Tuesday, June 21, 2011

Mt Whitestone State School - Insect Adventures

One morning at Mt Whitestone State School in the Lockyer Valley, one of the teachers said, "Alright students we're going to a bit more research on your insects."

The students said, "Ohhhhhhhhh!"

The teacher said, "No it's alright, you'll enjoy it. We're going to walk down to where our school has been planting all of those trees in the wildlife corridor."

 Map of the school by Olivia

One of the girls said, "Does that mean that we're going outside of the classroom."

The teacher said, "Yes, of course. Now I want you all to put your shoes on, get your hats and line up at the bottom of the stairs."

So that's what they did as fast as they could, but, when they lined up at the bottom of the stairs, the teacher said, "Oh, I forgot, can you go back up stairs and get your writing books and a pencil please."

The students ran up the stairs, along the corridor, into their classroom, grabbed their writing books and pencils and ran back along the corridor and down the stairs again. They said, "We've got them."

Heading down the ramp - Muireann


The teacher said, "That was quick. Right down to the corner of the school we go."

The students started to run but the teacher said, "Hold on, take your time, I want you to walk carefully down to the wildlife corridor and when you get there we are all going to sit down and see what insects we can find."

Heading down - Aerna

The students walked down across the oval with their teacher and when they got to the wildlife corridor fence, they all stopped to listen.

They could hear a buzzing sound. Bzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz. The teacher said, "Stop. Stop. Can you hear that sound?"

'Bzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz'



"What's making that sound?" as they watched a honey bee flew across in front of them heading towards a big gum tree. As they watched it flew up towards the top of the tree to the white eucalypt blossoms at the top of the tree.

One of the students said, "It's going to get some honey from the white flowers in the gum tree, Miss."

The teacher said, "I think you're right. Now who's going to draw the honey bee?"

Sally said, "I will Miss."
Sally drawing the bee - Catherine
The teacher said, "Good on you Sally.  You wait here and draw a picture of the bee up there in the gum tree blossom."

Sally sat down on the grass and started to draw a honey bee.

They walked a bit further and there was the row of trees in the wildlife corridor. Some of the trees were quite tall now but some were still small. As they walked across to the trees a bit of pink plastic tree protector blew across the ground.

The teacher said, "Oh, someone's been careless. We'd better pick that up and put it in the bin."

As a girl reached down to pick up the pink plastic tree protector she saw a stick. She said, "Will I throw this stick in the bin too?"

The teacher said, "Yes, OK."

But as she reached out to pick up the stick, the stick moved. She said, "Aaaaaaaah! It moved. It moved."

The teacher, "That was close. That's a stick insect. Let's have a look."

Teacher finds the Stick Insect - Tiarn


Very carefully she picked up the piece of pink plastic tree protector and held it up. A stick insect slid out and fell on the ground. The teacher said, "Now is that a male stick insect or a female insect?"

The children said, "We don't know."

One of them said, "Excuse me Mr. Stick Insect are you a man stick insect or a lady stick insect?"

As they watched, it just stayed there. The teacher said, "It's probably a female because it doesn't fly."

As they watched the stick insect crawl up the stem of a bush they heard, 'buzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz'.

Sally came walking down towards them. The teacher said, "What are you doing Sally?"

Bee flying bye - Ilsa


"I'm trying to draw this honey bee as it flies." She walked towards them watching the honey bee. The teacher said, "Stop right there Sally."

Sally stopped with her foot suspended over a stick on the ground. She said, "What's wrong. That's just a stick."

The children said, "No it's not. It's a stick insect. It's a female one because it can't fly. Don't step on it Sally."

Sally said, "Oh, that's better than a honey bee."

As they watched, the honey bee flew past a little stick and, as it flew by the little green stick, the little stick took no notice of the honey bee. It was watching a meat ant. As the ant ran past on its six legs, two clawed legs zipped out from the stick, grabbed the meat ant and the stick began to eat it.



Sally said, "Oh, that stick is gross!"

'What's gross Sally?"

'That stick, miss. It's eating that meat ant."

The teacher looked and said, "No that's a Preying Mantis. They eat insects. Everyone come and have a look."

 Preying Mantis eating the ant - Xoe

As they gathered around, the mantis munched on the meat ant. When it finished eating, it turned into a little stick again.

The teacher said, "Well that's pretty cool. We've seen a honey bee, a stick insect, a preying mantis and a meat ant. Now everyone sit down here."

They all sat down, but do you know what, they made a big mistake. They sat on a green ants nest.

Green Ants - Jasmine


It wasn't long before they heard, "Ow! Ooooow! Ow! Ouch!"
Run - Caitlin


The teacher said, "Come on, come on back to the school." They went running back to the school. The teacher got some 'Stingos' out of the first aid kit and helped them put it on their ant stings.

After they settled down the teacher said, "Now what have you learnt today, students?"

One boy said, "Never sit on a green ants nest, miss!"

 Crow swoops down - Kiara

(This story was created by Daryll Belllingham and the lower school students of Mt Whitestone State School as part of the Catchy Lockyer Stories, Bush to Beach, Under 8's Week Tour.)

