An unexpected visitor

Today we had an unexpected visitor fly into Room 12... a big bumble bee!

 

We opened the door so it could find it's way back outside.

 

After printing we went outside and used chalk to create some signs to show the bee where to find some nectar in our garden.

 

A boat for the bee to play in.

Planting flowers

What equipment do we need?

• some seeds or small plants
• some spades to help us dig a small hole
• a watering can
• some water
• gardening gloves to keep our hands clean

We needed to share
the equipment and
take turns.



Blue daisies
and
snow peas.

Children decided to make a sign for the butterflies to let them know where they could find some flowers.

Ecology Reflection

We used the thinking hats to reflect on our 'ecology' learning and come up some way to help our school's ecosystem.

Yellow hat - Good things

• We have lots of insects and trees at Ilam school
• We like having insects and trees living around us
• We loved using the microscopes
• We enjoyed making the forest inside Room 12

Red hat - Bad things

• We have not seen any butterflies at Ilam School
• It was cold when we went to the Groynes

Green hat - New ideas

• We could plant some flowers outside our classroom so the butterflies want to come and drink the flower nectar.

Sharing

Our trip to the Groynes

Insect names

Why are insects important?

We investigated butterflies and flowers today to find out why butterflies, birds and bees are so important to have in the garden.

 The butterflies we looked at are not native butterflies. They do not live in new Zealand.

We opened up the petals to look for some pollen. "They smell beautiful", said Faris.  

Lots of children wish they were butterflies or bees so they could help the flowers to grow and make seeds.

Insects help flowers to make seeds

Bees collect flower pollen with their feet. They mix up the pollen which helps the flowers to fruit and make seeds. Birds and butterflies help the flowers to grow too.
"Let's grow some flowers", said Room 12

Why are Kereru so important?

Click on the picture of the kereru below to find out why.

Kereru is the Maori word for 'wood pigeon'.
They are native birds and are only found in new Zealand.
They help to spread the native tree seeds so new baby trees can grow.

The bug parade

How are living things connected?

Today we explored how the living things at Ilam School are connected. We used photos of the creatures and string to connect them up.

The bee eats the flower nectar.

The spider eats the bee.

The bird eats the spider.
The birds eat flower nectar too.

Look at our food web!

Wonderings:

If all the spiders were gone, would there be lots more butterflies?  - Bailey

Why do spiders eat bumble bees? - James

If all the bugs were gone, would there be more trees? - Sage

Would there be more flowers if there were no bugs? - Daisy & Poppy

Why do spiders have webs? - James

Making predictions



We are learning to 'observe' living things.

When we observe we need to look very carefully.

On Tuesday we went on a 'living things' nature hunt.

Classifying living things

Daisy suggested we could sort them into three groups.

 1   a plant group

 2.  a sky group (flying)

 3.  a ground group (not flying)

Next we tried another way of grouping them.

What a lot of discussion and thinking!

Great classifying Room 12.

Here is a video for all the ecologists in Room 12.

There are some big words to learn like...

organism,  population,  community,  ecosystem.

From acorn to oak tree

This video shows how an acorn grows into an oak tree. 

All trees spread seeds so that new plants can grow.

Living or non-living?

We are learning to be Ecologists

Click on the picture below to go on a 'living things' hunt.

Living things grow and they need water to stay alive.