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4 Queen Margaret Calling :: ISSUE 62 :: October 2018 Queen Margaret Preschool students investigated the world under the ocean after hearing about Matariki the whale making Wellington Harbour home earlier this year. The investigation took the children to the Island Bay Marine Education Centre where they learnt about the sea life aroundWellington and got up close to different sea creatures. “The excursion was a cool opportunity for the children to see things they had been learning about in real life,” Emily Domican Head of Preschool says. The children also listened to stories about the marine life around New Zealand and drew pictures of their favourite animals during the topic. Emily says she was impressed with how the children engaged in the topic. MARINE EDUCATION CENTRE Exploring under the sea PRESCHOOL LEARNING “I was not expecting the children to know as much about ocean species as they did.” The topic related to“Belonging” in the New Zealand Curriculum, TeWhāriki and the International Baccalaureate Primary Years Programme curriculum Unit of Inquiry “Sharing the Planet”. The Preschool ended their investigation by creating their own beach. The children created signs about keeping their beach clean and being safe around water which led to their next learning topic about signs and visual cues. “The children enjoyed hearing stories about different types of marine life and then created their own stories about them,” Emily says.