Here's a link to a recording of the story (podcast) Insect Adventures - Mt Whitestone

(No insects were hurt in the production of this story.)

Tuesday, June 14, 2011

Catchy Lockyer Stories Will Live On

Wow the 'Bush to Beach - Catchy Lockyer Stories' tours was really exciting. I went to places I've never been before. Met some really smart students and teachers and enjoyed making up some great new stories.

Will the stories be forgotten?

Well I won't forget them because I'm going to tell to students at other schools. I hope you will to. That way they will be enjoyed by more and more people.

Last Friday I told some of David and the Snake Necked Tortoise at a conference at the State Library of Queensland. The teachers and librarians really enjoyed hearing the conversation between David and his Grandpa.

Today I told it again at Redbank Plains State School. The prep students really enjoyed it.

I also told 'Mary and Jack Rescue the Mopoke' from Flagstone Creek School. Everywhere I tell stories lately I've also been pretending to drink 'creek' from my water bottle. It's good fun playing with the audience as they say 'That's not creek, that's water'.

Daryll

Wednesday, June 1, 2011

Ropeley Primary - Possum Mystery

One Friday afternoon Bill said, "Hey I wonder what happens to the possums over the weekend?"

















          by Nick           by Kahra  —>                                                     

His mate Harry said, "Oh, who cares about possums." 

Bill said, "Oh, all you think about is football. I'm going to come back on the weekend and see what happens to the possums."

"Naah. You can't come into the school over the weekend. You're not allowed to."

"Ohhh. I really wanted to see what happens to the brushies."

That Saturday afternoon, Bill rode his bike down the road and over Hogers Bridge across Deep Gully. "Gee, it's good to see clear water in the swimming hole again," he thought to himself.

He rode up the other side towards the school. He looked from the road but couldn't see any possums.

"They're probably cuddled up above the air conditioner. I bet they stay there all weekend. If I was a brushy that's what I'd do."

Just then he heard a sound. There was a crash and a smash and then 'Eeeeh uuuuuh, Eeeeh uuuuuh, Eeeeh uuuuuh.' Bill looked up and on the side of the school was a flashing blue light.

"Cool. The school must have installed a security alarm. There must be robbers in the school!"

"Someone's probably steeling a computer and the smart board and all the games. Oh no!"

Bill jumped back on his bike, rode down the hill and over Hogers Bridge. As he rode over the bridge he looked down to the swimming hole and saw someone jumping into the creek with a splash.

 'Bill riding across the bridge' by Ryan

'Oh wish I could stop for a swim as well but I've got to get home and get mum to ring the police.'

Up the hill he rode as fast as he could, along the Hogers Road, around the corner and into his place. He ran upstairs shouting, "Mum, mum, someone's broken into the school. The new security alarm is going off. You can hear it from here mum."

When his mum opened the window, sure enough, you could hear the alarm and see the flashing blue light through the gum trees lining the creek. His mum ran to the phone and rang the police.

Bill said, "Mum it's going to be fifteen minutes at least before the police get here. Can we drive down to the school?"

His mother said, "I think I'd better ring the school principal as well. Now where's her number. I'm sure I saw it on the P&C list here somewhere. She rifled through the draw and found the P&C newsletter and there was the after hours number. When the she rang it, the principal said, "Ohhh. I'm always getting called out to the school."

Bill's mother said, "Well we'll  go down there first. We've already called the police. If it looks like there's been a break in we'll ring you back."

They ran down the back stairs and around to the car. Bill's mother started it up and backed out of the driveway. She drove around the corner and down the hill over Hogers Bridge. Bill looked out the window to see if the person was still swimming but all he saw was a few ripples and a hat floating on the surface.


by Zach

Bill said, "Mum! I think someone's drowned in the creek!"

"What now! What do you mean someone's drowned in the creek?"

"When I was riding across the bridge before mum, I saw someone jumping into the water. I didn't stop because I wanted to tell you about the alarm but now, when I looked, there's just a hat floating on the surface."

"Ohhhh. What are we going to dooooo!" said his mum.

She put on the brakes and reversed back and stopped in the middle of the bridge. She said, "All right, where's this hat?"

Bill said, "It's over there? It was over there mum. They must've drowned, even the hat is gone."

"Oh, it's just your imagination Bill. Your imagination is just too active sometimes. I think you play too many internet games. It was probably one of those tortoises or something. Come on, we've got to get up to the school."

She drove up the hill, into the carpark, backed up to the fence and stood by the gate looking at the school. It was starting to get a bit dark so Bill's mother went to the car glovebox and got out a torch and shone it around the windows of the school

Bill said, "Hey mum look! There's somebody's head in that window. Look!" but, when Bill's mother shone the torch around to see, it had disappeared.

Just at that moment, they heard the sound of the police siren and it wasn't long before they heard it rattling over Hoger's bridge and screaming into the school parking lot. Two police officers jumped out and one of them has holding the leash of a police dog. As soon as the police dog jumped out it started barking really loudly.

 by Shaliah

The policeman said, "Quiet. Sit." The dog sat on the grass just outside the gate. The other police officer opened the gate and shone a torch all around. "I can't see anything, come on." and they took the dog up the stairs.


