Mini beasts in our garden- Our Blue Planet inquiry

For Our Blue Planet inquiry, we have been learning about all the small creatures that live in our gardens. We have focused on insects and lizards, in particular.

We have learned about insects and their body parts, as well as how important they are for our planet.

We have learned about how lizards and skinks are both lizards but they have some different characteristics. Did you know that skinks can't climb trees but geckos can? And geckos don't have eyelids!

We are now designing models of lizard habitats, making sure that our models have all the things lizards would love to have in their homes.

Symmetrical Insects

We have been learning about the line of symmetry in shapes around us. We went on a hunt for shapes at school that had lines of symmetry.

We also studied how some animals, in particular insects, have beautiful symmetrical patterns. We designed our insects and made patterns for them. We used different art materials to decorate our insects.

Minibeasts

As part of our ongoing inquiry into the world of creatures we have spent the week looking at different aspects of life in the soil, trees, and beyond. The students have enjoyed getting outside to dig around or creating creatures to add to a wall display and delving into the magical world of bees.



Students have loved digging about in the compost and our gardens to see what could be found. We searched different areas of the school with gloves, microscopes and identification sheets to investigate how healthy our soil is and also what is lurking amongst the leaf litter.

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We found the big kids playground didn't give us what we really wanted which were bugs, centipedes, spiders and worms. But boy did the garden and our compost produce the goods!



You will also be happy to know that no minibeasts were injured or sent home in book bags and were all returned safe and sound to their happy places.

Camouflage and habitats

In literacy we have also been making links to the wonderful world of creatures and habitats. Students have been creating different habitats and will add creatures that flourish in these areas. The triarama have taken a lot of patience and Perseverance but the results have been fantastic.




Another literacy group have been investigating camouflage and how animals use camouflage for protection or when sneaking up on their prey.



Students have plastered gecko and skinks around the classroom carefully adding colour and texture to their bodies to help them blend into their environments.

Back to School

So great to be back at school.



It has been awesome to see students jump back into their learning with so much positivity and enthusiasm. Here are some highlights from the kids.

"It has been so cool to play with my friends!"



"I am happy to get back to the Monkey Bars!"



"I just love having lunch!"

"Running around again in the playground is the best!"

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"I want to learn more about bugs"

Keeping hands clean.

We started the week with a really neat visual experiment to help the students understand how effective soap can be at fighting germs. The soap helps to break up the germs so they can be washed away.

To a bowl of water we added cinnamon. It quietly sat on the top of the water representing germs. Ximena dipped her fingers and the cinnamon (germs) stuck to her fingers. Ximena then cleaned her hands and rubbed soap into her fingers. She then placed them into the bowl.

Look at the 'germs' moving away!

And like magic the cinnamon was pushed to the side of the bowl keeping her hands clean and crisp. The looks and gasps of wonder were wonderful! It has been brilliant. We now understand why washing our hands is the best way to keep germs away. We have had a week of hand washing conga lines and the scent throughout the classroom is something else!

If you'd like to try this experiment at home here is Nano Girl with a demonstration (we used cinnamon instead of pepper).