Turtle Conservation Week in Hunga

Please read this report from Karyn and Akosita on the First Awareness Project. Well done and congratulations.

Marine Awareness Project

at 'utu ha loto poto' (Harvest a Heart of Wisdom) Preschool, 

Hunga, Vava'u, Kingdom of Tonga

November 2010

Background:

Harvest a Heart of Wisdom Preschool was set up in October 2009 by myself, Karyn von Engelbrechten and my co-worker, Akosita Tu'akineiafu. Our aim is to provide quality preschool education to any child aged 3-5 living in Hunga and the surrounding islands. Through local fund raising efforts, private overseas donations and volunteers, the kindergarten has managed to run successfully for up to 12 children, three mornings a week.

Our theme-based learning incorporates subjects such as colours, shapes, my body, transport, health and food, sports, farm animals etc. Since the kindergarten is based on an outer island, it made sense for us to include marine animals as a central theme.

Objectives:

Currently the children's main experience of most marine animals is as a key part to their diet. Fish, turtle, crabs and not so long ago, whale is perceived as nothing more than food. After discussions with Karen from VEPA and Akosita, it was decided that the most important step to marine awareness, was to show the children the marine environment as a LIVING organism. We chose the turtle as a creature to focus on as there are resident turtles in the Hunga lagoon and the village does still capture and eat them despite being an Internationally recognised endangered species.

Our main objectives were to introduce reef habitats, recognise different marine animals and think about how rubbish can affect the environment.

WEEK 1 - DAY 1

After our normal mat-time routine (attendance, prayers and songs) we introduced the prepared marine animals discussion board.

This very simple presentation gave us a starting point to see how much the children already knew about marine life as well as giving the teacher a framework for introducing new terminology and vocabulary.

Our art project for that day was to cut out and paint a fish. As well as creating something for our marine mural, it prompted discussion about the physiology of fish; for example, how many fins does it have? Where are they on the body? Do they have teeth? What colour are their scales?

The outdoor playtime included a game of What's The Time, Mr Shark?

Back inside, the children watched the first few chapters of the DVD entitled Coral Seas. (10-15mins) The movie gave options for music or commentary which meant we could choose ensuring there was no talking in a foreign language to distract the children.

Before the video started, a teacher presented the following coral reef information:

What is this? (show piece of coral) I found this on the beach.

Coral reefs are like a big village with all the animals working together to live in harmony.

CORAL is not dead – it is a living animal. They can grow into many different shapes & come in a rainbow of colours. The coral animals are very small & fragile – they can be hurt or broken if you touch them or step on them.  They take a long time to grow – less than 3cm a year (show them how much) – see why we need to look after them.

Many different types of colourful fish make their home on the reef. They have stripes & spots & other markings so they blend in with the coral. They use the coral as a shelter & protection from other big fish.

Our aim was to start the children thinking about the reef as something they could relate to – a village with each creature having an area they called home. As the movie progressed we continued with this familiarisation by pointing out the similarities between the different corals and vegetation on land – flowers and trees.

The first day finished with the finger rhyme 'Ika' (Fish Alive) and the storybook, 'The Rainbow Fish.

CONCLUSION

Most of the children knew the generic names of the animals on the discussion board and some of them could talk about terms like fins and scales. Not surprisingly, one of the first things they children did when watching the DVD was to pretend to pick them off the screen and eat them. 'ifo, ifo'.  Once this game wore off, the children watched the rest of the film intently with much discussion.

WEEK 1, DAY 2

The day began with morning mat-time learning the rhyme Paka. (Crab) A few of the children already knew this from home. We then made a 3D crab for our proposed marine mural[1]. This enabled the teacher to talk about shells and how they are homes to the crabs.

Outdoor playtime included sorting and matching shells according to different criteria (an essential skill in emerging numeracy and literacy development).  The teacher explained the importance of finding shells without any animal living in it.

Back inside, we continued with the Coral Seas DVD. (10-15mins) Before it began, the teacher asked some basic revision questions from the last chapters – What kind of animals live in the reef? Why are they different colours etc to check the children understood and had absorbed the previous days' information. She also gave them a cowrie shell to look at and asked them to look out for one in the movie.

