Tuesday 29 March 2016

Khobi's insect habitat Rap

Khobi's Insect Habitat Rap

                                                     
                                                           


When building an insect motel
make it like a perfect hotel.
If you don't want to use a nail
as it might hurt and make you go pale
Since it's made of real wood
I hope it will be perfectly good
for insects to nibble on as food.
So whenever you use a tool,
Please be careful, you don't end up a fool
                                          By Khobi Pekepo

Bug Condo and Weta Woodshack plans in Week 9

Here is Amy's choice for an insect hotel for the Te Manawa Bug group 


                         This is the Bug Condo that we plan to make for our insect garden


We made lots of sketches like the one above and we filled the gaps with circles for bamboo and hay, bark, brick and pipes.




We boys are also planning to make a Weta-Woodshack for the homeless wetas in our native garden behind our classroom.
                    


                    First we need to saw a piece of tree trunk into two like this picture above.



Then we need to chisel out a space or gallery for the weta to relax and sleep during the day when predators are out and about.
   

 Finally we need to drill a hole about 18mm for the weta to be able to enter and leave or exit his gallery.

                                                       
When we are completed we plan to place Weta Woodshack in a warm and sheltered pole across from the Bug Condo. You don't want to place the two habitats too close to each other knowing that Weta will prey on the insects nextdoor.

Saturday 12 March 2016

Planning an Outdoor Classroom to nurture Nature learners in Week 6-7

                      Planning an Insect and Bug habitat niche to nurture Nature Learners
                                                 
                                                
                        We in room 22 read about bees as being the main plant pollinators. 
Did you know that bees are the only insects that collect pollen from flower to flower to feed its babies (larvae) in the beehive. So according to research bees make up one third of all creatures that help pollinate plants. We all went "Wow!"

                                     

 We wanted to do the Nature Walk but my teacher said "Not in the rain, it will be wet underfoot and slippery." So we did this nature study in our class (all because we couldn't go out in the rain). 


My teacher made a booklet of some awesome activities we could do outside to find out how to create a "treasure trove" habitat to invite our native "cussies" to live in harmony alongside us.


We practised looking for main ideas while we were skimming and scanning. That's what we are learning in reading now. "I can find the main idea in this paragraph'" said Noema to her buzz buddy, Leoni.


We loved reading about how bees pollinate plants.



 What fabulous features bees have to do its job!


Then our teacher sketched a rough picture of a flower on the whiteboard and we helped to label the important parts that had to do with pollination.
                                     

Tuesday 8 March 2016

Insect and Bug's inquiry cross grouping sessions -Term 1 Week 6

                                        The Insect and Bug cross-grouped class in Room 22



          Francois and Moehau google researching native insects and bugs for SPS-OC 
                                                     (outdoor classroom) project.



Marina from year 6 is supporting her year 4 buddy, Ray and Rylah (from year 5) in finding native bugs on google.


Keleni is helping Dikansha to find out what kinds of insects might be living on our school fields.



Kat and her research mate Marie from year 5 are looking for information on what weta's feed on.



Sela and Amy are searching for what we might need to set up a safe habitat for skinks (native lizards) in our outdoor classroom, which is in backyard. 


Lina and her year 4 mate Acacia are looking for information on how to make a Rock Garden to provide a safe niche or habitat for native insects and bugs like bees, butterflies and ladybugs to live.