RSPB Big Garden Birdwatch

Hi all, as promised, I wanted to let you know what birds we spotted doing the Big Garden Birdwatch. These were the birds that we saw around our garden in one hour:
1 blackbird
1 redwing
2 goldfinch
1 magpie
1 starling
3 wood pigeons

My favourite was the redwing - one of our winter thrush visitors from Scandinavia.

If you took part in the Big Garden Birdwatch - I would love to hear your sightings on the blog.

Mrs Longmoor

Bird of the Day - Black-Headed Gull

Well, it was a bit of a disappointing day for birds today - it has been too windy lately and birds don't like wind!  My little twitchers were from Class 4 and we saw only woodpigeons and black-headed gulls. The children decided that the gulls should be bird of the day.

This is a gull in the winter - they get their black head in spring and summer. If you look across the field to Wilsthorpe School you will see lots of these gulls.

This weekend is the RSPB's Big Garden Birdwatch. You need to count the birds in your garden for 1 hour. I will put my list onto the blog next week so if you do a garden birdwatch - you can post your results too! Keep 'em peeled.....Mrs Longmoor

Christmas Card Recycling

Hot of the press!! The Big Christmas Card count has just been finished and I am delighted to announce that Parklands have recycled 2629 cards. Which is BRILLIANT. Last year we recycled 1918 cards and we measured how high a pile that made...it came to 2m 14 cm. This years pile would be 2m 93cm - that's almost 3 m tall. The cards will be taken to Marks and Spencers who are collecting them for the woodland trust this year. 

There were all sorts of cards begin recycled, and some pupils had had the great idea of cutting out the pictures to use for tags and cards next year - that is smart re-using. Good work eco-wombles!!

See you soon

Mrs Padley.

Bird of the Day - Long-Tailed Tit (and squirrel)

It was a lovely sunny day today and some nice birds were about for our Birdwatching Club. My junior birders this week were from Class 4.

Birds spotted were:
Blue tit
Crows
Woodpigeons
Black-headed gulls

and Bird of the Day was Long-Tailed Tit. We saw three fly between two trees - they always go around in family groups so if you spot one you will probably spot another one before long!

As you can see, they get their names from their long tails.

We also saw a grey squirrel scampering over the rooves which Tomas chose as bird of the day (although it's not actually a bird!) but he insisted....

Until next time, Mrs. Longmoor

Eco Team Meeting -13th January, 2012

On Friday we had our first eco team meeting of 2012. The first half of the meeting was taken up with lots of different eco-team activities.

Wildlife Garden
Mrs Golding, Mrs Longmoor, Ash, May, Laura and Stephanie all went outside to check on the wildlife garden. They reported back that they had located a potential site for a mini-beasts area. They also let us know that the wheelbarrow was broken and some litter had to be picked up, the litter was raisin boxes, and Mrs Mellor was very concerned that these had come from children at Parklands. This will be mentioned in school assembly. The new scarecrow bird feeder has just had some hooks fitted to it, so we can now hand bird feeders and fat balls from it. Thankyou to Mr Brown who sorted this out for us.

Finally some areas of the garden need weeding, and it seems that some children from Parklands have been going into areas of the garden they are not supposed to, Eco team and Mrs Mellor agreed that this should be mentioned in school assembly as well. Later in the meeting Mrs Golding showed everyone the new signs she has made for the wildlife garden showing different sorts of footprints and the animals that make them. Next time you are in the wildlife garden see if you can spot any animal footprints.

Eco Notice Board

Diya, Mrs Mellor and Mrs Lewis updated the Eco Notice board with a new recycling hint and the date for the next Eco Team Meeting - have a look next time you are in the family room.

Christmas Card Recycling
 Katie, Yasmin, Mrs Ellender and Mrs Padley started counting the Christmas Cards that have been left for recycling in the family room. I have just checked and last years total was 1918 cards, we didn't have much time on Friday but we counted 1035. There are still lots left to count so I'll keep you updated. It's still a massive number already so a BIG THANKYOU to everyone who has brought their cards in, and a reminder to anyone else who hasn't yet to get them in as soon as possible.

Update from Eco Team Members Note books
 All the pupil members of the eco team received special note books beautifully made by Mrs Golding from recycled materials, so that they can keep a record of any ideas or questions for eco-team meetings. the children showed everyone their note books which were all very inspiring. Below is an eco poem which May wrote.

During the rest of the meeting, we discussed the new flag pole for school - Westerman Homes are coming to have a look at our site to help us decide the best place to put it. Mrs Padley was looking for some ideas about how to make insulation interesting for an assembly, and finally we mentioned some upcoming events we have planned.

January - Big School Warm Up

February - National Nest Box Week

March - Waste week

Thanks for reading

Mrs Padley.

Bird of the Day - Greenfinch

Hello again. Today was the first birdwatching club of the new year. The weather was not too good today so my little twitchers from Class 4, decided to spend some time watching birds on webcams. Birds we saw were:

Coal tits
Blue tit (identified by Ivan)
Goldfinch
Great Tit

and chosen as the bird of the day was a lovely Greenfinch.

As you can see - they are finches that are green - hence the name!

Have fun bird spotting this week, Mrs Longmoor