Please Keep Our School Tidy competition

After the success of our wildlife photography competition last summer, the Parklands Eco Team would like to run another eco related competition over the summer holidays.

Littering on the school campus is becoming an increasing problem and not only looks unsightly but is harmful to the environment. With this in mind, we are running a competition to design an A4 poster entitled ‘Please Keep Our School Tidy’ to promote awareness of the issue and encourage everyone to take pride in our lovely school grounds. The competition is open to everyone on campus including Parklands, Harrington and Wilsthorpe students. All entries will be displayed around the school campus. There are three age groups: under 7s, 7-11, over 11s. A prize will be awarded to the winner from each age group.

All posters should be A4 in size with your name and age somewhere on the front – other than that it is completely up to you so be as creative as you can! You can use pencils or pens, paint, crayons, make a collage from recycled materials or use a computer to help you. You can enter as many posters as you like. The only rule is that it must be your own work.

The closing date for entries is 18th September. The winning poster from each school will be framed and displayed at Parklands and all entries will be displayed around the campus.

Good Luck!

Butterfly and Bee Garden

Have you noticed any bumblebees or butterflies enjoying the beautiful flowers in the garden we planted for them? I have seen lots and the flowers look really beautiful. Thank you to Miss Beecham who planted the garden for us (and thank you from the bees too!)

Give Bees A Chance day - 13th June

I am delighted to report that our "Give Bees A Chance" day at school was a great success. All the children dressed in black and yellow, some even had wings and antennae too! We had a talk from a beekeeper who brought in a hive with real bees to show us. I lead an assembly with a poem, bee jokes and a talk about why bees are in trouble and what we can all do to help. We had honey tasting at playtime and lots of bee-related learning during the rest of the day. Each child decorated a hexagon with their own bee or decorated flowers for our Parklands Beehive display. At home time, each child took home a copy of the Busy Bees newsletter and a packet of flower seeds to plant. The children got a lot out of the day and I think the staff enjoyed it too!

Val the Beekeeper shows the children inside a hive

 

Katelynn and Lucy try some honey - delicious!



Our bee-tastic assembly

Eli learns about tessellating hexagons

 

Luke having fun with the bee-bots





May and Sylvie with their bee poem




May and Tomas take home some flower seeds to plant




Part of the Parklands Beehive - can you see your bee?




Mrs Callaghan with the finished display




Liam plants his seeds in a special bee bucket



New recycled bottle feeders

We made two new bird feeders today out of old bottles - hope the birds will like them!

May with the new bottle bird feeder

Birdwatching Club today had a few good spots - 1 robin, 1 greenfinch, 1 wren and BOTD was 2 blue tits.

Mrs Longmoor

BOTD - Long-Tailed Tit

News from Birdwatching Club:
Between the snow flurries today we managed to see a few birds in the wildlife garden including my favourite the long-tailed tit plus a blue tit, robin, wood pigeons, two collared doves and a blackbird.

 

Mrs Longmoor

 



This mummy long-tailed tit certainly has her hands full!



 

Waste Week 11-15th March

Fed up of buying cling film or plastic sandwich bags for lunch boxes? Want to find a more eco alternative? The answer is the Onya reuseable sandwich wrap! They come in a range of gorgeous colours and keep any size of sandwich fresh all day.... Plus there is no waste as it is entirely reuseable. As part of Waste Week (11-15th March), we are selling these sandwich wraps in school at the bargain price of £4 each (RRP £6), available from Mrs Longmoor or Mrs Padley on the playground before school or from the office.

 

 

Rag Bag textile recycling

Our Rag Bag textile recycling bin has arrived! It is in the teachers's car park close to the main entrance to school. Please donate your old clothes, paired shoes and soft toys for recycling and reuse. The school receives a payment per kg that is collected. Rag Bag bags are available from the school office. Thank you.

 

 

 

Bird of the Day - the Wren and the Goldfinch

Two sessions of birdwatching club today and an excellent amount of birds seen. They were:

1 wood pigeon
1 collared dove
1 robin
1 coal tit
1 starling
1 blue tit
1 robin

and two birds chosen as Bird of the Day were the wren and the goldfinch.



