Deadly females

At this time of year there are lots of spiders around our grounds.


When we found a small spun mass we thought was created by a spider, we decided to learn a little more.


This is a cocoon spun by a female spider to protect her eggs. The male spider doesn't stay around for long for fear of being eaten! The spider that has laid this is a common garden spider 'Araneus diadematus'. Her size is approximately 18mm and she will swell up full of eggs before laying them in this cocoon.


She will eat butterflies, wasps and flies but won't eat smaller prey such as greenfly. A baby spider is called a spiderling.


Other common names for her include cross spider, European garden spider and garden orb-web spider.




The eggs look like mini ping pong balls.

Aimee and Abi Year 5

Green tomatoes

Green Tomatoes


Tomatoes come in all shapes and sizes.
Some can be green, some can be lean and some look very mean!

Faye 5C

Green tomatoes can be used to make a lovely chutney, please try our recipe.

Tomato chutney
Makes 4 x 150ml Jars

600g green tomatoes, roughly chopped
1 large red onion,sliced
4 cloves garlic, roughly chopped
10ml olive oil
3 teaspoons chilli powder
250g soft brown sugar
300ml white wine vinegar
125g pitted dates, roughly chopped
3 tablespoons salt

Sprinkle the tomatoes with the salt and leave for around an hour. Pour off any excess juice. Put the onions and garlic with the olive oil in a saucepan and soften over a medium heat for about five minutes. Lower the heat, add the chilli powder and sugar and give them a good stir before adding the tomatoes. Pour in the vinegar and stir to ensure the sugar dissolves. Bring the mixture to the boil, then reduce to a simmer and stir in the dates. Simmer for about 40 minutes,stirring regularly and checking that it does not stick to the bottom of the pan. You will be able to see when it is cooked as it will be pulpy and have a hint of runniness. Allow the chutney to cool and then spoon into sterilised jars.

Enjoy!

What we love about Wicor grounds...

Chickens and Bees

"We are just so lucky that we have a wide variety of wildlife in our grounds including chickens and bees. Our chickens are very important to us and we sell their eggs to our local community."
Trinity





Wildlife

"At this school we grow varieties of plants that attract lots of different insects and animals. We also have an expert on plants and animals so we know when to plant the plants and how to work with them."
Jasmyn









Orchards
"I love the fact we have an orchard with 13 different varieties of apple trees. The smell of sweet fresh fruit is really strong in the autumn. When the apples are ready to pick we like to taste, cook and even sell them to our school community."
Eliza


Our allotment
"We are very lucky to have such a wonderful allotment at our school. In our allotments we grow lots of plants all from seed, so we can watch the whole of the cycle in which it grows. Our allotment is full of different types of plants. We love going outside and enjoying our allotment."
Aimee

Tasting the difference at Harfest

Year 5 were given a seasonal feast for the senses at this year's Harfest celebration, using pumpkins we had patiently watched grow from seeds in our allotment.

Our pumpkins

The talented head chef, Fergus Coyle, from Rick Stein's Fistral Beach restaurant in Cornwall arrived to give a demo of pumpkin risotto cooked alfresco in our new coastal garden.

Fergus Coyle explaining the workings of a risotto

We grew and harvested the pumpkin from our allotment. Ingredients for the recipe included arborio rice, mascarpone, sage, pumpkin puree, seeds and saffron which smelt very strong.

Eagerly we watched the cooking which took about half an hour. While this took place we had the chance to ask questions to Seb who is front of house at the Winchester restaurant ( Rick Stein, Winchester ). We learnt that that some Rick Stein's recipes are kept as classics on the menu as they are so popular. Most popular dishes include lobster and steak.

When the risotto was cooked lots of us loved the dish because the flavour of the pumpkin was delicious and the sauce was so nice. We really want to cook this at home after we have carved our pumpkins for Halloween.

Watching and waiting in the coastal garden

Our very own sausage. Part One

4M were given the exciting challenge of producing a 'Wicor' sausage using ingredients sourced from our grounds. Surveys were given to our staff and parents asking what their preferred ingredients are in a sausage. We extended our market research by conducting a sausage survey in Portchester village.

Our local award winning butcher Twell's kindly offered to produce our sausage and we had a chance to actually see him making sausages.The smell was meaty as we looked around the butchers .The machines were huge and weird because they were different to what we would expect them to look like in real life .

The sausage meat went into the top of the machine, the butcher pressed a button the meat shot out in casing in one long tube shape. To make the sausages into the right shape they were knotted by a method called knitting.



