Buzzing Bee research!

Class four have been busy researching bees this week.  We have looked at the physical features of a bee and found out why they are so important to humans.  We watched a film clip which showed us around a honeybee producers home, in the highlands of Scotland.  He told us all about how important bees are to humans.  

We have now started making information posters to show the information we have found out.

Our butterflies have hatched!!

Class four were very excited to come in on Monday morning to two beautiful butterflies.  We observed the butterflies for a while and had a lot of good discussions about their wings and bodies.  Then we carried on with our other work...

When we checked back a peedie while later we realised we had two more butterflies!! We were a bit upset that we had missed them hatching so we decided to record the net whilst we went out for break incase we missed the last one hatching.  When we returned from break we had a quick check...but still no butterfly!!  Later we checked again, just in time as the butterfly had just started to nibble a hole and poke his way out of the chrysalis.  We all gathered around the net to watch the final butterfly hatching out of the chrysalis.  It was very interesting to watch as its wings were squashed up and his legs were all crumpled.  

We observed it closely over the rest of the morning and were relieved to see that the butterfly very quickly started to stretch its wings and legs.  

In the afternoon we took the butterflies up to our secret minibeast garden and had great fun releasing them into their natural habitat.  

We were very careful not to touch their wings when we took the butterflies out of the net. 

We were all really impressed at how symmetrical their wings were!

We placed some of the butterflies on flowers and leaves.   Then we placed one on top of our minibeast hotel.

Food Chains

Class four have also been learning about food chains this week.  We researched and learnt about the different parts of a food chain and why they are important.

Then we constructed our own chains to show the 5 sections of a food chain; energy, producer, primary consumer, secondary consumer and decomposer. 

Minibeast hotel

Class four have been busy hanging up their minibeast codes around the school this week.  See if you can spot them when you are out and about!

Some of us spent time picking up litter which was in our school grounds.  We made sure that we collected anything we saw that could hurt or endanger animals and minibeasts. 

We couldn't resist finding a few creatures!!

We carefully gathered pallets, old carpet, pieces of wood, sticks, old plants and leaves to make our minibeast hotel.  Once we had constructed our hotel with lots of layers we found a few minibeasts in the area to 'move in!'  We are going to keep an eye on our minibeast hotel for the next few weeks to see what minibeasts it will attract.  

Class Four's Caterpillars

Class four have been closely monitoring the progress of their caterpillars.  We have observed them growing from tiny caterpillars to much bigger caterpillars.  We are really excited as they have now begun the process of changing into a butterfly.  

We have transferred the five chrysalis into the butterfly net and are now patiently waiting for the butterflies to appear.