Splashing Around the Catchment Project

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/LGVMUep_qDc" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

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.)

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.)

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.

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.)

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

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.