Check out videos made in Room 5

We have been making videos of the various mini projects (garden planting, food and the food pyramid, garden creatures, lots of food and garden creatures art work) we have been doing in conjunction with the Medtronic Foundation's "Healthy Living" project.
Check out our videos on http://scoilchaitrionajnrmsmcloughlin.blogspot.com/2010/04/planting-our-school-garden.html and http://scoilchaitrionajnrscience.blogspot.com/2010/04/more-gardening-videos.html

Sheep's heart dissecting in Room 5

Tadpoles with legs

Our three tadpoles have now got back legs and two of them also have front legs. They are looking more like frogs now but they still have tails and can swim very fast. We check every day to see how they have changed.

More Strawberries

The strawberries from our garden are ripening. Today we ate the 2 strawberries we picked on Friday (they weren't quite ripe yet). Even with such a small slice each (we split each strawberry 10 times!) we could tell they were really delicious. We are really looking forward to a feast tomorrow - 5 ripe strawberries between us!

Ant World in our class

Friday, May 28th, 2010

We set up an ant world in our classroom today, with the help of Mrs. Newell's and Mrs. Geraghty's classes. Teacher brought about 25 ants from her garden. We won't be able to add any more ants that we find (unlike in the wormery), because ants from other colonies fight each other, while ants from within one colony look after and care well for each other. We will have to feed them tiny bits of banana and apple every week, and give them drops of water. We hope they will take walks to our magnifier, so we can examine them well. We think they will be very happy with us, and we look forward to looking at the tunnels they will make through the sand and clay.

Mini garden creatures updates

Tuesday, May 25th, 2010

We now have 4 cocoons and only one caterpillar (and he is hanging from the top of the jar, so he is likely to be in his cocoon by tomorrow).

Our tadpoles have back legs.

John (Cathal's grandad) brought us in some fine, healthy looking worms which we added to our wormery. We will be able to see lots of new tunnels through the sand and soil layers by tomorrow.
We made some fabulous insect collages - We coloured, cut out and stuck on mini beasts and garden creatures, cut and stuck on ponds, rivers, lakes, grass and bushes. In nature you can find lots of bugs, insects, mini beasts and small animals near grass, bushes and water. Our pictures show some of the mini beasts you can find if you look carefully enough!

Wednesday, 27th May 2010

All our caterpillars are in their cocoons. We transferred them to their butterfly garden today.

First harvest

Monday, May 24th, 2010

We harvested our first fruit today. It was a really big strawberry (just as well, since we divided it into 21 pieces and each had a little to try). It was really delicious, much nicer than the ones you can buy in the shops.

Caterpillar in cocoons

Monday, May 24th, 2010

When we arrived in school this morning only one caterpillar was still walking round the container. Two more were happily hanging from the lid, and the remaining two were already in their cocoons. By home time one more of the hanging caterpillars was in its cocoon too. We think by tomorrow we will have only cocoons - no caterpillars any more. The weather is very warm, which is why they are moving quickly through their lifecycle at the moment.

Bugs and mini beasts

Watching swallows

Sunday, May 23rd, 2010
We are taking part in the Greenwave project. We have been looking out for frogspawn, primroses, ash, horse chestnut and hawthorn buds, and looking out for swallows. Swallows migrate to warmer countries in the autumn and return to Ireland in the spring. They are black birds with forked tails, white tummies and a little red on their heads. Teacher took some photos of swallows sitting on telephone wires. They look like this:

Floating and sinking

Comparing caterpillars

Friday, May 21st, 2010

We have our caterpillars now for a week. We can't believe how much they have grown in the week. Ms. Flaherty's caterpillars arrived exactly a week after ours. We can't believe how much Painted Lady caterpillars can grow in a week. Take a look for yourself!

Living Lifecycles - bugs in the classroom

Our 4th Gardening Session with Kay, Week 6

Wishing Tree

As part of our Medtronic Foundation "Healthy Living Project" we have had 4 superb gardening sessions with Kay Synott. Today was her last day with us. Together we made a "wishing tree" - a branch of a tree, to which we tied pictures that we coloured ourselves, of things in the garden, vegetables, insects, bugs, animals and plants. As we tied each picture, we made a wish for the garden. With so many good wishes, our garden should do very well indeed!

Using eggshells in the garden

Bird's Nest

Yan brought in a bird's nest today. It is big and heavy. It is made from sticks woven carefully together. The inside of the nest is lined with hair. We all examined the nest and came to the conclusion it belonged to a big bird. We think it may belong to a Magpie!

Snake's skin

Thursday, May 13th, 2010

Mickyla has just returned from a wonderful holiday in Manchester. She has a friend there who has a pet snake. Mickyla brought us a snake skin to admire. The snake has grown too big for this skin and has shed it. Good thing we don't shed our skins. We think that would give our parents a fright if we did!

Kite Making and Flying

Exotic Fruit Tasting

Painted Lady Caterpillars

Tuesday, May 11th, 2010

Our Painted Lady caterpillars arrived by post today. There are 5 of them and they are tiny. We called them Blinky, Crawly, Flingo, Leafy and Max. They have some culture (food) in the container with them, and they will eat this to grow. We will watch them grow bigger and bigger, and turn into Painted Lady butterflies. We can't wait to see that happen!

Meanwhile........we also have some cabbage white butterfly eggs. They are on a cabbage leaf. They are tiny and yellow and there are lots of them. When they hatch they won't have their own brown food, we will have to feed them fresh cabbage leaves (which luckily we have growing in our school garden). They should turn into white cabbage butterflies.

Tuesday, May 18th

We have had our caterpillars for one week now. They have really grown.

Friday, May 21st, 2010

We compared our week-old caterpillars with Ms. Flaherty's day-old caterpillars. They have grown so much in a week!Monday, May 24th
Most of our caterpillars are in cocoons now.

Wednesday, 26th May 2010

All our caterpillars are in their cocoons. We transferred them to their butterfly garden today.

Friday, June 4th, 2010
This morning teacher went in to school to check on the cocoons. She left a little banana, a little orange, a little strawberry (from our garden), and a little water in case any cocoon was nearly ready to open and let out a butterfly. In the afternoon she checked again, and was amazed to see Leafy out of his cocoon and looking very healthy. With a little help from her own children, she put some flowers in the butterfly garden as well - buttercups, daisies and dandelions. It is a pity that we are on holidays until Wednesday, because we are missing this excitement. Keep an eye on the website - teacher will check the butterflies every day and let you know what's happening.

Yesterday we watched Flingo for hours, to see would he change from chrysalis to butterfly. He was still in his cocoon before breakfast today, but changed as teacher was eating breakfast. How disappointing to miss that! Teacher got the camera ready, and hoped to film our final chrysalis changing today. It didn't happen, much to our disappointment. Maybe tomomorrow Crawly will want to join Leafy, Max, Blinky and Flingo as a painted lady butterfly. Have a look at today's menu for the butterflies. Can you spot the proboscis (straw like tongue) on the butterfly, for sucking up all that delicious orange juice.