Saving the bees drop by drop!

To end our inquiry 'saving the bees' we made 'Natures Own clothes washing liquid'.

The girls learnt what ingredients they needed and have a good idea of the process                                  they used for making it.

One of the most enjoyable parts of it was playing with it before they bottled it.

We'll make some more next term just for playing with!

It has been an enjoyable experience incorporating maths and literacy and requiring team work and persistence to reach the end result.

Of course the idea of selling the washing liquid to mum and dad and making money                              for an ice cream, really appealed.

We had the bestest day!

One of the girls told her mum as she arrived 'we had the bestest day!' 

The excitement of today being 'ice cream' day made for a wonderful last day of term. We began by working out the money and sharing it out so everyone had four dollars. 

Off we walked to the dairy and the lovely man patiently helped the girls work out how much they owed for their ice creams and how much change they would get. He also gave them a lollipop which seemed to good to be true to the girls.

We sat and ate the icecreams on the footpath as we knew they would melt before we got back.

As you may have noticed, quite a bit got dribbled onto their clothes.

Yes, we had a fabulous last day together.

How's the fish going Mrs Bayes?

The girls are very interested in knowing what is happening to the fish that we buried 

last week. Today we dug it up to take a look. We were surprised to 

find that it still looked the same. Some girls thought it would have turned golden and others thought 

it might be just dirt.

We all thought it would smell but it didn't.

Next term we'll take another look!

Fascinating!

A Zoo in Parnell! Who would have guessed?

Téas Fairy God Mother, Ange, warmly welcomed us into her home. Ange is also the Fairy God Mother to goldfish, a reptile named Tony, seven Turtles and believe it or not, two little piglets.

They children's interest was captured with all there was to see and hear about.

We were lucky enough to watch the piglets having a bath.

 

Sadly, Ange had found one of her fish had died overnight. She had left the hose running in the pond and the water had got too cold. Ange included us in a little ceremony to farewell the fish; lighting candles and singing a farewell song. 

We brought the fish back to school and buried it in the garden.

The girls collected flowers and once again sang to it as we covered it over.

There were many questions...

Where does the fish go?

Will he go to heaven or stay in the ground?

When I spoke of the fishes body staying in the ground and his spirit going to heaven

there were more questions...

Where is his spirit?

Do we have a spirit?

Is it in our heart?

Why can't we see a spirit?

 

What a wonderful day. Thanks Ange for letting us come to visit.

Visiting the Eco Store

Sara and Melissa talked to us about bees and how we must look after our world so that bees will not be harmed. A focus on the talk was how we need to use less chemicals in our cleaning products and also in the things that we use to clean our bodies.
We purchased some hand and dish washing liquid as well as
crayons made out of wax.

Each girl was given a little gift bag and they were delighted with it's contents!

Thanks Sara, Melissa and everyone at Eco Store.

Nothing Without Joy!

Yesterday when we discussed our visit to the Garden Centre and Cornwall Park, I asked the girls

'What were some of the things that you enjoyed the most on our outing?'

I was expecting conversations about all that we had seen and experienced together.

At the Garden Centre we saw beautiful flowers, interesting sculptures, plants,

colourful umbrellas, the garden furniture that the girls enjoyed trying out; and at Cornwall Park there was the lambs and chickens, the babies out for a walk with their mums, 

the view from Maungakiekie, rolling down the bank, running through the trees

and the rows and rows of different types of Daffodils ...

And what did they ALL say?

Trying to get the Monster off the roof of the van as we went over the bumps!

The laughter and joy was wonderful.

As each bump was coming up I would call out...

Are you Ready?

And they would answer loudly...

Yes we are! 

We loved it when Tess, was calling out the question and the answer perfectly. 

She is catching on to so many words so quickly.

So, as Carla Rinaldi says

'Nothing Without Joy',

and that's certainly what we all experienced on Monday.

We Need More Flowers

 As we have engaged with the children in this inquiry centering around flowers and bees,  we have been mindful of capturing their wonder and the development of their curiosity.

Te Whāriki; the early childhood curriculum, states that;

“... children learn through play (and being actively involved) – by doing, by asking questions, by interacting with others, by setting up theories or ideas about how things work and trying them out, and by the purposeful use of resources”. Te Whāriki also says that “exploration will be guided, supported and challenged by adults and other children”.
(pg 82 Te Whāriki)

After our questions around ‘Why Are The Bees Dying?’, we were keen for the girls to
be active in making a difference to the environment. We reminded ourselves of our ‘Central Idea’  and in particular the ‘Lines of Inquiry’ that we had begun our inquiry with, that talks about ‘preserving and protecting the world’. 

We turned to the girls for direction and their solution was simple...
“We need to plant more flowers” so a trip to the garden centre was planned.

Why are the Bees Dying?

The girls have been watching the lovely spring flowers that are arriving in the gardens around the school and on our walks to Mt St John.

Our beautiful daffodil pictures got us talking about the stamens in the
middle and the bees that come to visit flowers to collect pollen and nectar.The girls drew daffodil pictures and we added our bee pictures to get a group picture that will be used
for the calendars this year.

We viewed a video of bees collecting pollen and nectar from the flowers and the commentator talked about how the bees were dying all around the world.

This immediately attracted the girls attention and they became very animated.

Why are the Bees dying they asked?

The girls came up with many ideas and I suggested they ask their families
for some ideas too. A little booklet was made and they families did a great job of
writing their ideas down and sending them back for us to read.

Here are some of the most popular reasons why people think the bees are dying;

Poisons and insecticides are killing them
Not enough flowers
The bees are getting a disease
People kill bees  

I asked the girls 
'What could we do to save the bees?'

The girls decided that we could grow some flowers.
Our next adventure is to go to the Garden Centre to choose
flowers and vegetables for our gardens. 

Our friend Melissa has provided us with some wild flower seeds and
we need to find a home for those too!

French in the Foundation Class

  Today we spent time with Madame Alpe. She brought her lovely doll Emilé and her puppets. 

At the end of the day, 
the girls enjoyed making a cover for their French book.

Here are some of the pictures of Emilé

French phrases that we are learning 

with Madame Alpe                                                                  

Bonjour                                      Hello                                    
Comment t'appelles tu?              What is your name?
Je m'appelle...                             My name is ....                                       
Tres bien                                    Very good                                         Merci                                           Thank you

Bon appetite                                Good eating

De rien                                         You’re welcome

Numbers

Un; 1. Deux; 2. Trois; 3. Quatre; 4. Cinq; 5.