As you will know from
previous posts, our Inquiry focus this term has been about bugs and insects. We've had many fabulous discussions, explored all sorts of questions, and found all all sorts of information. Over the last week couple of weeks we've been finding out about caterpillars, butterflies, ladybugs and bees.
We found some very interesting facts about these little creatures. Did you know that ...
Ladybugs spots fade as they get older?
That a ladybug can walk faster than a child?
That ladybugs eat aphids?
That a caterpillar has little holes along the sides of it's body that look like spots, that it breathes through?
Caterpillars are not insects, but when they turn into butterflies... they are?
Butterflies use their antennae to smell?
That butterflies pollinate flowers by taken pollen from one to the other?
That worker bees that you see out and about are all female?
That drone bees (boy bees) have no stingers?
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Some of our bee research and findings ...
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For more interesting facts, check out the work in our writing books and on display in our fabulous classroom next time you visit ...
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| We've learnt lots about butterflies ... |
We've reflected on our
wonderings from earlier on in our inquiry, and observed that we've been able to answer the questions we'd all had. We now know about the differences between bugs and insects, and have identified what insects are good for our garden.
We took some time and had quite a bit of discussion about what we could do to encourage good insects to come to our garden.
On Monday, Sam from Victoria University came to talk about her study major - bees. She shared some ideas for how we could attract bees to our garden and this confirmed many of the ideas we'd already had.
We've learnt alot ... but
so what?
We have decided we needed to plant lots of flowers in our garden to attract good insects. Many of the children in our class wanted to make signs as well so that the bees, ladybugs and butterflies know they are welcome (and to let the bad bugs know they are not). Today we planted the flower seeds we won as part of the
Golden Spade award a couple of weeks ago and made special signs to accompany them. We think the signs might deter birds from eating the signs too, as they are laminated and shiny in the sun. We also thought it was a great time to plant the seeds as it has been
Matariki, and we learnt that this is a great time to do gardening.
We have loved our inquiry this term into bugs and insects, we've learnt so much and made so many connections to other aspects of what we've been learning in and out of school. Our garden is thriving and we hope it will continue to do so with our improved knowledge of insects and which ones are good or 'bad' for our garden. Keep an eye on our blog to see how it grows (goes) ...