Possum running across roof by Hayley
At that point they heard the sounds of someone running across the roof of the school. The police officer shone the torch up at the roof and in the light they could all see two brush tailed possums bumping across the roof and on one of its back, holding on to its mother fur, was a baby possum.

by Lachlan


The officer said, "Oh, there's your problem. Did you call us all the way out here just for possums?" He walked up the stairs and looked in and, sure enough, there was a broken window next to the air conditioning unit. When he flashed his torch in he could see a trail of possum poop and a little bit of wee dribbling down the side.

 'Air conditioning unit on side of school' by Lachlan R.

"Oh, just a couple of silly possums. We'll we better be getting back to Gatton. Can you ring the principal and let her know?" The two officers and the dog jumped back in the police car and it drove down the hill but as they drove across Hogers Bridge one of them looked down into the Gully pool. "Hey there's something floating down there. Better pull up. We'd better have look."

by Braydon


When they climbed down they could see a backpack floating in the water. They sent the police dog in after it. The dog swam back with the straps of the back pack in it's teeth. When they unzipped the backpack do you know what they found? - one of the school's laptops.

They called out the SES and they dragged the waterhole but they didn't find anyone. And do you know, they never worked out who stole the laptop but the next Monday, when Bill went to give the possums something to eat, he found a wet hat. When he managed to dig it out from under the brushies, he found his mates name on the head band of the hat.

 Harry jumping into the water by Tristan

I've always wondered what Bill did with that hat.

(This story was created by the students of Ropeley Primary School and Daryll Bellingham 
as part of the Catchy Lockyer Stories, Bush to Beach Under 8's Week Tour. 
Big thank you to all of the students and teachers for their energy and creativity.)

Tuesday, May 31, 2011

Flagstone Primary School Story - Sally and Harry Save a Mopoke

It was twilight at Flagstone Creek. The shadows were starting to darken and a light breeze was blowing through the Bottle Brush Trees in the bed of the creek.

Some fruit bats had flown over and had landed in the Bottle Brushes and were munching on the flowers.

'Bleaeaeaeah, bleaeaeaeah, bleaeaeaeah!'

A platypus splashed into the water, swam one last circle on the surface and dived down into the water of Flagstone Creek.

The boy and the girl could see the trail of bubbles it left as it swam towards the entrance of its burrow.

The girl said, "Oh, look at that we'd better get a photo."


The boy said,"OK." and he reached into his pocket to get his mum's camera but it wasn't there.

The girl said, "Oh, no! You idiot!"

"You've lost Mum's camera. You wait till I tell her. Ha Ha!"

The boy said, "No it wasn't me. I put it in my pocket."

"Well we'd better find it," said the girl, "because if we don't Mum might cry and I don't like seeing Mum cry."

So they walked back along the path. The boy said, "There it is!" But as he bent over to pick it up it scuttled across the path and went plop into the creek. He said, "Naa, that's a turtle."

They walked a bit further and this time the girl saw a frog on the edge of the creek. It started croaking and soon there were many croaks echoing around the banks.

The boy said, "Wow, there are lots of frogs here but we still haven't found Mums camera. Wait a minute, look there's something glowing over there."

They both ran along the path in the dark and, sure enough, it was Mum's camera. The boy said, "I'll get it!" and he ran over and picked up the camera. He said, "Hooray!"

The bats flew off startled by the sudden noise. They could hear their wings wooshing through the evening air and wind blew through the bottle brushes again.

"Hey listen." As the wind died down again they could hear, "Mopoke, mopoke, mopoke."

"What's that?"

"Dad calls them a mopoke but I think they're really a Tawny Frogmouth."

"Is that an owl?" said the boy.

"Well they look a bit like owls but they don't have talons to catch their prey so they're not."

"I know what they like to eat - bacon."

"Why?"

"That's what he's saying. Listen. More pork, more pork, more pork."

The girl said, "No. It's mopoke, mopoke."

"Let's see if we can find it."

The girl said, "Naaah, I think it's time we were heading home. Mum will be wondering where we are."

So they hopped under the fence, walked along the path, and opened and closed the gate.

The girl said, "Give you a race back to the house."

The boy said, "You're on."

They ran as fast as they could up the driveway to the house. The girl got their first. "Hey, I won!" but when she looked around the boy wasn't there. She said, "Harry!" but there was no answer.

Her Mum said, "Oh what's Harry done now."

"He's disappeared. I bet he's gone looking for that mopoke."

Her mother said, "You're probably right and I bet he's got my camera too."

"Yes Mum."

As they looked there was a flash of light and in the light they could see Harry standing at the foot of a stringybark tree and in the branches of a tree they could see a Tawny Frogmouth pretending to be a branch.

"Will I go and get him mum?"

"No Sally. We'll walk down together."

Sally's mum picked up the torch and together they walked down the driveway towards the stringybark tree. As they arrived a gust of wind rattled the branches of the tree and an old rotten branch came crashing down onto the lower branches. The mopoke fell to the ground right next to Harry.

"Mum, it's hurt look but it's moving."

"Be careful. It might have a broken wing." She shone the torch on the bird and, sure enough, they could see that one of its wings was at a funny angle.

Sally said, "Mum, mum, can we look after it."

