Week Beginning 6th July

Mrs Pateman

This week, while I was busy in the garden, I was fascinated by two butterflies. Well, one is a butterfly- a Red Admiral. I didn’t know what the other one was, as I hadn’t seen one before, so I had to look it up on the internet. I found out that it is actually a moth! I was surprised to see a moth out in the brilliant sunshine, as I thought that moths liked to come out at dusk and night time. It is called a Cinnabar, and was originally named after the red mineral ‘cinnabar’ that used to be used by artists as a red colour in their painting.

I found out that the Cinnabar Moth lays up to 300 eggs, which hatch and grow into pale yellow caterpillars. The caterpillars soon develop bright yellow and black stripes to stop other creatures from eating them. The caterpillars like to feed on the leaves and flowers of Common Ragwort and Groundsel. Common Ragwort leaves are poisonous. When the caterpillar eats the leaves, the poison is stored in its body, and remains in its body even when it has grown into an adult Cinnabar moth. It means that birds won’t eat the moths as they will taste bad! 

Mrs Bowen

There seems to be a garden theme this week! 

At the weekend, my dad and I went on a walk around the village to explore some of the gardens. The National Garden Scheme hosts a village 'Open Gardens' to raise money for charity, and this weekend it was our village's turn. There were six gardens on show and we visited four of them. The gardens were so peaceful! Some people had ponds with big koi fish, one garden had a lot of lovely lavender, which was attracting lots of bright bees. Another garden had these beautiful hydrangeas - how pretty are the colours! It was very kind of the people who owned the garden to let others walk around and enjoy their space. 

I also saw a cute little snail too that I thought I'd share with you. I'm hoping I might paint him this weekend... 

How amazing is his shell? It was peaceful to watch him move along the bottom of the sunflower pot for 5 minutes.

Have you ever sat and watch a creature in your garden for 5 minutes? What do you notice? 

Mrs. Bishop.

Like Mrs. Smith, I too enjoy being in my garden. I really quite enjoy pottering and watching the plants grow and mature and seeing what wildlife appears. I also like getting out and about and have been on some lovely walks. We enjoy following trails through the Heart of England Forest and have seen some beautiful plants growing. I took a photograph of some teasel plants growing near the river.

Mr. Bishop works in Cheltenham and at the weekend I took the boys over to see him during his lunch break. We all went for a lovely walk in the hills and enjoyed the amazing views  overlooking the town. We shall definitely be going back in the school holidays but we shall take a picnic with us this time and spend longer there, as there was a lot we want to explore further.

Mrs Smith

Hello children. I hope that you and your families are all keeping well?

This week I have been spending more time in my garden (dodging the showers!). I've got to admit that my husband is the gardener in our house, but I really love being in it and looking at all the different flowers, plants and wildlife. I really like sitting in the shade, reading a book and just having a quiet five minutes to myself. We have been really lucky with the weather during lock down and we have had quite a number of BBQ's. I love BBQ's! Fingers crossed we get some lovely weather over the summer holidays so I can carry on spending more time appreciating the garden...