On Wednesday a very proud Lana Maye cycled to school on her own bike with her Mum cycling along side her! She had only mastered 2 wheels a few days beforehand and so it was quite a feat for a small girl! We were very impressed! As the children gathered around her,she produced a little pygmy shrew from her basket! She had found him the night before in the green beside her home.All were fascinated by  this little creature,Ireland s smallest mammal which was Ella s “Irish mammal project” last October!Once again,our classroom coming to life outdoors.

One summers evening last year whilst babysitting my then 2 year old grandson,Michael,who was reluctant to sleep,I.took him for a walk in his pyjamas down the field to the barn. As we approached the yard and looked up at the sky we could swallows flying in and out. I  pointed to the many nests and we watched the parents flying  as they fed their hungry chicks. Michael asked why there were so many swallows and I told him that this was “Swallow Town” and they had come all the way from Africa!!It was a magical evening as I shared something special with Michael and from then on the barn became Swallow Town!!

Last September we watched the swallows gather on the wires and leave for Africa and Early April we welcomed them back again. The children really enjoy the walks down the field to Swallow Town as we watch the swallows swoop above our heads in their search for insects.The hedgerows are full of bird song and much fun is had trying to listen and identify the different songs!

We have been blessed with perfect weather since our return back to school after the Easter break.It has been school outdoors every day .Before our eyes and as we watched ,first the cherry,then the pear and damson and now the apple trees all produced their blossom.The children are able to observe the bees doing their work transporting pollen from flower to flower and already can see the tiny fruits beginning to grow on the trees. The indoor work is beginning to make sense as we see real things happen in the outdoor environment!Tomatoes,beans,peas,lettuces are growing fast and we have transplanted them into the raised beds.

As always,the children are fascinated with invertebrate life.Snail collecting was the highlight of last week with Harry B  and Eamon competing to see who could find the most snails!It always delights me to see the respect the children hold for these little creatures.Whilst some snail hunt in the orchard,others practice climbing apple trees.As the trees are small and strong much fun is had here!

We are enjoying picnics in the field.races in meadow and just having fun. Its what this special time of pure innocence is all about!

We travelled to South America in March and as we have a beautiful pull up book describing the animal and plant life of the Amazon river, we decided to study these animals.Once again there was great excitement as the children picked an animal to find out about.Anna was first in with her beautiful pink river dolphin project and excitedly told us that her Mummy had swam with them in the amazon river. She proudly told us all about him and that he even has 50 teeth!Saibh also did a very nice arty project on him telling us that he is endangered due to pollution and fishing nets!Lula did the howler monkey and did all the beautiful writing herself.Cara s project was on the armadillo,a most unusual mammal with a hard shell. She had a great series of pictures showing how his shell fits together when he rolls into a ball!Rian did a very colourful project on the red eyed tree frog and brought in a beautiful book all about the rainforest. Both Ceola and Moss did the jaguar ! Ceola described how he hunted and even kills caiman,snakes and deer  and Moss told us he is the 3rd biggest cat in the world and that his spots are called rosettes.Harry 3 proudly told us that the harpy eagle is one of largest bird of prey in the world  diving down from the top of the canopy to kill monkeys,sloths and snakes!Lara had an interesting project,the paca as S.America has some very unusual rodents. He seems a very cute little guy living on the forest floor and eating at night.Lana Maye had a lovely drawing of the speckled caiman for her project and she, too ,did the writing herself.We have learned so much from these projects and there is great excitement when a child brings in his project and proudly tells us about it.Thank you Mums and Dads!

We have been watching in amazement as the garden has come to life again and leaves growing in front of our eyes.O n the way into school the children can see the now fully grown leaves on the blackcurrant bushes which only last week were tiny buds. Blossom covers the pear tree and on Friday we watched a bumble bee fly from flower to flower transferring pollen  which the children know will turn into fruits in autumn.In fact we should be able to see these small fruits in June. The bee will get a  nice drink of nectar for doing this “good work!” The children already know about pollination from class work and have studied the insect and flower knowing how important bees are to plants!

We were happily surprised last week when we saw that some of the pumpkin seeds we saved from our Halloween pumpkin have germinated!Harry 3 s pumpkin was the first followed by Lula and Ceola! Hopefully a few more will germinate this week.Meanwhile we have planted tomato,peas,beans,lettuce sweet pea and sunflower seeds so we hope that they will germinate soon and we can plant the vegetables into the raised bed!An exciting time ahead in the garden and each day we will enjoy the wonders of Spring!

We looked at our continents again at the beginning of February and finally decided with a majority vote that we would explore Australia.It has been  fantastic ! Every day a child runs in with a beautiful project and proudly tell us all about their animal.Today,Anna burst in the door so eager to show us and share her knowledge of the duck billed platypus! What an amazing little animal with his webbed feet like an otter,beak like a duck ,lays eggs (though a mammal)and has a marsupial pouch! I never knew that he carried a venom in his back foot! One learns something new from these little children every day! Eamon also proudly presented his kangaroo project today and did the beautiful writing and colouring all by himself!Lana- Maye had a difficult project :Tasmanian devil(but a strange little marsupial that arouses my curiosity) and she too did beautiful colouring and writing!Saul entertained us with his super frilled lizard especially as the children are fascinated by the reptile world!Moss also did a reptile,  the thorny devil and mummy once again displayed her great artistic talent whilst daddy shared his  scientific knowledge. We learned that thorny devil has a false head on the back of his neck to scare off predators!Saibh s mummy is also a great artist and her echida is wonderful !Another strange Australian mammal that lays eggs!Cara did lovely drawings and writing on the Kiwi from New Zealand and we are all fascinated by this strange bird that has hair instead of feathers!Lula told us that the laughing kookaburra is called the “bushmans clock” as he sings so early in the morning..also a wonderful project! Rian loves his koala teddy so it was very appropriate that he should do the koala! And what a fabulous project ..mummy even made a felt koala. We leaned that he sleeps for up to 20 hours a day and loves to eat eucalyptus leaves!Another cute little marsupial!Rian also brought in a beautiful story book called “Over in Australia” and we had great fun trying to find the animals that were hiding in this book. Umi s mummy helped her this time with her kangaroo and she too is a great artist producing lovely pictures and told us about the grey and red kangaroo!We are learning so much about this very different animal world down in Australia and huge thank you for the very hard work to Mums and Dads.