"Oooh, I'm not sure if we can manage that. We'd better put in in a box and keep it calm while I ring the wildlife carer who lives down near Fordsdale."

Harry scooted back along the driveway and into the garage. He came back with a box. They wrapped the Tawny Frogmouth carefully up in Harry's jumper and carried it carefully in the box back to the house.

There mother got on the phone and rang a friend of her's. "Do you know you were telling me about those wildlife carers. Do you know where we can find them? We've got an injured Tawny Frogmouth."


"Oh, oh, there's one at Fordsdale. I'm not sure if I can remember her name. Oh, oh, Alison's her first name. I'm not sure if I can remember her surname. Oh, I must be getting older. What is it? Harrison, Alison Harrison. That's it."

Her mother looked up the name in the phone book and gave the number a ring and said, "Oh, the wind knocked a branch down and we've got an injured mopoke, a Tawny Frogmouth, can you look after it?"

The carer said, "Oh yes that happens but, look, can you look after it for the weekend? I'll tell you what to do."

So they looked after that mopoke all weekend and on Monday morning before school they drove it down to the wildlife carer near Fordsdale. One Sunday, a few weeks later, they were down by the pool at the creek trying to see the platypus and do you know what they heard? - 'mopoke, mopoke, mopoke'.

 cc licensed ( BY NC ND ) flickr photo by Peter Nijenhuis:
http://flickr.com/photos/peternijenhuis/2958345689/

(This story was created by the Prep - Yr 2 students at Flagstone Primary School and Daryll Bellingham
as part of the Catchy Lockyer Stories Bush to Beach Under 8's Week Tour.)

Monday, May 30, 2011

Barking Worms

One night, on a farm near Flagstone Creek, the branches of a tall gum tree stirred.

Down on the ground a silly chicken was still awake, scratching in the ground for one last worm and going 'Broaak, broaak, broaak.'

 cc licensed ( BY NC SD ) flickr photo by ~Squil~:
http://flickr.com/photos/mwhitehead/4420948629/

Connor looked up at the tree and back down at the chicken and said, "Go to sleep you silly chicken. There are owls around. I can hear one barking."

 At that moment, on silent wings, a Barking Owl flew down. The chicken ran squawking into its coop to roost.

The rooster came out and said, "Cock-a-doodle-doo, you silly chicken. Don't you know it's a Barking Owl?"

The Barking Owl said, "Woof, woof. Do you know where there are any grubs around here?"

The chicken said, "Broaak, broaak. I think I saw some worms over there."

So the Owl grabbed some worms in its talons and flew back to its perch in the tree. "Woof, woof. Thank you silly chicken."

The rooster and the chicken perched on their perches as far inside the chicken roost as they could and thanked their lucky feathers that the Barking Owl liked eating the worms.

Connor watched the Barking Owl until it was too dark to see it in amongst the gum tree leaves.

(This story was created by Connor, and Daryll Bellingham
at the Creating Wildlife Adventures in the Fordsdale Hall on Saturday the 28th May, 2010.)

Sunday, May 29, 2011

Wobbling Wombat

One afternoon near Scanlon's Road, a wombat was wobbling towards a fence.

It was saying, "Bloouuaahh, I smell food, I'm hungry."

When it got to the fence, it pushed through the wombat flap hole. On the other side, it began to eat some apples which had been left for the horse.

The horse was very upset. It stamped its front hoof and snorted at the wombat but the wombat took no notice.

Fortunately Lilabelle noticed and told her mum and dad, "A wombat is eating Tommydod's food!"

Her dad said, "Well fancy that. We'll have to help him back over his side of the fence."

They took him back to the wombat flap and he waddled through heading for his burrow beside the trees and rock.

"Bye Wombat. Don't eat Tommydod's food next time." said Lilabelle.

 (Tasmanian wombat sleeping a log. cc licensed
( BY NC SD ) flickr photo by RaeA:
http://flickr.com/photos/raeallen/11305945/)

(This story was created by Lilabelle and Daryll Bellingham at the Creating Wildlife Adventures Saturday at the Fordsdale Hall., Saturday 28th of May, 2011. Well done Lilabelle.)

Swallowed Swallows

One Saturday, a group of children were creating stories about Catchment Adventures in the old Fordsdale Hall.

"What's that sound?" asked a Sophie.

"It's just the wind rustling in the blady grass," said a boy.

"No. Look! It's that python slithering along the rafters!" said Sophie.

Everyone looked up past the milk bottle top tinsel streamers  and, sure enough, there was a shiny carpet snake slithering along the rafters.

"I wonder what it's doing here?"

A swallow flew in through the window, over the childrens heads and up to its muddy nest in the corner of the hall.

"Oh, no! It's heading towards those swallows nest. Look out Mrs Swallow," called Sophie.

As the children watched the python slid along the rafters. Ssssssssssssssssssssssssssss.

The mother swallow flew out towards the python. It fluttered its wings and chirped as loudly as it could but the python slid right up to the nest and chomp it ate the baby swallows.

"Oh!" said the children, "Poor little swallows."

The mother swallow tried to chase away the python but the python opened its mouth and chomp; it swallowed the mother swallow as well.

