Beeswax wraps

 This week, as a part of celebrating Tāne Mahuta week, we have been talking about how we can look after our environment. For the last few weeks, our tamariki have been developing knowledge about ngā ātua too. 

We have been talking about the effect of plastic pollution. When we looked at our lunchboxes, we saw the food that is wrapped with plastic wrap. To solve the problems, we decided to make beeswax wraps that can be reusable. 

As we were learning about plastic pollution, we looked at some single-use plastic like plastic bags, plastic straws, spoons, and containers and we talked about what we could use instead. 

Our tamariki have developed an understanding of what will happen to our environment when the plastic products get into the ocean, forests, and our streets. Plastic bags look like jellyfish to turtles in the ocean and they eat the bags causing them to get sick or even die. 

We talked about some solutions for plastic pollution too. 

We can pick up rubbish on the streets, beaches, and at our schools. Someone talked about the use of submarine to pick up rubbish in the sea. Another person talked about simply using less plastic in our lives. Some amazing ideas were talked about. We also looked at a video of a boat that collected rubbish in the sea. 

With all of this new learning, we started designing our beeswax wraps. 

Children wrote some messages that were important to look after our environment. 

Then the next day we started making the beeswax wrap. We looked at the beeswax, and some smelled them as they talked about how the wax smelled really nice like honey. 

We spread the beeswax on the fabric and placed a piece of a baking sheet over it. We then used an iron to melt the beeswax. This was such an interesting process as the children were able to see what was happening to the wax. The wax was bubbling with the heat of the iron and becoming liquid. Someone said "It is bubbling gold." 

The children were so very excited about their beeswax wraps and we wrapped food from lunchboxes with our wraps and went on a little picnic together. It was so wonderful to see children learning to use the wraps. We had such a great time together.