24 May
It is Warin (wombat) season in Wurundjeri country and we’ve been having the most amazing time with learning area 1/2s along Merri Creek. Together teachers, students and their families and/or carers, artists, educators and scientists have enjoyed learning and experiencing Merri Creek. The integrative topic of the 1/2s curriculum this term is: My city, in response the creekulum team organised sessions in collaboration with teachers to create a sense of place and connection to place through learning about the history, waterways, seasons and more-than-human living forms of our city.
On the first week Sarita and Meg did an introduction to the program and for many students it was the first time ever to visit Merri Merri creek. We learned how important is to acknowledge Country with our own words and from the heart and we talked about the many things we learned with Uncle Bill and Mandy Nicholson and the Djirri Djirri dancers at the Welcome to Country. On this week many of us found casings of the rain moth, a moth that comes out in Warin season after the rain after been living underground as a grub eating tree’s roots for years.
On the second week Angela from Merri Creek Management Committee came to share with us all her knowledge and ideas about the creek. We saw a very big map of the Merri Merri and with some of Angela’s bush toys we learned more about the fabulous odyssey of iuk (short finn eel) and then we had a close look to the water and saw how fast water bugs move, we saw so many different types of small living creatures! We draw them and then we moved like them.
On the third and fourth week Briony and Gregory from Scale Free Network joined us and we’ve been learning so much about scales. They shared a presentation called “Merri Merri from BIG to small” and we have been using portable microscopes along the creek to look at bark, trees, leaves, insects, hair, skin, soil, plants, and so many more things! This week we’ve been learning more about baan (water) and we saw a projection of one drop of water of Merri Creek and we couldn’t believe how many living beings make their home in one drop
of water!
Next week is the last week of 1/2s creekulum and we will have Addrienne to come along. Adrienne is a weaver who has been experimenting with weaving for many years and learning from Indigenous weavers for many years in the Northern Territory. She will guide us to harvest local grass and make a bush toy.