The snake slithered along the rafters, out the window.

Flickr image by angusf


It slithered across the grass and it started to cross the road.

A car full of tourists came speeding around the corner of the Gatton-Clifton Road. The driver saw the snake and screeched to a halt. They all hopped out to take photos. The python slithered under the car and up through the car door on the other side.

"Hey where did it go?"

"It must be in the long grass."

The tourists drove off with it some where in the car. Sssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssss.

(This story was created by Daryll Bellingham, Sophie and her helpers in the kangaroo group as part of the 'Creating Wildlife Adventures' experience at Fordsdale Hall, Saturday28th May, 2011)

Saturday, May 28, 2011

A Windy Evening on Mt Whitestone

One evening at Mount Whitestone the wind was blowing through the trees. A baby koala held on really tightly to its mother as the branches swayed back and forth, back and forth.

Finally the branch swayed so much that the baby lost its grip and fell down, down through the branches. One last branch broke its fall and it fell into the long blady grass.

The mother slowly climbed down out of the tree looking for its baby.

A dingo called from higher up the mountain and a second one joined from further around.

Further down the mountain a young girl was looking through her mother's bird watching binoculars to try and see a Barking Owl but when she heard the dingo call she looked for it instead. Through the binoculars she could see a dingo looking down the mountain at two grey blobs on the ground.

CC Flickr image by 'wollombi'


When she focussed on the grey blobs she realised they were Koalas.

"Mum. Come quickly. There are two Koalas on the ground and I think a Dingo is going to eat them!"

When her mother looked through the binoculars she said, "You're right Bella-Anne and I'm worried about that baby Koala. I think there's something wrong with its leg. It might be broken."

"Oh what are we going to do Mum. We can't let the Dingo eat that baby Koala."

"One of the neighbours near the Dry Creek bridge is a wildlife carer. I'll give her a ring."

It wasn't long before Bella-Anne could hear a trail bike come roaring up their dirt drive. Her mother pointed out where the Koalas were on the hillside and they took turns looking through the binoculars as the wildlife carer rode the trailbike up and put both the koalas in a box on the back of the bike.

The neighbour stopped on her careful trip back down the mountain and lifted the top of her rescue box so Bella-Anne could have a look. "Will the baby be allright?"

"Yes, thanks to you, she'll probably make a full recovery. I'll bring them both back and release here on Mt Whitestone."

That's what happened three months later. Bella-Anne watched as the two Koalas climbed back up the same gum tree and started reaching for some leaves to eat.

 CC Koala image from Flickr by ausemade

This time she didn't hear the howl of dingos but the strange barking sound of an owl.

(This story was created by Daryll Bellingham and Bella and Anne, two of the children at the 'Creating Wildlife Adventures' workshop at Fordsdale Hall organised by Land for Wildlife and the Lockyer Valley Regional Council.p.s. No dingos or koalas were hurt in the production of this story.)

Creating Wildlife Adventures: Making your place an environmental adventure

Had a great day at the Fordsdale Hall today with all of the children, artists, carers and Land for Wildlife experts and participants.

Fordsdale Hall is one of those lovely little basic country halls that dot the rural landscape. Corro iron and hardwood, stage and toilets and on end, kitchen on the verandah and plenty of space surrounding it to park cars, create music and create art.

The storytellers got to work inside away from the rural distractions of green ants, cattle trucks and landslipped hills. The children were divided into three groups - wombats, kangaroos and echidnas and rotated around the artists - Richard van Luyn and Rob McGrigor and myself.

Those that did painting first moved onto music and then storytelling etc. We decided that each story should be one butchers paper sheet long and either be about what the music session was about or it could be about their favourite catchment animal. Of course that meant local settings and almost always one of the characters was the child themselves.

 Geckoes Wildlife Animal presenters did a quite wonderful live animal warmup. Children got to see and a touch frill necked lizard, blue tongue lizard, carpet snake, glider, brushtail possum, barking owl, tawny frogmouth and a bandicoot.

I'll add all of the stories we created to this Catchy Lockyer Stories blog over the next week or two so keep a look out.

Wednesday, May 25, 2011

Thursday in Gatton with Catchy Lockyer Stories

The delight of young children today. Kaori and I went to the Lockyer Early Education Centre and the Gatton Kindergarten. We had lots of fun. I had the advantage of being able to see children's faces as they burst in laughter and joined in with such gusto.

I love having a 'drink of river' from my water bottle in between stories and listening to their shocked voices calling out 'That's not river. That's water.'

At the Lockyer Early Education centre we created a story about the wind and a magpie in the tree the children were sheltering under. They saw the magpie take a worm up to the nest in the tree and feed its young. When the wind blew again the little magpies were cold so the children knitted some jumpers for them - a maroon one and a blue one.

When the mother magpie put their jumpers on the fledglings started to play football in the nest.

One boy knew that Queensland had won the first match of the State of Origin so that was cool and the magpies were warm.

At the Gatton Kindergarten we had fun creating a story about two children going fishing with their Dad in the local lake. They had to be rescued by a pelican who also helped them catch some fish.

Fishing was definitely a popular topic with the kindy kids.

