Last session with CLT Kingsbury for 2013

Today was my last session with the CLT prep/one students for this year. We had a close-up look at some of the invertebrates the students discovered last week. Then we coloured and labelled pictures of invertbrates - introducing the students to the idea of invertbrate body parts (we may expand on this next year).
The students had trouble imagining how many wings and legs some of the invertebrates have - especially millipedes and bees.

These 'Invertebrate Info sheets' are available as a resource for teachers.

- Juli Atkinson (education staff)

The Butterfly Game

The Butterfly Game

Creating Bright Flowers

We've been having a ball with the Findon Biodiversity Group (FBG) at Findon Primary School. This weeks session was all about pollination and how butterflies are important in our ecosystems. Over the past few weeks, students have been creating wooden cutouts that replicate a flowers function (bright petals, nectar storage) and we've now installed them on garden stakes and put them in the ground.

At lunch time (and note this is a purely voluntary activity) we've been getting around 20 - 30 students joining in to help create the Butterfly Garden.

The Butterfly Garden Plan

The Findon Biodiversity Group (FBG) have been referring to their garden plan and putting a huge range of butterfly attracting plants into the area. 'We're hoping that butterfly habitat will attract the butterflies' says Anamika.

Collecting Nectar

Today, we worked with all the grade 5 students (Grade 4's were on camp) and had the first attempt at running the Butterfly Game. Students were placed into teams of 4-6 and equipped with a pipette (Nectar sucker) and a bucket (Nectar storage unit).

Butterflies (students) then took it in turns to race down to the flowers and collect a pipette full of nectar (colored water) and then take it back to their 'home'. After 5 minutes, the teams gathered together and measured their nectar.





An interesting spin off from this game was the FBG leaders taking control of the running of the game and providing good educational context for the running of a great team activity.

'We're creating a butterfly garden to attract the indigenous butterflies by using indigenous plants that are good for butterflies and other animals' said James. 'Yes, and this game demonstrates how butterflies are important for pollination' said Emily.

 

- Andrew Stocker (Senior Coordinator Education Services)

Bug Scatter!

Today I introduced the CLT prep/one students to some of the invertebrates that live in leaf litter ('Bugs that live in leaf litter' is available as a resource for teachers). The students really loved naming the invertebrates and searching for them in the leaf litter. A few students were afraid of the invertebrates or had trouble finding bugs by themselves, but most were incredibly excited! One student, Josh, who is normally difficult to engage, was absolutely enthralled by the bugs and refused to stop looking at them even when the class had moved back to the classroom. He was very gentle with them.

- Juli (education staff)