Ruby, Ellie      4M

Cool Coastal Garden

Class 5R and guests at the opening of the garden

Two chefs from Rick Stein's came to join us on the day of the opening of our coastal garden. We were excited to see their alfresco cooking demo with a coastal theme, the delicious smell of hake and the peppery Spanish salad filled the air.

To create the dishes they used produce we had grown and harvested ourselves, the onion only being pulled moments before!

While they were cooking knowing we could try it are mouths started to water. When we tried it we all loved it, the mixtures of flavours gave it a great taste.

Fresh salad to accompany the fish

After that, we had Vincent, a landscape architect, who was a key part in the making of the coastal garden, cut the ribbon.

Vincent cuts the ribbon

A much appreciated fish 'n' chip lunch

Butterflies and beetles

We were looking for bugs in our school grounds in the wild flower meadow in the orchard
and we saw these butterflies: skipper, meadow brown, gatekeeper and marbled white.

The skipper is a short stout insects with shorter wings than most butterflies.  Their antennae end with thick hooks.  Skipper caterpillars are usually green or brown sometimes yellowish never brightly coloured.

A skipper butterfly in the orchard

Cerys dug out some facts about the marbled white butterfly.

1] A marbled white butterfly is black and white.

2] The marbled white is one of the most distinctive butterflies.

3] Marbled white butterflies live in long grass and plants.
4] A marbled white feeds on a wide variety of grasses.
5] A marbled white caterpillars are brown and green.
6] Marbled white butterflies are the only butterflies are the only black and white marking
7] The females have a slight brown tinge on the underside of their wing
8] Marbled white butterflies like sun bathing in hot weather.
9] The marbled white butterflies often is found in large colonies.
10] There are similar species to marbled white which come from Galatea in Spain and South France.

We also saw three different beetles: soldier beetle, swollen-thighed beetle and a two-spot ladybird.  Zoe found some information about the swollen thighed beetle.

The swollen-thighed beetle

1] Swollen-thighed beetles are a very common  in the summer and often found on bramble flowers.

2]Swollen-thighed beetles are a very hard creature to spot because they are very small about a centimetre long and camouflaged.

3]It is a feature of the males only so it may be some advantage when mating.

Tiny swollen-thighed beetle in our orchard

closeup of swollen-thighed beetle

Feed the plants with plants!

Year 1 have been working hard to grow their own outside their classroom, greening their grey outside space #greeninggreybritain @The_RHS

For the last six weeks a combination of broad beans, carrots, rocket, marigolds and tomatoes have been sown and planted ready for the big harvest and fun cooking.

As an environmentally friendly school we have recycled and sourced locally where we could. The care of our plants is no different. This week we have made our own plant food taking great advice from Pip Bensley and Rosy Yeomans on the BBC Radio Solent Programme 'The Good Life' with Rebecca Parker.

The Comfrey Feed...

First we harvested the leaves

Next came the fun part,extracting the goodness.                                                

We talked about the Romans - they would not have trodden on grapes with shiny shoes on.

Now for the Harry Potter part. We mixed the potion with water.

We poured our solution straight into a watering can and watered the soil around our plants. This will give them a good boost at a time when they are growing lots. Please look at our blog to see the results!

Jump and fly

Many schools put up nest boxes around their school grounds in the hope they will be inhabited by the next generation of feathered friends. What many don't appreciate are the factors needed to help this to happen, positioning out of direct sunlight, size of hole for the right birds to enter, camouflage to deter predators being some of the most basic requirements.

Admiring the broad bean crop

Over the spring months the activity going on in a nest box positioned on the side of one of our classrooms has created a buzz of excitement.

The greatest moment had to be seeing the last newly fledged great tit huddled on the concrete path below the nest box. Ignored by passing families,  one of the parents was close by chirping with encouragement; our baby great tit replying with a higher pitch chirp back. Apparently this encouragement was enough for the fledgling to flap its wings and head for the broad beans for a breather.

Safe in the chalk heart

After a brief pause to get its breath back the fledgling great tit hopped out and flew up onto the wall, heading straight for the chalk heart that had been drawn on the wall of class 3N.
Time for another look around and then off into the trees.  We wish the great tit chick all the best and hope to see it next year.

This had been a most magical experience.