Kaori and I had a good yack on the footpath afterwards about the success of the tour and the need for doing more stories and digital stories again.

I'm looking forward to the Saturday workshop at the Fordsdale Hall with the other artists. Should be fun. I only hope the weather is fine so we all don't have to be inside the hall at the same time.

Thank you to all of the teachers and students who joined in with our Catchy Lockyer Stories Under 8's Week Tour.

Daryll

Tuesday, May 24, 2011

Tenthill Lower Story - The Cliff Rescue

One day all of the students at Tenthill Lower State School were out on the oval practicing for the next school sports.

The Principal reminded them that they weren't to go near the security fence that had been put up around the edge of the oval.

So much of the creek bank had been washed away during the floods that now there were big cracks in the oval and the teachers were worried that some of it might fall into Tenthill Creek.

"So everyone stay away from the fence. We've got plenty of room over this side of  oval. Now where is the basketball?"

"I've got it," said Daniel and he picked up the basketball and gave it a huge kick.

The basketball went sailing up in the air, over the principal's head and bounced across the oval, hit the top of the security fence, knocked it over and disappeared over the bank.

"Oh no.  Daniel what did you do that for? It's probably floating down Tenthill Creek."

"I'll get it," yelled Tania and she ran towards the creek.

"Stop right there!" yelled the principal.

Tania skidded to a halt just before the fence but she must have put her foot in one of the cracks because she tripped and fell and rolled over the fence and down the slope.

Everyone heard her scream and raced across the oval towards the cliff - "Tania! Are you alright?"

"Help!"

The principal said "Stay back everyone while I have a look." She edged carefully to the side of the cliff and looked over. There was Tania caught in one of the branches of the last Bottle Brush tree left growing in the creek bank. The rest had been washed away by the flood.

"Hold on Tania. We'll get you."

"Now listen everyone. Tania's all right but we'll have to rescue her quickly in case that branch breaks. How are we going to do it."

"I know," said Daniel, "We could use the skipping rope."

"Good thinking Daniel. Johnson run as fast as you can and bring back that skipping rope from the other side of the oval."

Johnson was the fastest runner in the school and didn't he streak across that oval. In a flash, he was back with the skipping rope.

The principal tied it to the security fence and let it down to Tania.

"Hold onto it Tania. We'll all pull you up."

All of the students pulled on the skipping rope and Tania was saved.

"Johnson this time I want you to run and get Mrs Lund to bring the school first aid kit."

Well Mrs Lund put a bandage on Tania's head and they helped her into the sick bay while the principal called Tania's parents. They took her to hospital to make sure she was  allright.

When Tania's parent heard that it was the last bottlebrush tree that had saved her from falling into Tenthill Creek, they came back the next weekend and planted a row of bottle brush trees along the creek bank.

"There, that will help stop that bank from eroding," said her Dad, "Bottle brushes are tough. Once they get their roots in the ground they don't want to let go."


(This story was created by Daryll Bellingham and the students from Prep to Year 4 at Tenthill Lower State School on Monday the 233rd of May as part of the Catchy Lockyer Stories - Bush to Beach Under 8's Week Tour. Thanks to the teachers and students at Tenthill Lower School for being such good sports and sharing their knowledge of local catchment.)

Laidley Kindergarten Story - Yabbies Don't Like Bath Water

Once upon a time a smelly old man was having a bath.



It was his first bath for a whole year and the bath water was really dirty.

When he was clean, he hopped out of the bath and pulled out the plug.

The bath water went, 'Gurgle, gurgle, gloop, gloop, splurt, plop and ran down the pipe, under the ground and into the creek.'



The ducks paddled over to the bath water but when they smelt it they went, 'Quask, quack, yuck, yuck!' and flew away.

Some fish swam towards the bath water but when they smelt it they went, 'Gloop, gloop, oooh, oooh' and swam away as fast as they could.



The smelly bath water sank down around the rocks where the yabbies were hiding.

'Oooh yuck. Help. Help. We're getting sick.'



The yabbies climbed up on top of the rocks at the side of the creek.

'Help! Help!'



The children at the kindy told their teacher, "We can hear the yabbies crying out 'help, help'. Can we go down to the creek to help them?"

The teacher said, "We'll go down together."

They picked up buckets and nets and ran down to the creek.



"What's wrong yabbies?"

"This smelly bath water is making us sick. Help. Help."

The teacher helped the children pick up the yabbies in their nets and they put them in some clean water in the buckets.

"We're taking you back to our kindy yabbies. We'll look after you."

Back at the kindy they put them in the acquarium and watched them walk around on the bottom.

"Yabbies, what would you like to eat?"

"Lots of water weed please children."

Each day the kindy children would get some water weed from the creek and took it back to the acquarium for the yabbies.

When they were looking well again, the children scooped them into the bucket and took them back to the creek.

"That smelly old bath water is gone yabbies. The creek is nice and clean again."

The yabbies splashed into the water and hid under the rocks again.

On the way back to the kindy the children left a letter in the old man's letter box. It said, 'Please don't empty your smelly old bath water into our creek. The animals don't like it.'



