Friday 27 September 2013

Insect Hotel

We have built the Insect Hotel in the Butterfly Garden.  Just like the tepee, it was bigger than we expected and should house many insect vistiors.  We were very A+ adaptable because the weather was terrible but we kept going.


Our next step is to:
1.  Make an Insect Garden sign.
2.  Complete some research on some of the insects we might get visiting.
3.  Make information cards and blog posts about the insects.
4.  Keep planting to attract insects.
5.  Build the catepillar at the front of the garden.

Over the holidays Allana is going to search for some ornamental yarrow, honeysuckle, bergamont and a buddleia bush to plant in the garden.

Monday 23 September 2013

Vote for us to win $1000


Click on this link and vote for our school.  We could win $1000 of Tui vouchers for the Secret Garden if we win out of all the school. You need an e-mail address so get your family to help.  All teachers and Room 7 - we need you!

Link to vote



Sunday 22 September 2013

Native Tree Planting

Two weeks ago, we planted native trees around the potting shed with help from Zanada and Terry.  First we cleared the area.  Then we dug the holes and laid down mats.  After we planted the trees, we put sleeves around them.  We are hoping they grow big and encourage more native birds to visit our school so we can watch them and count them in the annual bird survey.








Saturday 21 September 2013

The Insect / Butterfly Garden


One of the Inquiry Teams in Team Endeavour has decided to work on making a Butterfly/Insect Garden.  The people in the team are:  Liam, Māhora, Harriet, Freya, Quaid and Jess.

First we went to see the space available for the garden.


Next we researched what plants would attract the most beneficial insects and butterflies to the garden. We wrote them on a plan and highlighted the plants that attracted the greatest range of insects.  
Brief:
1.  We needed to attract a wide range of beneficial insects and provide food for them
2.  Provide an area monarch coccoons could hang from
3.  Provide a hot sunny area for butterfly wing drying
4.  Provide a sandy wet area for insects to drink from
5.  Build an insect hotel for other insects to live in

We developed the start of a plan for the garden and researched ideas on insect hotels.  We shared these ideas with both Zanada and Terry, who are helping us with the project.  Terry talked to us about the importance of bees and how we could cake the garden for them too.


At the garden, we started to build the tepee for catepillar cocoons but it seemed quite big.  Zanada decided to make the garden 50% bigger than we had intended.  Craig said he could help us by building edging for the path so the bark wouldn't get spread around.





We needed to remove the weeds from the surrounding garden so that we could use it to extend the garden.  Our next step is to mark out the path and plant the first of the plants we have bought:

3 x lavender
1x green fennel
1x bronze fennel
1x dill
3x swan plants (These will need to wait till after the frosts finish.)

We have planted seeds for parsley, chives, corriander and lots of swan plants from the seed pod we cut open.