Penguins for children

Painting a penguin Driftwood and Sand Jan 2015 webThe Trust has again been connecting up with children this summer and there’s more planned in the coming weeks.

At the end of January, Zoe Watson presented penguin games at the beach and Clare Cosson presented penguin craft workshops all as part of Hokitika’s Driftwood & Sand beach art festival.

Zoe takes children on a penguin voyage of discovery at Hokitika's Driftwood and Sand festival

Zoe takes children on a penguin voyage of discovery at Hokitika’s Driftwood and Sand festival

Kids First Paroa with Bill Johnson and a stoat trap Feb 2015 500x

Bill Johnson of the Guardians of Paroa explains stoat trapping to children from KidsFirst Karoro

With the new school term underway, Zoe, in her Enviroschools capacity, joined Kate Miller (DOC Greymouth) and Bill Johnson (Guardians of Paroa) to show Karoro KidsFirst children penguin habitat and stoat traps at the Paroa beach.

Grey Main school will be bringing Year 2-4 children down to Hokitika for a school camp during Seaweek in early March and Zoe will be talking penguins with them, at the beach if the weather suits.

Finally for now, the Trust will be taking one of its quarterly meetings down to Haast and presenting an evening talk about penguins, especially the local Fiordland crested penguins and our recent project to identify predators. We’ll be taking the opportunity to call in to meet Haast school children on 6 March and talk penguins with them too as they wrap up their Seaweek celebrations and projects.

Later this year, with a grant from Trustpower’s Lend a Hand, Zoe will be taking our new education resource to primary schools in Hokitika, Greymouth and Westport and providing teachers with some encouragement and support to use the activities.