Tēnā koutou katoa,

TKOTK is going to be 3 and we are starting a whole new year of outreach! Before we get into that, let's take a look at what happened in 2020 .

In 2020 we me with around 550 people! We visited Opononi Area School, Te Atatū Intermediate, Waitakere College and even went wayyyyy down south to visit Otago Boys High. We also had spent a weekend at the Auckland Botanic Gardens where we set up in the foyer and met heaps of people headed through to a very sunny weekend in the gardens. 2020 left us feeling so grateful to meet so many amazing people, especially the young ones who are growing up to be kaitiaki o te Taiao. It also left us feeling exhausted, which I am sure many of you can relate! So we took a nice long break...

And we are back! We are happy to announce that thanks to our funders ​that we have another year of funding! We are taking request from schools now for visits in Term 1 and 2. Get in touch to book in your school. You can email us at kauri.classroom@gmail.com or visit us at our website and get in touch via our contact page https://www.tekuraotekauri.nz/contact-us.html

Last week was our last week of outreach for 2020. Thank you to everyone who visited us at the Auckland Botanic gardens. It was awesome to get to meet so many people just by chance and we had some amazing conversations with the people who stopped by. The garden staff was so kind and helpful and we got to take a tour of the nursery where we saw the Roimata a Tōhē (Pimelea eremitica) shrub that they are growing up to be replanted out at the cliff faces of Maunganui Bay. Awesome mahi! 

As 2020 comes to a close, we want to acknowledge what a hard year it has been for so many. Isolation, worry, and uncertainty have been close to most of our lives or the lives of those we love for all of this past year. We are so grateful to have been able to do our work in Aotearoa, something that was only possible because of the hard work of the essential workers, schools, border security, doctors, nurses, and hospital staff. And of course, all of you for coming together to keep others safe. We want to give our thanks to our funders, the teachers and staff at the places we visited for organizing so quickly, and especially to our team, without whom none of this would happen. 

One final announcement, for the first time we have a full year of funding! So if you are interested in us visiting your school please get in touch on our contacts page.

Ngā manaakitanga

So after 2 years we have finally decided to start a blog! Here it goes...

This year has brought us all many challenges, making the visits we have had this year all the more special. The pandemic that has gripped our world has made it hard for children to go to school, never mind to have visitors. We are so grateful for the ability to visit schools, especially this year. So onto our visits!

In early November we visited Opononi school. This was doubly special because they were our first pen pal class with our baby sister programme My Science Pen Pal. The students were amazing and asked lots of brilliant questions like how far the microbes that cause kauri dieback can swim in water and how they actually get into the roots of the plants. A huge thank you to their teacher Alosina for allowing us to come visit her class and to all the students for their time and attention. We had so much fun and look forward to hopefully writing more letters in the future.

We just spent an amazing week with some legendary classes from Te Atatū intermediate school and Waitakere College. The students were so onto it and we had so much fun. They had some great questions for us (including what we did before TKOTK, eek!) and even better ideas on how kids can help protect kauri. Whaeas Sam and Amber were amazing in helping us to organize and activating other classes in their school to come in as well. We met around 400 students and now after a brief break we are gearing up for our final trip of 2020,a visit to the Auckland Botanic Gardens! Catch us there this upcoming weekend December 12th and 13th 10-4pm