Christmas Card Recycling

As you can see Parklands have completed a magnificent amount of Christmas Card Recycling this year, slightly more than the height of Minnie Padley from class 2. We recycled 1918 cards and a reindeer hat, the pile was quite sizeable as you can see (approximately 2 metres 14 centimetres). The cards were taken to TK Maxx on Chilwell Retail Park, where they will be recycled and raise money for The Woodland Trust. Hopefully next year we will recycle even more.

Birdwatching Spot of the Week - the Robin

Hello again, birdwatching club has now moved to Mondays so we were twitching today. It was a bit chilly but we did spot a few birds. Birds we saw were:
Seagulls
Blackbirds
Pigeons
A carrion crow
and our spot of the week - a lovely cheeky little robin

We could hear some singing from a hedge but couldn't see the bird - we were patient and after a couple of minutes of waiting quietly, a lovely little robin hopped up right in front of us. Hopefully now spring is on the way we will start to see a few more birds around school. I heard a woodpecker as I walked through West Park last week but couldn't see it anywhere! Another example of why listening for birds is so important! Until next time, Mrs. Longmoor

How can you recycle a plastic bottle and help birds?

Here's the answer! and thanks to Oliver, Elia and Chloe from Year 2 who helped me make a bottle top bird feeder for the wildlife garden today in birdwatching club. All you need is an empty plastic bottle, some bird seed and a bottle top feeder kit which I bought at Attenborough Nature Reserve for £3. It's a brilliant idea and the children said it was fun to make too.

BEFORE.....

....AND AFTER!



It was too windy to see many birds today - only seagulls and pigeons were brave enough to be flying around - the bird table even blew over! So until next time.....Mrs Longmoor

The Big School Birdwatch

This week we took part in the RSPB's School Birdwatch.

We spent a total of an hour in the nature garden and walking near nursery and here are our results:
2 blackbirds
1 sparrow
3 blue tits
2 robins (including one juvenile)
1 magpie
2 woodpigeons
1 great tit (spotted by Jacob B)
2 crows
60+ seagulls
and my spot of the week this week - 3 Goldfinches - these were spotted by me eating berries at the top of a tree in the nature garden. Goldfinches are very brightly coloured little birds who really love seeds and thistles. They are easy to recognise with their red faces and bright yellow on their wings.

I have submitted our results on the RSPB website and we have been entered into a prize draw to win cool bird things for school so keep your fingers crossed! 

One last thing - lots of people have been telling me lately about the birds they see in their gardens or just out and about. I saw a flock of chaffinches on the way to school and lucky Mrs Padley spotted a whole flock of waxwings in the middle of Long Eaton - waxwings live in Scandinavia but come to England in the winter to feed. They love red berries so keep your eyes peeled and you might be lucky enough to see some too.

Birdwatching Spot of the Week - the Robin

Hello again! This week we gave the wildlife garden a bit of TLC. Thanks to May from Class 1 who litter picked with me on Monday and Tommy, Lucas, Jessica, Jack D, Sachin and Nikita from Year 2 who filled up the bird feeders and put bird seed on the bird table as part of birdwatching club this week. Not such a good week this time for spotting birds but when you look at this lot - it's hardly surprising the birds decided to hide.....

We did manage to spot woodpigeons, crows, seagulls, a blackbird and the spot of the week - a robin, spotted by Tommy and Lucas in the wildlife garden. Robins are not just around at Christmas - look out for their red front all year round. I would love to hear if you spot a robin in your garden this week.

One last thing - this weekend is the RSPB's Big Garden Birdwatch - if you go to their website you can find out how you can get involved too http://www.rspb.org.uk/birdwatch/takepart.aspx
Until next time.....Mrs Longmoor

Birdwatching Club - Spot of the Week - the Magpie

Well done to Jordan for picking out the songs and noises from the birds too. Archie was our recorder and wrote down all the birds we spotted which were:
Seagull
Carrion Crow
Collared Dove
Pigeon
Blue Tit
Long-tailed Tit (a lovely little fat bird with a very long tail and pink tummy)
and
My Spot of the Week - a Magpie spotted by Lawson

Magpies are easy to spot - they are quite big, quite noisy and have very distinctive black and white feathers. See if you can spot a magpie this week and....keep watching the skies! 

Mrs. Longmoor

Good start to the year

On Friday we held a bring and buy sale so that we had a guilt free way to pass on unwanted Christmas presents!  There was also a nearly new uniform sale.  The collection for the Aquabox is going really well.  There are just a few more items to collect before the box can be packed and sent to where it's needed......thanks.

Just before Christmas, we managed to plant the tulips for the mapping climate change project,  there had been snow on the ground when we had originally planned to plant.  Mrs Longmoor, Mr Meller and Mrs Hallows, braved the bad weather and planted 250 Red Emperor bulbs, one for each pupil in the school.  The tulips are an early flowering variety and registering when they flower on the Journey North website will help map the arrival of Spring worldwide and the effects of climate change.