I know it’s not TUESDAY.
It’s THURSDAY, but just for one week, it’s Virtually There time!
SPRING UPDATE:
Dandelions are taking over the world!
Daisies are springing up everywhere too. Pussy willows are falling.
Pussy willows under a microscope.
catkins lovely tulips
Aren’t rhododendrons so beautiful?
hyacinths Leaves just ready to open wide.
Good Morning Vanya –
How are you today?
- Our plan for today was to go outside and listen for bird song. HOWEVER…….
It’s SNOWING out there! No wonder the birds are angry!
Vanya asked the children to show her what our crystals looked like. They are sparkly, and if you look at them with a magnifying glass you can see crystal formations, but they are very compact. Maybe we’ll give them another go. She said that some people think that crystals can tell us what the weather is going to be like. I said I’d prefer to rely on the Met people, even though they don’t always get it right!
She showed us how her sets of crystals – vinegar and Epsom salts – are coming along. She put some paper “seaweed” in the jars to see if crystals would grow on them.
Then she showed us these images.
We looked at a diver in the sea swimming around seaweed trees. Vanya said it is very difficult to imagine how big things are unless you compare them with something else. We touched on “scale.” Then we saw how small a diver is in comparison to large sea animals. I said that an aeroplane in the sky looks very small, but when it is descending and then lands, the reality of its very large size becomes apparent.
And making a connection with SIZE….. We showed her our very tall “wholelottaseaweed tree” installation. She liked it very much.
We discovered that a whale can be the same size as a huge aeroplane and then we made lists of things that are:
VERY SMALL SMALL MEDIUM LARGE
ant – Pearse fish – Aimee fridge – Faith aeroplane – Amyleigh
ladybird – Ella toy – Natalia sting-ray – Hayden killer-whale – Jamie
turtle – Grace
pig – Eirinn
The children had to really think hard about this because where to place some of them on the list depended on comparison.
TALLER THAN US SMALLER THAN US
school – Roise rabbit – Aimee
dinosaur – Abigail book – Caoimhe
elephant – Ella spider – Conal
tornado – Daniel chick – Aine
blue whale – Oisin marble – Joshua
IWB – Christopher moth – Conor
long ship – Ronan starfish – Juliette
helicopter – Courtney button – Molly
Look at these comparisons. Thanks Vanya!
NEXT:
We watched a beautiful video called THE BIG SUR. (an area off the coast of California)
It showed Grey whales and their babies cruising through the kelp off the coast of California. The seaweed forest there is the tallest in the world. Amyleigh thought the sea animals were sharks and Pearse thought they were blue whales.
They were so graceful moving through the sea.
THEN: LUISTEREN ECOUTER ESCUCHAR EISTEACHT ASCOLTA POSLOUCHAT
Our patience was rewarded because…………….. a little while later………. the rain, sleet and snow subsided and we managed to snatch the opportunity to go outside on our Bird Sound Walk….even though it was really cold! Vanya asked the children if they thought the birds would be singing in this cold, wet weather.
Faith said, “No,” and Eirinn said, “Yes, because they might be happy.” So let’s find out:
We made our way to the front of the school and sure enough, we heard (through the noise of passing traffic) bird song! Like mini sleuths, we followed the sound to some trees in the car park. We caught sight of a large wood pigeon waddling along the path.
Next, we heard a robin high up in a tree. and there were also other birds calling to each other, but my dexterity in capturing this was inadequate!!
We moved around to the side of the school near the dinner hall and spied lots of blackbirds foraging for worms…….They were much too busy to make any noise.
I only managed to photograph two of them.
We returned to our classroom to tell Vanya what we had heard and observed.
We talked about the difference between crows and blackbirds. Pearse told us that blackbirds have black beaks, whereas crows have orange beaks. I added that there are no crows in Iceland as they don’t fly that far north, but that there are many puffins there. In fact, puffins are like a national emblem!
Vanya revealed that she had once rescued an injured blackbird which had been hit by a fast car. She put it in a cage and went out digging for worms. She fed the bird with a selection of peanuts, apples, worms and berries (quite tasty actually, apart from the worms!). After a few days of TLC she tried to release the bird, but it did not want to go. It was still unable to fly. Then one day, after six weeks had passed, she held the bird up and it flew away! She told us that she also helped an injured crow, but that it was very smelly, like ammonia. We said that Vanya should open up a Sanctuary. She could call it Ward’s Bird Hotel.
