Nature at Chater Infant School

  Chater Infant school are starting to work towards an ECO Schools Green Flag Award.  We already have an ECO School Bronze Award which we achieved in 2019. We have an Eco committee of 6 children from across the school and Miss Taperell and Mrs Clark are helping these children inform the whole school about what we can do in our school and at home to look after the environment. We have talked about what we are already doing and what we understand and we have made an action plan that will help us do some work in some different areas.  https://www.eco-schools.org.uk/about/eco-schools-green-flag-other-awards/  

The cocoons have finally opened and we had 4 butterflies in Nursery!  We were excited to see them drinking the sugar water we put in for them.  They also enjoyed sitting on the fruit pieces we put in to give them lots of energy.   We released the butterflies outside which was very exciting for everyone.  Some butterflies flew straight out of the netting but two needed a little coaxing!   The butterflies we had were called Painted Ladies.   Image from Pixabay Image from Pixabay Can you find out the names and patterns of any other types of butterflies?

 Caterpillars in Nursery We had 5 little caterpillars in Nursery to help us learn more about living things and their lifecycles.   We watched how they ate and ate and ate!  They grew bigger very quickly, shedding thier skin as they grew. Then they climbed up to the top of the pot and attached themselves.   They shed their skin one more time and the last skin hardened into a cocoon. Now we need to wait and see what will happen next!! Do you know?  Why not learn more about caterpillars from books or the internet (with adult supervision)

 Dubia Cockroaches We are learning about mini beasts in Nursery and this week we were excited to look after some Dubia Cockroaches .  We hope you enjoy the pictures and learning some facts about them!  Some children enjoyed holding them! We made charcoal observational drawings too! FACTS...... Dubia roaches live together in groups. 👋Dubia Roaches have their skeleton on the outside like a hard shell.  It is called an exo-skeleton. 👋As t he shell is hard a growing Dubia Roach will need to moult, coming out and leaving its exoskeleton behind.  It will do this 7 times before it becomes an adult. 👋 Dubia Roaches do not fly but they do have wings. 👋 Male Dubia can run faster than females. 👋 Males Dubia have longer wings than females.

I hope you all had a lovely half term, and saw lots of lovely wildlife and nature this week.   Mrs Spinage met and learnt about some quite different animals this week.  Have you ever heard or seen an alpaca before?!  Here are some photos and fun facts about these interesting animals!  💙Alpaca live in a group called a herd. 💙A baby alpaca is called a cria.  These cria are wearing coats to keep them warm at night.   💙This is a baby alpaca! He drinks milk from his mother.   💙Alpacas mainly eat grass.  They can also eat leaves, bark or stems.   💙 Alpacas do not have teeth at the top front of their mouth, just at the bottom! 💙 Alpacas have three stomach compartments.    

We have noticed lots of flowers growing in and around our school.  Here are some of them.  Look out for them when you next look around the school or go for a walk with your family! bluebells (and some white ones!) dandelions buttercups forget-me-nots celandine  daisies  

 This week the tadpoles have started to grow back legs.   Look closely at these pictures and see if you can spot any tadpoles with tiny legs at the back.   We are continuing to feed them cucumber and peas.   Why do you think they have started to grow legs?  Do you know what a tadpole will change into when it becomes an adult?