Our Science Journal
We are learning about gardens so that we can create our own garden in the school.
We took photos of things in our garden and described them.
We are learning about gardens so that we can create our own garden in the school.
We took photos of things in our garden and described them.
We thought about what different parts of the garden would look like and what would change.
We planted some bok choy and some silverbeet in our practice garden. We are trying to find out what we need to do to make a really good garden. We looking to see what changes and how do the plants grow. This will help us to see what plants we should grow.
This is what we planted on Thursday the 25th of July.
We went and looked at the garden 6 days later.
We went and looked at the garden 6 days later.
We noticed that some of the plants had grown a little because they had got taller and they had more leaves.
Some of the plants had been eaten! Only the bok choy plants had been eaten. This tells us we probably shouldn’t plant bok choy. We need to investigate what is eating our plants and how we can stop it!
We did some research here:
http://www.abc.net.au/gardening/stories/s2294625.htm
and it said that lots of different insects eat bok choy but it doesn’t matter because you won’t notice the holes in the leaves once it’s cooked. Our bok choy has no leaves though! We might need to do some more research. We wonder why the insects only eat bok choy.
We’ve discovered that praying mantis might eat the insects that are eating our plants, we are going to keep our eyes open to see if we can find
any praying mantis insects. Or we could put a very fine net over our plants to protect them.
What do you think we should do?
We'd love you to visit our Garden Blog page and give us some ideas!
Thursday 1st August 2013
We went to the garden and used the pictures we had taken two weeks ago to see what had changed. We took photos of the same places and wrote a sentence on our iPads to describe what had changed.
Changes we noticed:
* all the parsley had gone from the garden bed!
* a flower had bloomed
* a tree has more leaves
* a fence has been put around one of the water tanks
* some leaves have been eaten by bugs
* there's a new tree in the garden
* there's bricks around some of the flower beds
* a flower grew in the strawberry plant
* wheelbarrows were in front of the hoses
It wasn't only the natural things that changed. Some of the made things had changed too because they had moved (probably by Bobby). The natural things had changed because they'd got bigger and flowers had grown or they had been eaten by bugs.
Some of the plants had been eaten! Only the bok choy plants had been eaten. This tells us we probably shouldn’t plant bok choy. We need to investigate what is eating our plants and how we can stop it!
We did some research here:
http://www.abc.net.au/gardening/stories/s2294625.htm
and it said that lots of different insects eat bok choy but it doesn’t matter because you won’t notice the holes in the leaves once it’s cooked. Our bok choy has no leaves though! We might need to do some more research. We wonder why the insects only eat bok choy.
We’ve discovered that praying mantis might eat the insects that are eating our plants, we are going to keep our eyes open to see if we can find
any praying mantis insects. Or we could put a very fine net over our plants to protect them.
What do you think we should do?
We'd love you to visit our Garden Blog page and give us some ideas!
Thursday 1st August 2013
We went to the garden and used the pictures we had taken two weeks ago to see what had changed. We took photos of the same places and wrote a sentence on our iPads to describe what had changed.
Changes we noticed:
* all the parsley had gone from the garden bed!
* a flower had bloomed
* a tree has more leaves
* a fence has been put around one of the water tanks
* some leaves have been eaten by bugs
* there's a new tree in the garden
* there's bricks around some of the flower beds
* a flower grew in the strawberry plant
* wheelbarrows were in front of the hoses
It wasn't only the natural things that changed. Some of the made things had changed too because they had moved (probably by Bobby). The natural things had changed because they'd got bigger and flowers had grown or they had been eaten by bugs.
Monday 5th August
We tried some different ways of protecting our bok choy.
We had some bottles with the top and bottom cut off and we put the bottles over the top of the plant to protect them from the snails.
We tried some different ways of protecting our bok choy.
We had some bottles with the top and bottom cut off and we put the bottles over the top of the plant to protect them from the snails.
We also put some eggshells around the bottom of a plant because if the snails try to slide over the eggshells they might get cut so they will leave the plant alone.
We put yeast around some plants to protect them from snails because snails and things like them can't go over sharp and dry surfaces.
We need to go and check if our plans have stopped the snails! When we work out what works best, we can use that to protect our plants when we plant our real garden.
