Bird of the Day - Starling

Hello again! Birdwatching with me today were from Class 4.
Birds we spotted were:

chaffinches
black headed gull
blackbirds
robin
woodpigeon

and Bird of the Day was the Starling -  two of these flew over us. Starling are well known for gathering together in big flocks and making big swirly patterns in the sky before going to bed - no one knows why they do this - just because it's fun is my guess!

Finally, well done to Jessica for working out that a starling gets its name because it is sparkly like a star:

They may be common but they are a lovely bird! Until next time...
Mrs Longmoor

Bird of the Day - Blackbird

I was joined by members from Class 4 for birdwatching today. Birds we spotted were:

woodpigeon
black headed gulls
robin
blue tit

plus the bird of the day was chosen by the children as Blackbird

We saw lots of these birds on fences and rooves on our bird walk. See if you can spot one this week. Bye for now
Mrs Longmoor

Bird of the Day - Chaffinch

We had our first birdwatching club of the school year today.

Birds we spotted were:
20 black-headed gulls
Blue tit
Robin
Blackirds
Crow

and chosen as Bird of the Day was a lovely female chaffinch we spotted:

Keep your eyes on the eco team board for more bird updates!

Mrs Longmoor

Welcome to Eco Team 2011/12

Hello,


Welcome back to the Parklands Eco blog. We've started the new school year with some exciting news, this Friday, the 4th November our school is being assessed for it's green flag. Hooray!!


We've had our first Eco Assembly this morning to introduce the new Eco Team to the whole school, and we talked about what it means to be green, and eco-friendly. 


The Eco team notice board also has a brand new look, pop into the family room and have a look, see if you can figure out what an eco womble looks like??? This will be a great place to see what the eco team is up to, what activities are going on in school and what exciting events are coming up. 


Thanks for reading.


Mrs Padley
Eco Team co-ordinator

Eco Team Update

Hi there,

thought I should put in an update, I was going to have lots of lovely photos...but I must apologise as they seem to have wandered off into the digital abyss.

Last Term

Parklands had a very busy time eco-wise last term. The Tulips bloomed in Mid April, they looked beautiful, bright red. Most excitingly we had real live chicks living in the family room for a week, the children were able to watch them develop from eggs, hatch and grow as the week went on. This was a big hit with the children, who behaved really well, and stayed quiet so as not to frighten the chicks.

We submitted our application for the eco-schools green flag, it has definitely been received, and we are now waiting for Eco-Schools to contact us about a date for our assessment visit. this is likely to be during the Autumn Term.

Summer Term

Now we're almost half way through the summer term, last weekend we had the annual tidy up the wildlife garden community event run by Mrs Jones. After a bit of a slow start 5 families came to tidy up, and made a great impact on the garden which is looking even more beautiful now, and can be used by the children as a quiet place during playtimes, and also for lessons. We planted some Mint, a few cucumbers, some tomatoes and some flowers to encourage insects.

Next week is Green week at Parklands, we have special green assemblies, planned about recycling and waste. On Tuesday all the children will take part in Scooter Smart Day, when they will be trained to ride their scooters safely and confidently, we hope this will keep our Parklanders fit and healthy as well as encouraging them to scoot to school, rather than come in the car.

Thursday is GREEN DAY, a non-uniform day with lots of fun activities to get us all thinking about reducing, re-using and recycling. Mrs Webster has organised a collection of old clothes to raise funds for the school and re use clothes that we don't need anymore. All the year groups will be involved in creating a bottle top tree sculpture, using bottle tops which can't be recycled locally. A full report in a few weeks time.

See you all soon

Mrs Padley

Bird of the Week - the Osprey

We were really lucky this week as all of Year 2 were able to spend some time watching a pair of beautiful ospreys via a webcam on the internet. The female is called EJ and the male is Odin - they have a huge nest near a loch in Scotland which they have used for several years and raised chicks there. Here is the link to watch the webcam and a lovely but slightly fuzzy photo showing both birds:

 http://www.rspb.org.uk/webcams/birdsofprey/lochgartenvideo.aspx

Ospreys are also called fish eagles as they eat only fish which they catch by flying over the water and grabbing with their huge talons. They are one of the rarest birds of prey in the country so the chance to watch them was a real treat - fingers crossed we see some chicks soon!

Lots of Eco Activity at Parklands

Well, I have so much to tell you all. it's been a busy eco time at school at the moment. As you can see from the picture above Mrs Hallows has finished collecting all the items needed for the aqua box, this photo was taken just before our assembly in March. The children had a chance to see all the different things we were able to put into the box because of their hard work. I also told the children about the alarm clock tulips planted in front of the school entrance to tell us all when spring has arrived. As you can see from this photo they are poking their heads up through the soil, this photo was taken a couple of weeks ago, they are looking much bigger now, have a look as you walk into school tomorrow.

Mrs Hallows and I also had the treat of hearing the new Parklands Eco song sung by all the children. The words are

Reduce Reuse Recycle - words that we all know

We have to save our planet to we can live and grow

We might be only children but we will try you'll see

And we can save this planet, it starts with you and me.

It's sounds brilliant when sung very loudly!! the song was written by Mrs Kilarski's class.

Parklands also celebrated earth hour on the 25th March.

Mrs Meller held an assembly to talk about it and the lights were turned off for an hour. the children were encouraged to take part at home the following day. 

We have an exciting new "Let's Get Cooking" display in the family room at the moment courtesy of Mrs Harvey, it's all about healthy eating.

And finally don't forget to use the Freecycle board in the family room to advertise unwanted goods to be gifted to others who may need them locally.

My what a busy update this has been, and there's even more to come with our green flag application going in soon, environmental reviews, letters to famous people about recycling and real live baby chicks in school. I'll keep you posted, and don't forget to let me know all your green news by catching me at school.

Mrs Padley.