Coastal Garden Developments on Grounds Day

We have been digging lots of holes to plant our new plants and we have been watering them once we put them in place. Many had worms in and some of us didn't want to go near them but others could not get enough of the tiny little critters!  Some of these plants were called blue oat grass, feather grass and more. Jobs included watering plants and planting even more plants. Cerys and I (Flo) were organising loads of different shells and even some oysters (yuck).  It was great fun really! We have put lots of wooden pallets in to form a boardwalk with feather grass around it so you can run your fingers through it as you walk by.  We've also put chicken wire along the top to stop it from getting slippery when it's raining. Today, it has been raining for some time but we've all mucked in (literally) by digging some holes for pillars to be placed - these will be like the groynes you see at the seaside.

Digging up holes to place the plants in.

We have also been designing in our art books some sculptures and art to put in the garden. The Coastal Garden has been coming on very well so far and we can't wait until it's finally done. We have been working very hard and can't wait to see it finished.
                        

   Organising the shells.

Flo, Adam 5R  

        

Our Coastal Garden

What can we do with a rather dark and miserable part of the school grounds?  One of the children started the thinking by remarking that we were a school by the coast...the idea of a coastal garden was born.
The next step was to research what could go into the garden - what actually is a coastal garden?
The children collected a host of images and sifted through magazines, holiday postcards and talked to grown ups.  A vision seemed to emerge from this research and the next step was to invite in a design expert.  Cue Vincent Mount from Portsmouth City Council.  He talked through the design issues and suggested the class visit Portsmouth Park and Ride (wow, what a trip!)  The class took his advice and armed with cameras and clip boards visited the Park and Ride and Southsea Rock Gardens to collect more information about the features and plants that typified these environments.  The Park and Ride showed the children who large sweeping grasses could give the idea of beaches and coast.

The children then sketched out ideas and came up with a class plan which is now being put into action...

So far we have shovelled up the shingle to the place we want it to be. We have conditioned the soil for the base of the garden. The first grasses have been planted around the base of the silver birch trees. The pallets need to be dug in to form a boardwalk and feathery grasses will be used to soften the edge.


Adam and Flo 5R.

Preparing the soil for planting beneath the Silver Birch.

Many wheel barrows make light work!

Wish this had an engine

Home sweet home - for the birds that is..

Rooks, one of the most obvious nest builders, are already well under way with their building and you may have seen their large nests at the top of the bare trees by the roadsides. They will start by collecting sticks and dropping them on the branches they have chosen as their home.  To begin with, more often than not their twigs will drop through, but with time, they lodge in the branches of the tree and a rather unruly nest will begin to form.  Rooks are big birds and they can afford to nest where they can be seen, but most birds are much more secretive about it.

 The birds at Wicor have started to make their nests and you can see evidence of this all day as they go to and fro with small twigs, feathers and grasses in their beaks.  Look out for long-tailed tits who can use up to 2,000 feathers in each nest and in their effort to collect all the various materials, they will fly between 600-700 miles!  Birds only spend a small part of their year – often only a few days – building nests, and they instinctively build it to a design that is unique to their species.If you keep your eyes peeled throughout late March and April, you may be able to see evidence of this around you at home too. 

Still, with a bit of patience, you can spot signs of your garden birds nesting. Blackbirds, robins and song thrushes build nests in the ‘classic design’ – nice neat cups of woven grasses and small twigs, camouflaged with moss and lined with mud.  The birds will be quite careful about approaching their chosen nest site, and you may see them stopping to check they are not being watched before they plunge into a hedge or shrub. However, they can only be as subtle as a bird with grass and moss in its beak can be, so if you’re lucky enough to be looking out of your window at the right moment, you may see them collecting the material, or even notice where they are nesting.

But how do birds, with only beaks as tools, turn these basic components into nests secure enough to take a growing family of nestlings, vying for their parents’ attentions and stretching their wings?
It would seem that beaks are very good tools for building. It’s a delicate business, the weaving in of new material to create the nest cup. A blackbird will land on the base of the nest and lay the next strand of grass or twig on the top. She will then turn in the nest and carefully weave this new strand into the side of the cup.   It’s the turning action that leaves the inside of the nest completely smooth and well compacted, ready to take eggs and chicks. She’ll continue until the cup is complete and will then visit ponds or puddles and collect mud to use to strengthen the inside of the nest.