Tuesday 13th August
Today we saw that the bottle didn't work to protect our plant and neither did the egg shells because we can see that something has still been eating our bok choy. This might be because:
* The bottle isn't sharp enough
* The snail might have climbed over it
* Maybe whatever's eating it dug underground and came up in the middle of the plant
* Maybe it's a flying bug that is eating our leaves not a caterpillar or a snail.
Maybe we should try some garlic spray to scare off the bugs.
Amy's question was 'Will the garlic spray harm the plant?' - we don't think so because garlic is also a plant.
Tristan's question was 'Could we also use salt just in case it is snails?'
Dusty wants to know 'Which bug is eating our plant? It might just fly over.'
Nicholas asked 'Why are snails scared of salt?' - Callum thinks it might be because snails can only go on wet things not dry things. Eoin thinks it's because snails are slimy and salt is crispy. Jenevieve's brother said it was because salt is so dry and the snails need to be wet.
Today we saw that the bottle didn't work to protect our plant and neither did the egg shells because we can see that something has still been eating our bok choy. This might be because:
* The bottle isn't sharp enough
* The snail might have climbed over it
* Maybe whatever's eating it dug underground and came up in the middle of the plant
* Maybe it's a flying bug that is eating our leaves not a caterpillar or a snail.
Maybe we should try some garlic spray to scare off the bugs.
Amy's question was 'Will the garlic spray harm the plant?' - we don't think so because garlic is also a plant.
Tristan's question was 'Could we also use salt just in case it is snails?'
Dusty wants to know 'Which bug is eating our plant? It might just fly over.'
Nicholas asked 'Why are snails scared of salt?' - Callum thinks it might be because snails can only go on wet things not dry things. Eoin thinks it's because snails are slimy and salt is crispy. Jenevieve's brother said it was because salt is so dry and the snails need to be wet.
Thursday 15th August
Today we saw that our plants our still being eaten. So we made a mixture of sugar and water and put it in a little cup and buried that in the ground to try and trap whatever is eating our plant. We will check it tomorrow to see if we have caught anything.
Today we saw that our plants our still being eaten. So we made a mixture of sugar and water and put it in a little cup and buried that in the ground to try and trap whatever is eating our plant. We will check it tomorrow to see if we have caught anything.
We have been adding to our wall about what we've learnt about gardens and plants.
Wednesday 16th August
Today we found checked our sugar traps. We found lots of ants in it, but they didn't look like leaf cutter ants so we don't think they are what is eating our bok choy.
Today we found checked our sugar traps. We found lots of ants in it, but they didn't look like leaf cutter ants so we don't think they are what is eating our bok choy.
When we looked at the Sea Lions garden we saw some snail tracks! Then we started hunting for snails. We found lots of snails hiding in the plastic sheets that are on the corners of the garden! We pulled them out and put them far away from our garden. We think it must be snails that have been eating our plants!
When we got back to class we thought about how we could design a garden to defend it from insects and snails.
Friday 23rd August
We looked out our Driving Question again: 'How can we create the best garden for our school community?'. We thought about all the questions we need to ask to be able to answer this question.
We looked out our Driving Question again: 'How can we create the best garden for our school community?'. We thought about all the questions we need to ask to be able to answer this question.
Then we grouped the questions and made four big questions out of them.
Monday 2nd September
The plants have grown much bigger and they have more leaves. The bok choy recovered from being eaten by the snails.
The plants have grown much bigger and they have more leaves. The bok choy recovered from being eaten by the snails.
Friday 6th September
We tallied the results from our surveys to find out which plants the community wants us to grow. We have some problems though because some of the plants we chose take a long time to grow and we won't be in the same class to pick them and use them. Also if they take a long time to grow the community might think we're not growing anything.
This weekend we need to research what plants grow well in spring and how long they take to grow.
We tallied the results from our surveys to find out which plants the community wants us to grow. We have some problems though because some of the plants we chose take a long time to grow and we won't be in the same class to pick them and use them. Also if they take a long time to grow the community might think we're not growing anything.
This weekend we need to research what plants grow well in spring and how long they take to grow.
Tuesday 8th October
Today we went out into the garden and we saw a couple of changes. Our bok choy has grown quite big but it's been eaten a bit more. The silverbeet has been growing excellently, it lots of leaves and we thought we might plant silverbeet again in the future.
Today we went out into the garden and we saw a couple of changes. Our bok choy has grown quite big but it's been eaten a bit more. The silverbeet has been growing excellently, it lots of leaves and we thought we might plant silverbeet again in the future.