Can you see that Jenny Wren always has her tail sticking up?

I always love to hear about birds you have seen outside school so well done to one pupil in Year 2 who recognised a long-tailed tit and could tell her mum what is was! Her mum was really impressed!

Until next time
Mrs Longmoor

Fairtrade Fortnight (25 Feb - 10 March)

This fortnight is Fairtrade Fortnight when we learn about how we can help the farmers who grow the food we eat by paying a fair price. Have you tried our Fairtrade wordsearch yet?

 

 

How many things can you find with the Fairtrade logo on?

If you find anything please bring it to school
Mrs Longmoor

 

 

National Nestbox Week

To celebrate National Nestbox Week we have installed a new nestbox on one of the tall trees next to the outdoor classroom. Let me know if you spot any blue tits looking like moving in! Can you see who has moved into my little bird box on the eco board?

The Great Litter Count

Today we took part in a campaign called the Great Litter Count. 5 pupils from Year 2 helped me to collect litter from the school grounds and see what we found. 

Here is May doing her bit to keep Parklands tidy!

Here are the results:

5 drinks cans

3 Macdonalds cups

1 subway cup

6 crisps packets

20 sweets wrappers

1 plastic bottle

2 carrier bags

3 cigarette packets

3 juice cartons

4 plastic food wrappers

2 straws

We sorted all this litter into what could be recycled and what had to go into the bin. Well done to those who helped me. I was very upset at how much litter we found around our school and I hope that children from Parklands would never drop any litter - always remember to put it in the bin!

Mrs Longmoor



First Snowdrops in the Wildlife Garden

The first snowdrops have sprung up in the wildlife garden and look lovely. Not much to report from birdwatching today - it was a bit too windy I think. We spotted two blue tits, a wood pigeon and a crow.

Mrs Longmoor

Christmas Card Recycling

Happy February!! A quick update on this years Christmas Card recycling - Parklands children and their families have recycled 792 cards this year. The cards have been sent off to Marks and Spencers to raise money for the Woodland Trust and help improve the environment.

Well Done Everyone.


Mrs Padley

Big School Birdwatch

Today we took part in the RSPB's Big School Birdwatch event. You have to watch and count the birds at school for 1 hour and here are our results:

2 blackbirds
3 blue tits
2 robins
1 coal tit
2 great tits
2 redwings
9 wood pigeons
2 crows
1 chaffinch
2 greenfinches
1 dunnock
1 collared dove
1 sparrowhawk

We did so well - the birds are very hungry at the moment!  I have sent our results to the RSPB and we have been entered in a prize draw. Well done everyone!

Mrs Longmoor

Bird of the Day - Blue Tit

Despite the snow we managed to spend a bit of time today watching the birds in the wildlife garden - not as much about as usual but the birds were probably sheltering from the snow. We spotted:

1 pigeon
1 collared dove
1 robin
1 great tit
2 blackbirds
1 long-tailed tit

and BOTD was a blue tit



It's really important to keep feeding the birds during snowy weather.

Until next time

Mrs Longmoor

Recycle Your Christmas Cards!

At school we are collecting your Christmas Cards so they can be recycled by The Woodland Trust. So if you took all yours down at the week-end please bring them in to school and put them in the big box in the family room. Let's see if we can beat last year's total!

Bird of the Day - 2 Robins

First day back at school today and our feeders were all empty! I filled them up again but it looked like the birds had forgotten about us at Birdwathcing Club at playtime when we saw only 1 wood pigeon and a pair of collared doves. By lunchtime however, the birds were back! We spotted:

1 coal tit

1 dunnock

1 great tit

1 wood pigeon

and bird of the day - 2 robins



 Robins don't normally get along and can be very territorial so we were lucky to see two in our garden.

The children were very keen to know today how many birds I have seen ever and how I know so much about birds. Well the answer is I have seen over 200 different types of bird so far (and still counting!) and I found out about birds from reading books and going on the internet, but mostly just from taking time to look for birds in my garden and at the park and to learn what they were. That is why birdwatching is such a great hobby and you never stop learning new things about birds!

Until next time

Mrs Longmoor