Monday 31 May 2010

Check out our Videos

We have been making videos of the various mini projects (garden planting, food and the food pyramid, garden creatures, lots of food and garden creatures art work) we have been doing in conjunction with the Medtronic Foundation's "Healthy Living" project.
Check out our videos on http://scoilchaitrionajnrmsmcloughlin.blogspot.com/2010/04/planting-our-school-garden.html and http://scoilchaitrionajnrscience.blogspot.com/2010/04/more-gardening-videos.html

Dissecting a sheep's heart




Tadpoles with legs







Our three tadpoles have now got back legs and two of them also have front legs. They are looking more like frogs now but they still have tails and can swim very fast. We check every day to see how they have changed.

More Strawberries



The strawberries from our garden are ripening. Today we ate the 2 strawberries we picked on Friday (they weren't quite ripe yet). Even with such a small slice each (we split each strawberry 10 times!) we could tell they were really delicious. We are really looking forward to a feast tomorrow - 5 ripe strawberries between us!

Saturday 29 May 2010

Ant World in our class






Friday, May 28th, 2010

We set up an ant world in our classroom today, with the help of Mrs. Newell's and Mrs. Geraghty's classes. Teacher brought about 25 ants from her garden. We won't be able to add any more ants that we find (unlike in the wormery), because ants from other colonies fight each other, while ants from within one colony look after and care well for each other. We will have to feed them tiny bits of banana and apple every week, and give them drops of water. We hope they will take walks to our magnifier, so we can examine them well. We think they will be very happy with us, and we look forward to looking at the tunnels they will make through the sand and clay.

Fluttering Butterfly Art

Summer data pictogram


Friday, 28th May, 2010
Today we chose our favourite thing about summer. We got to choose between: Sunshine, ice-cream, swimming pool, beach, travelling and cycling. We all chose our favourite. Then we stuck the results onto a data (pictogram) chart. It looks great and it is easy for us to talk about which group has more/less, how many more/less etc.

Tuesday 25 May 2010

Insects update

Tuesday, May 25th, 2010
We now have 4 cocoons and only one caterpillar (and he is hanging from the top of the jar, so he is likely to be in his cocoon by tomorrow).


Our tadpoles have back legs.


John (Cathal's grandad) brought us in some fine, healthy looking worms which we added to our wormery. We will be able to see lots of new tunnels through the sand and soil layers by tomorrow.
We made some fabulous insect collages - We coloured, cut out and stuck on mini beasts and garden creatures, cut and stuck on ponds, rivers, lakes, grass and bushes. In nature you can find lots of bugs, insects, mini beasts and small animals near grass, bushes and water. Our pictures show some of the mini beasts you can find if you look carefully enough!

Wednesday, 27th May 2010

All our caterpillars are in their cocoons. We transferred them to their butterfly garden today.

Monday 24 May 2010

First Harvest

Monday, May 24th, 2010

We harvested our first fruit today. It was a really big strawberry (just as well, since we divided it into 21 pieces and each had a little to try). It was really delicious, much nicer than the ones you can buy in the shops.

Caterpillars in cocoons

Monday, May 24th, 2010
When we arrived in school this morning only one caterpillar was still walking round the container. Two more were happily hanging from the lid, and the remaining two were already in their cocoons. By home time one more of the hanging caterpillars was in its cocoon too. We think by tomorrow we will have only cocoons - no caterpillars any more. The weather is very warm, which is why they are moving quickly through their lifecycle at the moment.

Bugs and minibeasts











Sunday 23 May 2010

Watching the Swallows

Sunday, May 23rd, 2010
We are taking part in the Greenwave project. We have been looking out for frogspawn, primroses, ash, horse chestnut and hawthorn buds, and looking out for swallows. Swallows migrate to warmer countries in the autumn and return to Ireland in the spring. They are black birds with forked tails, white tummies and a little red on their heads. Teacher took some photos of swallows sitting on telephone wires. They look like this:

Visit from a lifeguard


Floating and Sinking


Comparing Caterpillars

Friday, May 21st, 2010

We have our caterpillars now for a week. We can't believe how much they have grown in the week. Ms. Flaherty's caterpillars arrived exactly a week after ours. We can't believe how much Painted Lady caterpillars can grow in a week. Take a look for yourself!

Storyteller

Friday, May 21st, 2010

A story teller came to our school. He had some great stories to tell. We listened well and loved the whole experience. We even played some listening games with him.

Thursday 20 May 2010

Strawberries and Pineapples

We made paper bag strawberries and pineapples. They look good enough to eat!

Tuesday 18 May 2010

Living Life Cycles - Bugs in the Classroom




Our 4th gardening session with Kay, Week 6




Wishing Tree

As part of our Medtronic Foundation "Healthy Living Project" we have had 4 superb gardening sessions with Kay Synott. Today was her last day with us. Together we made a "wishing tree" - a branch of a tree, to which we tied pictures that we coloured ourselves, of things in the garden, vegetables, insects, bugs, animals and plants. As we tied each picture, we made a wish for the garden. With so many good wishes, our garden should do very well indeed!