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Last week when we arrived back at school, some students noticed that the swan plants had grown a lot over the lockdown.  They were healthy and big with caterpillars AND there were several chrysalis hanging in the plants and along the fence and classrooms.

We shared with the school to be careful and only look at them - no touching!

The following day, the same students watched a butterfly hatch.  They noticed another chrysalis was black and looking ready to hatch.  They set up an ipad to video the hatching.  The girls decided that a time lapse went too fast so they videoed with the idea of speeding up the footage and adding music once the butterfly had hatched.

The girls were SURE the butterfly would hatch soon..but when they checked every 15 minutes or so...still no butterfly! At lunchtime they ate next to the ipad to make sure nobody accidentally knocked the camera.  After lunch there was still no butterfly!

The end of the day arrived and all the children had to go home, luckily one of the girls is Mrs Cutler's daughter so she was able to stay and watch the camera and the butterfly because she did not have a bus to catch.

Finally the time came and the butterfly hatched!

The girls communicated all evening, sharing footage and deciding how they would edit, and what music they would add.

The next day the movie was sped up and shared with the school.  The girls also decided to take photos of all of the stages to share the butterfly life cycle with the junior classes.

The incidental learning that came from noticing chrysalis was huge! The school enjoyed watching the video, the junior classes especially.

Hanging Baskets

Today we finally got to pot up the hanging baskets that Mrs Cutler bought waaaaay before lockdown.  We used to have hanging baskets but the plants kept dying because we didnt have a proper watering system.  We tried really really hard to keep them alive!

This time the hanging baskets are different, they hold water a little better and we decided to put different plants in them.

We chose succulents because there are lots of different colours and shapes AND they don't need a lot of attention to live ... a bonus when we still haven't sorted a watering system.

We have learned about how succulents have 'pups', and how they can grow from a leaf!

We love to beautify our school and we cant wait for our succulent baskets to take off!

School Art History

Last year Mrs Cutler had a plan to beautify the face of some steps at our school. Every child in the school had to create a self portrait using only their house colours. Our whanau groups are inspired by saint - Aubert (red) Marcellin (yellow) Chanel (green) McAuley (blue).
The criteria for the portraits was to: 
Use only your house colour
Create a detailed picture of yourself 
Add your name 
Think about the background/foreground and how to manage the colour

                                 

This project was so fun, and as well as livening up the boring wooden steps this is a memory of the people who were in our school in 2019. Mrs Cutler is hoping to do this project each year - its almost like a time capsule! When you walk into our school you can see the colours and faces - we love it!

Tui have Green Fingers

A few terms ago the big trees at the front of our school had to be cut down to make way for a new bus area.  These trees were established and huge meaning they gave us shade on the field.
Mrs Cutler organised for some new plants to be purchased and on Marcellin Day - the day we give service to the parish and community - Tui class were set to get planting.
We were so excited! We had spades, gloves and buckets.  We were ready!
Then...... when Mrs Cutler dug the first hole, it was like she'd hit concrete.  Pan. A layer of solid soil! Even if she'd been able to dig a big enough hole the pan was so solid the plants roots would never have been able to get through it.
So, feeling a bit down, we had to come up with a Plan B.
After a while we had help from some Dad's who came to school over the weekend with an auger.  They dug the holes in the places Mrs Cutler had marked. 
Yesterday, we all went out again and this time we were successful in our service! The native plants, flaxes and trees are in the ground.  We took turns planting and delivering mulch. The Tui kids set up a human chain to pass buckets of mulch and plants along. 
We planted around 60 plants in about an hour. 
Once the plants grow we'll have shade, a place to build huts and flowers for the bees.

Tui class have been busy painting ice-block sticks with vibrant colours and patterns with the aim of decorating the steps outside our classroom.   During this process we have been learning about colours and their effects, repeating patterns and measurement.  The sticks will be glued to the step horizontally and vertically (eg II=II=II)

    WALT create art to beautify our outdoor school environment

    We...
    Can choose bright colours
    Can create different and effective patterns
    Can measure the area to see how many ice-block sticks we will need