Fun in the garden with Level 3

Today Level 3 decided where they would work in the Vegetable Gardens and what tasks they would undertake.

This group of students are enthusiastic workers in our garden and they worked very well on a variety of tasks.

A popular task was to dig up the remainder of our Jerusalem Artichokes. I say "remainder" but we obviously never harvest them all as we always have sneaky ones remaining which grow back each year. A great offshoot of this was that the kids dug over and weeded an area making it almost ready for more planting. It is amazing how motivated they were when rewarded with finding these unusual vegetables.

Today we worked in both the Mandala Garden and the old vegetable patch, mulching, planting, applying compost, installing snail traps, adding seasol and general weeding. It was such a beautiful day and we achieved a lot. Looking forward to Level 4s tomorrow....if the weather is fine.

Living In Balance with Nature

Level 1 and 2 students brainstormed how we can live so that we don't upset the balance of our environment. Reading Uno's Garden really highlighted how important it is that we consider our environment in all we do. The all contributed to this poster which is in our corridor and a great reminder to everyone to live sustainably.

It always impresses me as to the level of understanding these kids have of how we can make a difference.

Now a visit from another special creature....

Yesterday some very excited level 4 students arrived at the door of our Art Studio with a gorgeous little Praying Mantis. They were keen to observe it for a while before returning it to the garden so needed a container. We talked about what we already knew about these little creatures and what we might need to find out if we were keeping it for a little while. We commented on its huge body and one student said that he thought it was a female due to some spots on its legs...very observant. This morning when they arrived at school again I was greeted by some very excited but worried students. "Part of her body has come off!" said one. What we saw was a strange oval mass which was stuck onto the lid of the container.

It became clear to the kids that this was actually a group of eggs which our mantis laid through the night. The eggs were covered in a coating to protect them until they hatch. How exciting!!!! She now has a new large container with leaves and a nice juicy cricket which our Green Tree Frogs didn't mind sharing. The kids can find out more about caring for their mantis tomorrow.

Final posting for Spore Project...

With lovely Autumn  (but chilly) weather this week, we finally headed outside to position our 450 paper bag mushrooms on our grassy knoll in our Discovery Garden. We thought they looked fabulous and enjoyed being part of the Spore Project. It led onto some amazing learning opportunities for our students who are still discovering a very diverse range of fungi in our school yard.

These tiny mushrroms were created by our Level 1 and 2 students. They used Paper Clay, a very interesting modelling material, using skills gained from their clay mushies in a previous modelling session.

Hopefully our images will go up on the Spore Projects site soon...check it out!!

Poor little Cream (our white Silky)

This morning after the weekend we noticed our little Silky, now named Cream (Cookies is the other Silky...) was looking pretty bedraggled and sorry for herself. Her feathers which are not waterproof like other hens were very wet and she looked a bit sad. While the students cleaned out the shed, I took her into the Art Studio and tried to clean her up and dry her. She loved being in by the heater as it was a really chilly morning this morning.

As she had settled well, I took this opportunity for the students to use her visit as inspiration for some great drawing. It certainly helps to build up knowledge of your subject to have it in front of you as you work. The students described Cream using artist's language before they drew her, first using charcoal and then using a fine-line pen. It was great fun having her as part of our Art session and the results were fabulous.

Out of the mouths of babes....

Today after reading Uno's Garden to Level 1 and 2, we talked about the balance between the environment and development. We played a game where the students took the parts of environmentalists, loggers, farmers and developers. Discussions about how to create the balance that was finally achieved in Uno's Garden included a comment by Zoe, one of our prep students. Zoe said "They (environmentalists, loggers, farmers etc.) should talk together about how to save habitats".  Fantastic...wouldn't that be great.

Turning over a new leaf...

Level 4 students considered what "turning over a new leaf" meant and in particular how we could apply it to how we care for our planet. Students hadn't heard this term before and discussions revolved around how it might mean starting again with a new and improved idea, making a change, trying harder with a new way etc. They wrote "turn over a new leaf" on one side with their ideas for themself and family as to what they could do to try harder for our planet. They had some great ideas and we hung them next to our tree in the corridor.....not sure if our cleaner is happy with all our hanging displays....sorry...

How exciting...a stick insect makes a visit.

Today a very large stick insect visited our school. For some time now due to our planting and the respectful way our students play in the schoolground, our gardens have been a haven for a variety of creatures.
Today's visitor provided a great learning opportunity as we watched in awe as this magnificent insect settled into his/her temporary habitat while we could observe it. We watched as this insect swayed back and forth to imitate a branch or twig. We marvelled at the way its structure was identical to a twig and was so camoflaged that we had trouble finding it at times. We were concerned that we didn't know its choice of diet until we saw it munching away on a eucalyptus leaf in its enclosure. Luckily Tamsin, one of our Level 2 students had kept these fascinating insects as a pet and was able tell us lots of information about keeping stick insects. We felt confident that we were providing a safe environment for the stick insect for the time we will observe it. We have many questions still about these great insects so we are keen to research them further.