('Yabbies Don't Like Bath Water' was created by Daryll Bellingham and the children from the Laidley Kindergarten on Tuesday 24th May, 2011 as part of the 'Catchy Lockyer Stories - Bush to Beach Under 8's Week Tour'. Thanks to the teachers and  all of the children who had fun creating a brand new story and drawing some great illustrations.)

Monday, May 23, 2011

Mt Sylvia School Story - 'David and the Snake Necked Tortoise'

One morning during the school holidays David was walking along a track on his grandfather's farm at Mt Sylvia. He could see the school across Tenthill Creek and feel the mud squishing up between his toes.

Beside the path was his grandfathers crop of carrots with their feather green leaves stick out of the orange carrots. 'Wow. They look good," he thought, 'Wonder when grandfather is going to pick them?'

Row of Carrots
cc licensed ( BY NC SD ) flickr photo
by Rockinelle:
http://flickr.com/photos/ericleslie/4779114956/


The answer came quicker then he thought. His grandfather called out, "David, watch out mate. I'm going to give those carrots once last drink of water before we pick them. Watch out for the sprinklers."

David stepped back and waited for the sprinklers to start but they didn't.

"Hey grandad. The sprinklers aren't working!"

"Oh no", said his grandpa, "the intake pipe must be clogged."

David watched as his grandpa stomped into the shed, hopped onto his red Honda 4 wheel and started driving down towards Tenthill Creek. His dog ran across and jumped up onto the carryall on the front.

David jumped onto the carryall beside the dog as his grandpa slowed down and they continued on down the bumpy track to the pump shed. David ran into the shed and turned off the diesel pump.

"What next Grandpa?"

"Well, what's next David me lad is that you get to take off your shirt and swim down along the intake pipe to see what's blocking it."

"Oh Grandpa."

"Oh what a wimp. When I was your age we used to spend all day swimming around in Tenthill Creek. Come a little bit of water in your ears is not going to hurt you."

So David took off his shirt, waded into the water, took a breath and ducked under. He swam like a frog down along the white plastic pipe with the strands of green algae growing off it. Tadpoles and little fish swam for their lives as he kept swimming deeper.

He was just thinking, 'Oh no, I'm running out of breath." When he saw the end of the pipe and something round sticking out of it. There were four legs sticking out of a hard shell.

"It's a tortoise. There's its head tucked under its shell."

David swam back up to the surface and said, "It's a tortoise grandpa!"

"Yes. You can see its legs moving."

"Well, I'll tell you what David me lad. If you can pull that tortoise out of the pipe you can keep it for a pet."

"Cool," said David and he dived under and swam  down along the pipe again. When he got to the bottom he grabbed hold of the tortoises shell and pulled. It took three turns but he managed to pull the tortoise out of the pipe and he swam back to the top.

As he stood up he held the tortoise up above his head and said, "Look Grandpa. I've got it."

Grandpa said, "Watch out for the ..."

But it was too late the tortoise peed all over David. It smelt terrible.

"Hee, hee," said his grandpa, "Those snaked tortoises are really smelly when they're scared. We used to call them Stinkers. You have to hold them away from you, me lad."

His grandpa brought a bucket down to the creek half filled it with water and washed the tortoise wee out of Davids hair. "That's better. You only smell like one dead cat now. Put the tortoise in the bucket and you can take it home."

 Snake Necked Tortoise
(cc licensed ( BY NC SD ) flickr photo by
Shovelling Son: http://flickr.com/photos/shovellingson/5359449525/ )

"That's not your pesticide bucket is it Grandpa?"

"No it's not. I'm careful with pesticides these days. They don't go anywhere near the creek."

David gave his grandpa a hug, picked up his shirt and started walking back towards his house.

When he got home, he said, "Mum, I've got to have a shower. Grandpa said I could keep this Snake Necked Tortoise as a pet but the tortoise peed all over my hair."

After his shower, his mum said he could keep the tortoise untill its shell looked better and then he would have to put it back in Tenthill Creek. David looked up on the internet to find out what Stinkers ate and each day he would go down to the creek with the acquarium net and scoop up some tadpoles and little fish to feed to his tortoise.

When the tortoise was looking really healthy he put it in the bucket and carried it down to Tenthill Creek to let it go. "Here you go Mr Stinker. Stay away from Grandpa's pipe this time."

He watched as the Snaked Necked Tortoise swam down into the creek. "Bye."

(This story was created by Daryll Bellingham and the students from P - 2 at Mt Sylvia State School on Monday 23rd May, 2011 as part of the 'Catchy Lockyer Stories - Bush to Beach - Under 8's Week Tour'. A big thanks to the students and teachers who made it lots of fun to create a brand new story about the catchment and the plants and animals that live in it and to Kaori van Baalen for organising the tour and guiding me through the catchment.)

Laidley Kindergarten and Withcott Early Education Centre

"Bush to Beach, Bush to Beach, Bush to Beach? What can I tell to young children that will be bush to beach?

I know I'll start with 'The Little Blue Train Takes the Children to the Beach'. That'll be good."

I like using my little blue train series as warm up stories with young audiences because they are such good participation stories and are relatively simple. They let me get a feel for the audience and decide what level to pitch the next story at.

