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.)

2 comments:

  1. Wow Darryl that is veeeerrrrry beautiful! Jenni

    ReplyDelete
  2. Thanks Jenni. It was fun and the students did a great job with the story ideas and the illustrations. I've enjoyed retelling the stories at other schools as well.

    Daryll

    ReplyDelete