The Spore Project inspires us to make more artworks....

Our wonderful local Kindergarten inspired us to participate in the Spore Project when they visited recently. Today was to be the day we installed our paper bag mushrooms however with rain predicted we decided to wait a day or two. However we did create some wonderful mushroom inspired art developing our needle felting skills to make some amazing felted mushrooms. Level 4 students created these 3D mushrooms and were very proud (as I was also) of their efforts.  

Level 1 and 2 made the most gorgeous little clay mushrooms. They carefully modelled and manipulated the clay to include the cap, gills and stem complete with markings made by impressing or scratching into the clay.

Some level 3 students took one look at the wonderful efforts of our littlies and wanted to make one too! These are drying ready for firing.

I can't believe how fascinated the kids are about toadstools! My yard duty consists of  tours around all the toadstool cities in our school yard with the students showing me what is growing today.

Uno's Garden....the importance of biodiversity...

Today in Sustainable Futures I read Uno's Garden by Graeme Base. I have read this story to these children before (Level 3) and they really love it ( as I do too). One said "That's where it is! I was looking for that in the library..." I had to promise that it would be back next week!
The kids are really taking on what this story represents.While one said it wouldn't happen in real life, some commented on the loss of habitat for orangutans due to farming palm oil for produce purchased by unsuspecting consumers. I thought that this was amazing that they could make this link (and others) These students have become environmentally aware of how we can affect our planet just by being there...just like Uno!
They talked about how the sad tale turned around once people started thinking more about the environment.

One of my very environmentally aware little students, Ruby summed it up beautifully when she said "This story is saying that the environment is more important than buildings and that everything needs to be in balance." She is eight.......how fantastic that she and her fellow students can unpack this story to explore what the author is saying.

Our chickens come out to play!

How exciting....It was time today to let our little silkys out in the yard to play. We had kept them in the shed to settle them in for a few days but today was the day for them to face the big world. Level 4 students gave their shed a great clean up....lots of fun, water (from our tank!) and brooms and shovels and ....ta da... a clean shed and lovely chook pooh for our veggie patch.
Here are some images:

Spore Project

As I have mentioned in previous posts, our students are participating in the Spore Project which was started by artist Doug Rhodehamel http://dougrhodehamel.wordpress.com/category/z2-spore/ and celebrates creativity and making art from everyday materials. People from all around the world are participating. We have made hundreds of paper bag mushrooms which we will place in our garden next week.

While the making of these was fun, it gave us the opportunity for our students to consider the Fungus Kingdom and the positive role fungi has in our environment. Students learnt about how fungus helps with decomposition, turning dead things into rich nutrients for our soil.

After going on a fungus hunt in our school gardens we tuned in our eyes to the amazing world of mushrooms, toadstools, moulds, puffballs etc. Students found the tiniest cities of toadstools, truly ugly looking puffballs, bright yellow fungus growing out of the side of a tree and many, many more amazing examples of these interesting organisms.

Here are some fungi we found on our hunt.

Pumpkin Soup......yum!

During our Exploring Time sessions with our Level 1 and 2 students, cooking is always offered as a learning experience for our students. Often produce from our gardens and chickens is used in the vast range of recipes our students make. Fortunately for us we have an amazing band of volunteer parents and grandparents who support us in many ways. Today our pumpkins were used to make a delicious soup and some of our Blackburn English Language Centre students were part of the cooking team. What a great way to make, share and enjoy fresh healthy food while understanding where food comes from! This is what authentic learning is all about....

Beautiful new additions to our chooks!

Wow! What a wonderful day.....gorgeous Autumn weather with a chilly start turning into a warm afternoon. It was great weather for our gardeners today who prepared our soil and planted some spinach and lettuce into our Mandala Garden. More worm and grub treats were found for our chooks who had to contend with some very special newcomers today.
Our long-time supporters at Croydon Pets and Produce (whose shop is very near to our school) donated two beautiful silky bantams to our very excited and appreciative students. These unusual little girls have settled in well to our brood...as we anticipated and have caused much excitement and intrigue (well...they do have blue earlobes!). Tomorrow they will all "play" together in the yard but we kept them separated for most of today.
The new "girls" visited everyone in the school (poor things) with the last visit to the classroom of our chook farmers for this week, our Blackburn English Language Centre students. They had been busily writing about their experience with chickens from their birth country and were learning the process for caring for the school chooks as for many it was their first time. They proudly read out their writing and it was great to hear about their experiences. Writing and learning to write has much more meaning when it is part of someone's own experience. They showed that they are learning and understanding English very quickly as they were able to change from second person to the first person seamlessly. Well done kids! We are lucky to have this lovely school annexed to our school and to be able share their rich cultures, ideas, experiences and great personalities.

These gorgeous little silky bantams are awaiting new names (the students are thinking up some goodies).

Thank you so much Croydon Pets and Produce for your very kind donation.We love them!

http://www.croydonpetsandproduce.com.au/