Explore and connect with local nature
Term One is a great time of year to explore your school grounds and local area, celebrating the last month of summer and harvesting kai as we move into autumn. This term includes lots of opportunities to engage with water and animals, such as World Wetlands Day, Seaweek and World Water Day, along with Bug of the Year and Butterfly Week in February and Whio Awareness month in March.
Summer nature exploring seasonal slideshows from DOC are a great way to add nature connection activities to your learning.
The start of a new school year is also the perfect opportunity to encourage ākonga and your wider school community to use active travel options, with events over February and March including the Aotearoa Bike Challenge and in the Wellington region Movin' March.
Click on the bold headings below to access resources, websites and more information about events happening this term.
Events this term
Week 1
Feb 2 World Wetlands Day
This year's theme is "Protecting our Wetlands for our Common Future". This event provides an opportunity to find out where your local repo | wetlands are (or used to be), using resources from the Science Learning Hub.
Week 1 - 2
Jan 1 - Feb 17 NZ Bug of the Year
The Entomological Society of New Zealand is proud to host this national competition again in 2025. Voting closes on Monday Feb 17, so make sure you check out the website in the first few weeks of school!
Week 2
Feb 8 - 16 Big Butterfly Count
Moths and Butterflies of NZ Trust have some great opportunities for students this term, including citizen science projects. The link above takes you to instructions about the Butterfly Count, and there is also a project to tag Monarch Butterflies along with the ongoing School Butterfly Habitat Award.
Week 4
Young Ocean Explorers 21-day challenge (starts Feb 28th) for students in Yrs 1 - 8
Week 5
March 1 - 9 Seaweek
Celebrate connecting with our seas, with lots of resources and local events happening around the motu.
Read our Spotlight article to help find ideas: Moana | Marine Resources for Seaweek
March 3rd LEARNZ Love Rimurimu virtual field trip, as part of Seaweek.
March 3rd World Wildlife Day
March 6th Planet Ocean: Seaweek webinar for secondary students
March is Whio Awareness Month
There are some great links here between World Wildlife Day and the international days for rivers and water, all happening in March. If you don't have Whio in your area you could choose another freshwater bird or animal to focus on this term.
Week 6
March 14th International Day of Action for Rivers
The link above takes you to the Science Learning Hub website, with lots of great links to river resources and stories.
Week 7
March 20th Autumn Equinox
Ngahuru | Autumn Seasonal Activities has lots of ideas and resources to help you celebrate this time of year, when we start to move into shorter days and longer nights.
March 22 World Water Day
The theme for World Water Day 2025 is Glacier Preservation, drawing links between climate change and water preservation. You can find out more about Aotearoa's glaciers on the Science Learning website here.