The floodgates were opened to a barrage of bird tales – Grace said that she had twenty birds in a shed. Faith told us that a bird had a baby. Abigail also said that she has a shed full of birds. Juliette‘s cousin has birds in their back garden. Pearse has a bird feeder in his garden and he sits in a chair and listens to the sounds they make.
Pearse told Vanya that he once saw 4 magpies perching on the branches of a tree.
Vanya showed us some illustrations from her bird book. She wanted to know what types of birds the boys and girls recognised and we were all surprised with the answers. Everyone shouted: PIGEONS.
More answers: Ciaran: A robin.
Grace: A robin has a red stomach.
Faith: My Granda has got a whole shed of pigeons. He lets them out and he calls them. He goes to the Pigeon Club. Vanya wanted to know how they got back to the shed as they can’t see colour and they can’t read. Something for another session perhaps???
Pearse: My cousin Tommy has a yellow bird.
Conal: There is a trailer of pigeons in my Grandad’s street.
Abigail: Pigeons have patterns under their wings.
Natalia: A magpie. It is big and black and white.
This resulted in a chat about how a magpie has a beautiful blue colour on its back.
I wondered about the origins of the superstition about what luck befalls you if you see different numbers of magpies…………………………………
(ABOVE) This magpie was roaming around the grounds of Belfast Castle.
Christopher: A parrot has rainbow patterns.
Aine: My sister has a bird. It is green, black, blue and red. It’s called Riley. Boy birds make better pets than girls because they don’t like it when you handle them.
Courtney‘s Aunt has yellow budgie called Froto. Sometimes it lives with her Granny.
Joshua said that he saw thirty birds in his garden.
Vanya then told us that in The Hague in Holland there are lots of noisy, little green birds flying around. They are parakeets! Several of them had escaped from their owners and now there are many of them enjoying the freedom of the city.
AFTER BREAK……………………….
We listened to a recording of different bird sounds and Vanya said the children could put their heads on their tables and close their eyes if they wanted to. She said this would help them concentrate better.
Some children preferred to sit up to listen.
We talked about the sounds we had heard and we tried to guess what birds had made those sounds. Then Vanya played a sound which Mrs. May and I hear coming down our chimneys very often. Jamie and Christopher thought it was an owl. Roise thought it was a crow. Juliette thought it was a pigeon………….and she was correct.
(I captured this pair in the City Cemetery on Saturday morning. The place was filled with bird song!)
Then Vanya asked for volunteers to replicate the sound……………..and who would have thought it? Everyone wanted to try, and they were all AMAZING. Even Mrs. May sounded fantastic. It felt like we were inside an aviary!
Vanya had previously sent us some embroidery needles and thread. TODAY was the day to use them.
We started off with SAFETY RULES. Then the boys and girls had an opportunity to try to put the thread through the eye of the needle. The atmosphere descended into quiet, calm concentration. Then there were shouts of joy and achievement when they managed to get the thread through the holes.
When Vanya showed us her stitching the children wanted to have a go on their own.
Next, everyone got a small portion of fabric to practise stitching. I was very happy with the effort that every child put in to this activity. Some very novel shapes were created, including what could be described as a Chinese fortune cookie and a very small ball! This is the beginning of the acquisition of another new skill. Vanya was also impressed when some of the stitchers proudly showed her their work.
DINNER TIME, so we got tidied up.
Our final LISTENING activity was a recording from a Muppet film.
ANDREW WEGMAN BIRD is an American musician, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist. He wrote ” The Whistling Caruso” and whistled in the 2011 Disney film – “The Muppets” and on the soundtrack. Everyone in class had an opportunity to try their whistling skills and then it really was time to go for lunch!
This is our “WHOLELOTTASEAWEED ” INSTALLATION/POLE.
We tried to incorporate different sizes and shapes, in the style of Henri Matisse’s primary coloured cut-outs. Instead of making a wall display we chose to pin the seaweed onto a tall cardboard cylinder. We were very pleased with the final result and we intend to display it in the front foyer of the school. We will leave a notebook beside it so that people can write their comments. RESULTS to follow.
It’s Goodbye from Vanya until next week!
I wonder what’s in store for us then?