The story at the end of the day was entitled 5 little Seashells.

At the end of the session, Akosita suggested the children find a shell to and bring in the next day to show and talk about.

WEEK 1, DAY 3

During morning mat-time, Akosita facilitated language discussion as each child was encouraged to talk about their shell. The teacher prompted the child's descriptive vocabulary.

During the art session, the children could choose between painting their shells or colouring in a variety of reef scenes or animals.

Outdoor playtime included the game, Charlie over the ocean.

Back inside, the children watched the final chapters (10-15mins) of the Coral Seas DVD. This included some scenes of the larger marine mammals including humpback whales. This could easily be another weekly theme as it is so relevant to the children here in Tonga.

During music and movement time, the children had to move as a variety of different marine animals. This helped the children to think about and experience how each animal behaves in the water, for example, the difference between a ray, a seasnake, a turtle, a  shark and a fish.

The day concluded with a whiteboard story entitled In Among the Seaweed. The magnetic elements enabled the children to participate in the story and helps with numerical comprehension by a decreasing number of fish among the seaweed. 

WEEK 2, DAY 1

There are many basic wooden carvings of turtles available at the market so this was passed around while we talked about turtles. The teacher presented the following information:

Who has seen a turtle? Where? Do you know what kind of turtle it is?

We have 3 different kinds of turtle in Tonga – the GREEN turtle, HAWKSBILL turtle and Loggerhead. In the lagoon, I've seen green.

What do they eat? The green turtle eats algae (sea plants) which is why we often see them near the shallow entrance of the lagoon where there is sea grass.

Turtles are like us because we need air to breathe. Fish don't need to come out of the water to breathe but turtles do which is why we see them. They can hold their breath for a long time – up to 3 hours – when they are underwater.

Turtles are fantastic swimmers. They travel a long way (show maps). The females come back to where they were born to lay their eggs. How do they know how to get there? Scientists are trying to find out.  They have lots of eggs -50-150 of this size (show ping pong ball) but they don't all hatch because rats, pigs, dogs & humans  like to eat them. When they are born they go out to sea and then sharks & big fish eat them too. They also get hunted by fishermen. Now there aren't many turtles left in the sea so we have to try to protect them.

During the art session, VEPA had provided us with a colouring in picture depicting the different turtle species. This enabled us to talk about the differences in physiology such as colour and size as well introducing specific terms like flipper and beak.

Within the Coral Seas DVD there were a couple ofchapters dedicated to turtles which the children watched.

They also learnt a new finger rhyme entitled, Here is a shell for a turtle.

At the end of the day, the teacher read, The Littlest Turtle by Lynley Dodd which is an excellent book to show the hatchling's instinct to head for the sea and the troubles they encounter on the way.

WEEK 2, DAY 2

After morning mat-time, we started individual turtle collages.

 This revised the previous day's study of the turtle's physical characteristics. We used lots of different colours but this could be developed further for older children by only using more natural colours and using a reference image, the children could choose appropriate colours depending on the turtle species they were collaging.

During outdoor playtime, the teacher facilitated the Environment Game. The children were divided into 2 groups and each given a basket or box. One group had to walk around the outside playground and collect pieces of litter. The other group had to collect natural items.  After 10mins,  the children looked at ALL the items and talked about differences between natural items and man-made ones. 

Back inside, the children watched some footage from Ocean Drifters by National Geographic called Killer Debris which shows very clearly a young turtle trying to eat streamers from a balloon.

During language discussion time, we talked about rubbish in the ocean and the impact it can have. This is especially relevant here in Tonga as the people often throw their rubbish (including nappies) into the sea as they travel from island to island. A lot of rubbish also finds its way from the village down to the lagoon where much of the fish is caught and where many of the turtles are sighted.

Rubbish in the ocean

Natural rubbish (like you found for example, coconut husks, old leaves, shells)is ok. It will break down and become part of the ocean.