Click on the link to watch a blackbird making a nest:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ySgRlxjj2A

Spring in sprung and world sparrow day

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The astronomical spring in the Northern Hemisphere begins today, Sunday, March 20.The Spring (vernal) equinox in the Northern Hemisphere is also known as the March equinox. It's called the "autumnal (fall) equinox" in the Southern Hemisphere. The March equinox marks the moment the Sun crosses the celestial equator – the imaginary line in the sky above the Earth’s equator – from south to north.  And a lovely day it was too, with seas calm, and a vivid red sunset.  The first few signs of spring are now appearing too with lots of daffodils nodding their heads and primroses flowering.  If you look closely at the trees and bushes, buds can also be seen ready to burst forth.  Blackthorn trees are also just starting to blossom in warmer corners.  Blackthorns are often confused with hawthorns.  To tell them apart blackthorns flower first and before their leaves and hawthorns flower later and after its leaves.  For further information check out: http://www.wildlifeinsight.com/3563/whats-the-difference-between-blackthorn-and-hawthorn/
 
If you are looking for other signs of spring, then frog, toad and newt spawn should also be around.  The first butterflies are out - look for tortoiseshells, yellow brimstone and peacocks.  The yellow brimstone is often the first butterfly to be seen after the winter:  http://butterfly-conservation.org/50-1310/brimstone.html



The gardens are also now full of chirping birds, with sparrows and dunnocks busy collecting nesting materials.  As well as it being the first day of spring today, it is also World Sparrow Day: http://www.worldsparrowday.org
Keep an eye out for hedgehogs coming out of hibernation.  They need all the help they can get at the moment.  A fantastic website giving you all the information you could need is: http://www.hedgehogstreet.org/  Here you will find what to find hedgehogs and how to keep them safe.  If you do want to feed a hedgehog then give shallow dish of water and a combination of:

• Meat-based dog or cat food
• Unsalted chopped or crushed peanuts
• Sunflower hearts
• Dried meal worms

But do check out the website as it tells you how to get your garden hedgehog ready this spring.  We have lost a third of our hedgehogs in the last ten years, with an estimate of fewer than a million left in the UK.  Hedgehogs are declining at the same rate as tigers - around 5% a year.

Lastly, have a look for the emergence of the bumblebee or Bombus terrestris. The buff-tailed bumblebee queen, the largest UK species, is usually the first bee to emerge, often at the end of February. The other queen bee possibly out and about at the moment is Bombus lucorum, the white-tailed bumblebee. If you're interested, Bumblebee.org have a lovely guide to tell the two apart.

Happy spring everyone!

Heron

On Wednesday at 9.05 am we saw a heron standing by the pond looking at frogs. It was standing still looking at the water for about 20 minutes.
Eventually, as fast as lightening its neck bent down and it caught a frog in its beak. He held it in his mouth for a while, dipped it in the water two times and ate it.
It dropped it on the floor a few times because it couldn't get a good grip. Jack said it made him feel ill seeing the frog half dead and being eaten.
Annabelle thought it was really exciting, they have to eat frogs otherwise they will die and it was a pretty bird as well.

Annabelle Warren and Jack Oliver, Class 4W

The school pond with one less frog

Keeping busy over half term

Looking for something to do over the half term holiday?  Well, it is national nest box week 14-21 February, so dust off the saw, nails and hammer and make a bird box for your garden.   There are lots of free instructions - different ones for different birds - on how to make them on the British Trust for Ornithology website (link below).  They also tell you on the best place to hang your bird box. 


http://www.bto.org/about-birds/nnbw

How about this one!  Perhaps you could make a wacky bird box.  Send us your pictures if you do!


 

The Big Worm Dig

Worms matter.  In the words of Charles Darwin, “Without the work of this humble creature, who knows nothing of the benefits he confers upon mankind, agriculture, as we know it, would be very difficult, if not wholly impossible.” 
Year 3 children are taking part in the Big Worm Dig which is part of nationwide study launched by Riverford (http://www.riverford.co.uk/bigwormdig )  in conjunction with the University of Central Lancashire.


The Big Worm Dig site

The children have found a great many worms and learned that they are not 'all the same'.  However, they found more than just worms...

They unearthed this coin and after a bit of cleaning and a bit of googling they identified it as an old coin from Guernsey called a double.  This one was approximately the same valuable as an old penny.

If you want to find out more click on the link below. 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guernsey_pound

Notice the spelling of Guernsey - it's French



In the news...

http://www.theguardian.com/wwf-education-partner-zone

WWF education partner zone | The Guardian www.theguardian.com Latest WWF education partner zone news, comment and analysis from the Guardian, the world's leading liberal voice

Wild Hedges for Urban Edges 2

Elder corner

The step over fruit trees a new addition to the orchard, ideal height for Year R to harvest.

 Lines of trees above and lines of boots below!