Category Archives: biodiversity

National Tree Week: Planting trees to combat climate change – March 31st to 7th April, 2019

Tree Week, organised by the Tree Council of Ireland since 1985 is a week long programme of events to celebrate trees and this year the theme is planting for the planet to combat climate change. Rebecca and Aoife, from the Parents’ Association Gardening Committee helped member of the Student Council to plant trees provided by Wicklow County Council.

Forests help reduce climate change effects by reducing the amount of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. Carbon dioxide is the main greenhouse gas responsible for climate change and emissions of it from man-made sources have been increasing year on year since the 1950s.

Trees absorb carbon dioxide from the atmosphere for growth, convert it to sugars and wood and release pure oxygen back to the atmosphere.

Wicklow County Council has provided us with five Native irish trees, the bud identifier pic above will help you identify which is which. You will have to click on the photo to enlarge it.

Click on THIS link to see the work that was done.

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The Pip Project

3rd Class Room 14 are doing a ‘Pip Project’.

The children are really enthusiastic and it has really taken off.

First the children were invited to plant any pips from the fruit they had for their lunches.

Saorla found some mystery seeds in the yard and we have planted them.

Perhaps we will end up with a bean stalk 😉

Sam brought in an avocado seed. They need to be suspended in water.

Sam also brought in chive seeds.

We are also growing peas.

Teacher brought in nasturtium seeds. They are growing well.

We are interested to see how they follow the sun

and lean towards the light.

Teacher brought in chestnuts.

We discovered in order for chestnuts to germinate

they need to be kept in soil, in a bag in the fridge.

We have had some successes.

The apple seedlings are growing well.

However in the pot were the mandarin seeds were planted,

grass grew. We are a bit mystified by this.

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What happened when wolves were reintroduced to a habitat – from ‘Sustainable Human’

When we were working towards the Green Flag for Biodiversity we learned what would happen if snow leopards became extinct. What would happen if the snow leopard was removed from a food chain. The results would be devastating for an ecosystem. You can read about that HERE

Happily this next video (from Sustainable Human) is a good news story. In 1995, fourteen wolves were reintroduced to Yellowstone National Park in the USA. The wolves had been extinct there since 1926. Watch what happened next. We think it’s amazing!


How Wolves Change Rivers from Sustainable Human on Vimeo.

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The Gardening Committee have done it AGAIN

MANY, MANY THANKS to the Parents’ Association’s Gardening Committee. They make the school year so interesting for us and great fun. Today they organised us planting vegetables in the school garden. Take a look at the slide show below to see more. Thanks to Ms. Murray for taking the photographs. Click on THIS LINK to see other posts about gardening in the school.

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‘Spring Alive’ website – encouraging children’s interest in nature and migratory birds

What a great website!

Spring Alive is an international project to encourage children’s interest in nature and the conservation of migratory birds and to get them to take action for birds and other wildlife…’
There are games and colouring activities on the website too. Click HERE to see.

Lavandera blanca (Motacilla alba) Pedro Luna Guillen via Compfight

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Project Hyacinth

Day 365+7 Wouter de Bruijn via Compfight
In every classroom in the school ‘PROJECT HYACINTH’ has started to bloom. In late November, the parents from the Gardening Committee delivered a hyacinth bulb to every classroom. They have been sitting in water in glass jars under little cardboard ‘hats’ to fool them into blooming. The first thing we noticed were little white roots growing down into the water. If we lift the ‘hats’ we can see a little green shoot. We are excited to have the hyacinths growing in our classrooms. We wonder what colour ours will be. We would like to thank the Gardening Committee for our hyacinths: ‘the gift that keeps on giving’.
Click on THIS LINK to see the beginning of the story and HERE to see February’s update.

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A New Arrival to Our School Grounds – A Beautiful Silver Birch

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Renewed thanks to our exceptional gardening committee. They are forever coming up with great ideas to make our school an even better place to be. As well as looking after the school grounds, they do so much more.

  • For example they showed students how to grow vegetables and harvested them.
  • They have created a special outdoor classroom.
  • They commissioned a ‘Buddy Bench’ (made from recycled wooden pallets) where children who have no one to play with can sit until their friends find them.
  • The Gardening Committee caused great excitement when they put a special Halloween scarecrow in the school garden.
  • In this bleak mid winter, they gave each class a hyacinth for the teacher’s desk to bring sunshine to our classrooms.
  • Recently they planted a silver birch trees in the school grounds. Michael the school caretaker helped.

We think the silver birch was a great choice as it is beautiful all year round.

  • In Winter, even though it is deciduous and has no leaves the colour of its bark and the patterns on it are beautiful.
  • In Spring the leaves are a fresh light green and these darken as the year turns to Summer.
  • Then in Autumn the silver birch is colourful with vibrant yellow leaves.
  • Then there are the 500 or so insect species that use the silver birch as a habitat all year round.

Many thanks to the Gardening Committee for another super addition to our school grounds.

We have very little space, but with thought and imagination it has been made a much greener and better place to be.

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Trees in our School Grounds – The Umbrella Tree

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We have an Umbrella Tree in our school yard. In the Summer when there are lots of leaves, it really works. If you go under it when it is raining you stay dry.

We think it is a weeping willow. It is very beautiful. In Spring there are catkins on the tree. Catkins are furry flowering spikes that hang down. They are soft to touch, but much better not to pick them but to leave them to grow. The catkins fall off and the leaves grow then. It is a good looking and interesting tree.

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Have you heard about the ‘Mountain of the Butterflies’?

This is a link to today’s Google Doodle commemorating the 41st anniversary of the discovery of the mountain of the butterflies.

It was in 1975 that the overwintering place of the monarch butterfly was discovered. The butterflies were found inthe Sierra Madre Mountains in Eastern Mexico. You can read more about how the millions of monarchs cling to the oyamel trees here.image

 

The monarch butterfly is under threat due to climate change and destruction of forests in Mexico, where the species migrates to from the the US and Canada in winter.

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Read all about it: New Study: A Pine Marten revival is bad news for Grey Squirrels which is good news for Red Squirrels!

A study has found that a revival in the number of pine martens in Ireland,

American marten (Martes americana), juvenile female, Lassen National Forest, Northern CA (1)
Creative Commons License Photo Credit: Tatiana Gettelman via Compfight

has meant there are less grey squirrels

Squirrel I
Creative Commons License Photo Credit: Lawrence OP via Compfight

which is good news for red squirrels.

Curious red squirrel
Creative Commons License Photo Credit: Niko Kähkönen via Compfight

Click on this link to read “Population crash in an invasive species following the recovery of a native predator: the case of the American grey squirrel and the European pine marten in Ireland” by Emma Sheehy & Colin Lawton  published in ‘Biodiversity and Conservation’.

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