What's on the beach? What gets washed up and what shouldn't be there? Patiki and Inaka, with staff and parents, headed to North New Brighton to find out

On Friday, some very excited young children boarded the bus to head to the beach. Otakaro are busy this term taking about sustainability and what this means to us all. How can we be sustainable, and what can we all do to help protect and preserve this amazing earth we call home?

The amazing staff from the CCC, Georgina and Pete, led us through an interesting and interactive lesson investigating objects on the beach -  natural and unnatural - and identified ways that we can all contribute to sustainable coastal areas.

We learned about the different parts of the beach  and what may live there - the ocean, the sand and the dunes. The children looked at photos of some of these and decided where each one fit. It was great to hear the discussions, ideas and reasoning for their choices. Of particular interest, was the damage we can all do walking up and down the sand dunes - we should all find an alternative way onto the beach so that we protect and preserve these as well as the creatures who live there.

The highlight for all was being set free to wander along the sand looking for treasures. Together we collected a myriad of shells, drift wood, seaweed and the like. We also kept a special eye out for 'microplastics' which as the tamariki all discovered, are extremely damaging to animal and bird life.

On our walk we collected many different things - seaweed, driftwood, shells and the like but also some things that shouldn't have been there like bottle tops, rope and twine. We gathered back together and sorted these out into groups of natural and unnatural. Once again, lots of discussion and sharing about where things should go. Finally, we agreed on a message we could pass on to others. Whaea Katrina wrote this on the sand for Inaka, and then they covered it with all their shells, drift wood and seaweed.

We learnt such a lot that we didn't know - and now we will go forward and try to do our part in "Keeping NZ clean"