I threw in some more beach animals than normal as well. Usually when one of the children brings back the bucket of water to put around the sandcastle there's just a crab in it but this time there was - 'something with a tail, something with nippers and something with tentacles'. The Laidley preprepers guessed them all. I think I'll keep them in future tellings although I might change the octopus to 'something with a shell on its back'.

After 'Little Blue Train' I did a bush story - 'Kookaburra Sits on the Old Gum Tree'. I love it. It's got a lot built into it. I forgot to put in the sounds of the cicadas and frogs but they did get Kookaburra, Goanna and Wombat and a bush fire. Kookaburra and Wombat both have roles in saving people from the bush fire and I get to put in the 'Stop, Drop and Roll' message.  'Do you remember what Kookaburra said to Wombat?  Stop, Drop and Roll'.

I knew that Laidley Kinder got flooded during the New Year floods. They had water up to the windows flowing through the old church building. So I was interested to see if the flood would come out in the story we created together. It didn't till afterwards when the children were drawing pictures for our story. A girl drew a picture called 'It all got flooded'.

The story we created was called 'The Old Man and the Yabbies'. It was about an old man who was so dirty that when his bathwater ran into the creek it made the Yabbies sick. The kindy kids had to rescue them and return them to the creek. One bonus of the story is that Kaori now knows what yabbies eat.

Loved the drive from Laidley to Withcott via Gatton and Grantham. One the one hand it was a great to see how fertile and productive the floodplain section of the catchment is and, on the other, just how destructive the floods had been. One has to admire the resilience of the local community.

At Withcott Early Education Centre the audience was quiet young so 'Little Blue Train' had another run. I was tempted to do 'Little Blue Train Goes to the Zoo' but that normally has the train having to stop because the train bridge has been broken by a flood and I thought that might be a bit close to the bone for them. We went to the beach again.

'Mary Had a Little Lamb' was story number two. Kids normally love the lamb because it is naughty and demanding and gets into trouble like 'rolling down the hill into the duck pond.' This time I added some extra pond detail.

The lamb was rescued by Mary and, when it shook the water off, itaid, "Maaaaaaaaa, thank you Maaaaaaaary." Mary said, "Lamby, you look funny. You've got duck weed all over you." The lamb said, "Yaaaaaaaaas and I've got a tadpole in my ear as well."

It's not surprising that the story we created at Withcott was a pond or creek story. It was a sequence of animals scaring each other and hiding. I took some liberties with the Lockyer catchment and allowed a crocodile. It was great helping the children draw some pictures at the end.

And now, after a sandwich and a coffee I'm at the Gatton Library next to Lake Apex posting this post.

Daryll

Day One of 'Catchy Lockyer Stories'

Aren't I the lucky duck. I just had a day of storytelling and story creating in three Lockyer schools.

We started with Mt Sylvia State School. It's a quite a way up the Tenthill Creek Valley. Driving there along Tenthill Creek Road was quite an experience. I think I passed crops of every vegetable it was possible to grow - carrots, pumpkins, potatoes. One picking crew was picking cabbages.

When I finally arrived, I found Mt Sylvia School to be a delightful little one. Kaori and I worked with the Preps to Year 2's. They were keen for stories and I had to keep reminding myself to stay on track.

I told 'Aidan and the Murray Cod' as my warm up story. It's always a hit but I did have to spend quite a bit of time explaining the differences between the Campaspie River in Victoria and Tenthill Creek in Queensland.

We created a neat little story called 'David and the Snaked Necked Tortoise'. Not surprisingly the main character, 'David' goes to Mt Sylvia School and the setting is one of the farms along Tenthill Creek. I wont tell you the story yet but, I must admit, I was pleased when one of the teachers at Tenthill Lower School said, 'When you told that story to our students it sounded like the setting was my farm.'

After Mt Sylvia, we went back down the valley to Tenthill Lower State School. It's built right next to the creek and the students must be quite aware of the effects of flooding as they have security fencing up between the oval and the creek bank. It was good to be able to show the students this blog on their magic whiteboard. The story we created was about the erosion on the creek and a heroic rescue by the teachers.

Next came a drive up out of the Tenthill Creek catchment and over to Ropely State School. The school buildings are built high on posts and once more their magic whiteboard was really useful. They have some brush tailed possums that shelter around the school buildings, so they featured in Ropely's story.

I'm looking forward to getting scanned copies of their illustrations and adding them to the blog.

Tomorrow we'll be heading for a kindergarten Laidley and an early childhood centre - Withcott.

Daryll

Thursday, May 19, 2011

A wonderful week of catchy Lockyer Stories

Wow, not many sleeps to go and our week of storytelling and story creating will be upon us.

I'm really looking forward to visiting schools and kindies in the Lockyer Valley and finding out all about the catchment.

Conservation Officer, Kaori van Baalen has done a wonderful job of organising this tour and I'm really pleased that the Under 8's Week Committee has supported it so well.

Monday is going to busy - three schools
- 9.45am – 10.45am Mt Sylvia Primary School
- 11.30am – 12.30am Lower Tenthill Primary School
- 1.30pm – 2.30pm Ropeley Primary School

So get ready students and teachers. We're going to have some fun with Catchy Lockyer Stories.