they will never forget.
I have to thank everyone else that was at Bushy Park for letting the kids help with small jobs and answering their questions.
When we finally had a chance to spend some time together over the weekend we talked alot about the translocation, the jobs that the kids got to help with and other things that they had learned while we were away.
Emma really wanted to take some photos to kindergarten to show her teachers. I put the ones with her in them on a USB drive and off she went. I included a little explanation of what each photo was about under the photo but told her teachers that I would be really keen to hear what Emma told them about the pictures.
Thanks to Amanda for writing down what she told you!
Here is what she said-
"We washed the bags. We wanted to check that there were no stones in it. (we)Turned them inside out, moved our fingers around and then put them in the bucket to wash"
So what we did was bring the bird bags home one night to wash them, we had to turn them inside out to empty the feathers, stones and poo out before washing them. Emma emptied lots of the bags by herself. She was excited to find feathers in some of them :)
"I poked a hole through them (fruit) with a screwdriver- because you poke it on a branch for the saddleback"
The kids helped prepare the fruit for the birds on Friday afternoon. Ryan and Emma washed the fruit, I cut the fruit and then Emma poked holes into each piece.
The fruit gets stuck onto branches in the aviary.
"It was a long walk to feed the birds, we went in there (pointing to the trees), my bucket got heavy so mum tipped some into my brother's bucket"
It took the kids about 15 minutes to walk up to the aviary to feed the birds.
Emma carried her bucket a lot longer than Ryan did!
"Sharon is the lady, she feeds the birds"
"The birds are in the aviary, they are there so that they can't fly away, they can still fly around."
Sharon was the person who is in charge of feeding the birds. I was lucky enough to work with Sharon on Hauturu. Emma took a real shine to Sharon due to their love of chocolate!
Thanks Sharon for taking the time to spend with my kids.
"We feeded the Robins at Bushy Park, they like mealworms! They ate them up really fast"
"They like mealworms. (I am) putting worms in the box so they can have a snack on the way to Rotokare"
Sharon asked Emma and Ryan to put a small handfull of mealworms into each of the bird boxes. Emma took the job very seriously. She liked that the worms tickled her hand.
"There were saddlebacks in the boxes, they don't like noise. That makes them upset"
"The birds are going to live at Rotokare"
The birds aren't actually in the boxes! This photo was taken early in the morning before the birds were prepared for the trip. Emma was really excited about being in the 'team' photo.
When Emma's teacher asked her what she liked most about the trip she said
"I had fun, I liked staying the night the best." When asked what the worst part was she replied
"I liked it all"
I am so super proud of both the kids. They really worked like scientists! They asked questions, they shared their ideas, they worked with lots of people, they listened and they observed!
When I told them that they were working like scientists they just smiled and said 'I know'
Hope you enjoyed Emma's story. I am hoping to get Ryan to write something on the ipad using a book making app.... when he does it, I will link it on here .
Well done Emma, we enjoyed reading your story. We think you worked really hard to look after those birds
ReplyDeleteFrom Charlotte and Jill