Little things we throw away on the boat like sweet wrappers, soda drinks or crisp packets don't break down and although they seem small, it all adds up. 

A turtle doesn't know the difference between bits of balloon and jellyfish or something they like to eat.  The plastic will get stuck in its throat so it can't breathe or in its stomach so it can't eat and then it dies.

Seabirds also die – they get tangled up in nets. A turtle is like us – it needs to come up for air to breathe – not like fish. So if they get tangled up, they can't breathe and die.

4 Environment Rules

1.     Keep rubbish out of the water

2.     Coral reefs are very important – take care of coral

3.     Only take what things you need – leave some for others

4.     Use plastic bags carefully – they are dangerous to fish & turtles

The previous week, we had a huge storm which washed a FAD onto our beach. Contained within the net were 5 scutes which I brought in for the children to look at. This was a perfect opportunity to show how entanglement in a man-made structure is a direct threat to the survival of turtles.

During music and movement session, the teacher used a drum  to encourage the children to pretend to follow the life-cycle of a turtle. Starting slowly and quietly, the children curled up tightly like an egg with the music becoming faster and louder as they hatched, dug through the sand and made their way to the sea. The drum followed at an easy, even pace as they 'swam' in the ocean.

We finished the day with a whiteboard story called 5 Little Turtles.

WEEK 2, DAY 3

This day was taken outside the normal preschool hours. The children were taken on a special visit to a neighbouring island, Fulefuka where the local fishermen from Hunga told me the turtles  lay their eggs.

Fulefuka is a beautiful uninhabited island. The fishermen sometimes stay there and it is also a popular day visit for picnics from Hunga. Sadly, there is a lot of rubbish left on the island from these visitors as well as rubbish being washed in from the sea. This includes tins, batteries, wire, flip-flops and plastic bottles.

After collecting some of the rubbish, we

worked with the children and divided it into 2 distinct piles - natural and man-made[2].

We decided to make two turtles, one from each type of rubbish.

The man-made turtle was composed of rusty corrugated iron, plastic-coated wire, tins, plastic tops, the plastic handle of a bucket,  batteries, bottles and flip-flops.

The natural turtle was made entirely from a coconut tree and its fruit.

After finishing our turtle sculptures, we decided to see if we could find any evidence of turtle nests. We asked the children what clues we should be looking for – flipper prints on the sand, mounds of sand just above the high tide mark as well as any stray eggs.

The children also tried out some snorkelling equipment that Caroline Hudson brought over from her resort based on Hunga. She spent time with each child showing them how to use the equipment properly and some of them spent the rest of the morning cruising in the shallows and bringing in shells and coral for us to look at. They also found the seaweed that is the main source of food for the green turtle.

FURTHER THOUGHTS

These activities and ideas were aimed primarily at 3-5 year olds. However, with a little alteration and/or extension, I believe it could easily be used for primary schools.

I understand that modern naturalists are trying to move away from anthropomorphizing but I do see the benefits of young children empathising with animals more if they are given characteristics and/or situations they can relate to. A cartoon turtle speaking Tongan would go a long way in helping conservation efforts!

Many of the resources were not ideally suited to the objective for example, the DVDs were just personal examples I had.  I'm sure there are better films for education at this level. Some of the colouring-in pictures were too detailed for very young children – some simpler images would have been better.

It would have been really useful to have good quality plastic animals especially to show the different turtle species.

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[1]          .  Unfortunately bad weather closed the kindergarten for our final week of term. The proposed marine animal mural was never completed and the children took their individual art work home instead.

[2]          A further conclusion for children based on the main land could be to have them sort through the rubbish and take them to the recycling centre to see where it ends up. 

For anyone who would like further information on upcoming projects such as this, please contact Karen at info@vavauenvironment.org.

St Mary's Visit

Well it has been just over a month since our wonderful trip with St Mary's university to study and replant mangroves. The mangroves are doing well in Holeva and VEPA will be making a site visit next week. We are very happy for this, as only 4 days after the planting we were expecting a small cyclone which veered away at the last minute.

Here are some more pictures from the day.......