Hundreds of babies in my house!!

Some time ago, a praying mantis decided to lay her eggs on a plant in my house. Praying mantis egg cases are very interesting as she lays sometimes hundreds of eggs in a really interesting formation then covers them with a kind of foam which then hardens to protect the eggs until the "big day"! The egg mass is called an ootheca and is firmly attached to the plant.
I had been watching the ootheca for a while but then forgot about it until.......I noticed hundreds of little creatures (baby mantis) on and around the plant.
I watched amazed as I discovered more and more of these miniature creatures. I carefully collected as many as I could and gently placed them outside, hoping for the best as I think they may have hatched a little early (my heater confused them I think). 

This is the ootheca....

 I used a toothpick to collect them!

 ..and I was still finding them the next day...

Click here Baby Praying Mantis hatching to see an interesting video!

Preparing for Spring in our gardens

Last week our students worked very hard to add mulch to our garden beds using some lovely woodchip mulch donated by local tree loppers some time ago. It had begun to break down and in some areas was perfect to add to our veggie patch as a top up for our beds. We could see the effects of fungi breaking down this organic matter allowing wonderful nutrients to be available to our soil.


We had lots of fun working together shovelling and wheelbarrowing our mulch.....

 Then we had a bit of a dig in our Mandala Garden getting our beds ready for planting.....

 ...which was great fun. We found lots of worms and creatures some of which became treats for our chooks!

Unofficial Opening of our Bird Restaurant....

Today level 2/3 students had an unofficial opening of our bird restaurant. We had read the story of Oliver's Restaurant. (see previous post here) Today we added some of the elements in the story such as:

• water in our bird bath
• seed in our bird feeder
• we unmoulded our special bird pudding and placed it in our favourite tree in the Bush Tucker Garden.

Then armed with our bird book and a chart about birds in our part of Australia, we sat very quietly in our nearby Peace Garden to see who came to our restaurant. We heard and saw many birds but no birds availed themselves of our feast. Behind where we were sitting, were many birds taking a dip in our frog habitat pond so we are sure they will discover our restaurant soon.
We plan further activity and food items for our bird attracting area so stay posted!

We now have a register for students to fill in to record the name and description of the bird they see and when and where they were sighted.
Have you conducted an audit of the birds in your school grounds?

Japanese Peace Day August 6th......

On August 6th at 8.15 in 1945, The United States dropped an atomic bomb on Hiroshima, Japan and three days later on Nagasaki. These are the only atomic bombs used by any country.
Japan remembers this day, holding a Peace Memorial Ceremony in Hiroshima to remember the 140,000 people who died after the atomic bomb was dropped, in the hope that nuclear weapons will never be used again.
It seemed a timely opportunity to revisit the inspirational story of Sadako who was two when the bomb was dropped and passed away as a young 12 year old from radiation sickness.
We chose to focus on peace in our art lessons and we talked about friendships, acceptance, diversity and building bridges.
Some students chose to make some huge peace cranes, painting them and adding wonderful colour, some writing "peace on their wings to spread peace all over the world" ....just as Sadako intended. 
Some students collected  stones from our Discovery Garden and created some "peace stones" to place in our Peace Garden .

A symbolic gesture...reaching a hand of friendship out to others.

 These seats are part of our Peace Garden. They are our Friendship Seats.

 Some girls were drawn to our nearby Bush Tucker Garden where they left a message of peace in the sand path....

 Wouldn't it be fabulous.................maybe this generation???



Want a great place to take your kids? Try Hedgend Maze!

Tonight after school, instead of our staff meeting, our staff visited Hedgend Maze in Healesville where we heard about the inspiration behind this great place. Liz and Lee took us around this wonderful setting showing us how their many educational programs would add value to units of work in a school or kinder setting. They also have an extensive holiday program. Underpinning all their programs is a strong sustainability focus, from dealing with their waste to how they garden. (and probably heaps more....)

Lee tells us about the organic veggie patch.

 Herbs from the garden are picked fresh to add to pizza dough cooked by the students.

 Lee explained the process to recover a pond which had runoff from chemicals from previous farming. It now has five different types of frogs.

Signage all around Hedgend encourages vistors to consider many issues facing our environment.



 The Dinosaur Dig is "irresistible" and provides many learning opportunities while having heaps of fun!

The setting is wonderful....I love the Yarra Valley!

Nearly forgot the very cute chooks....

There is really much, much more......you have to visit!!!
Arrghh....forgot to take photos of the mazes!! Having too much fun I expect....