As a result of some requests (you know who you are!)
some spring flower pictures from our garden.
Enjoy!
Wednesday, 4 March 2009
Spring colours!
As a result of some requests (you know who you are!)
some spring flower pictures from our garden.
Enjoy!
Tuesday, 3 March 2009
Chickenailia Feb 2009
It is that time again! February has whizzed by in a having-a-rest-from-writing-my-portfolio and planting seeds and stuff but I DO have the egg and general behaviour report for all things chicken related here at Compost Mansions ;-)
February sees the day lengthening noticeably and thus egg laying really starts to improve. The girls all look happy and pleased to be able to eat some bugs and worms and are very happy that nasty cold white stuff has all gone!
I have had a good lot of eggs from all the girls and of course the BIG story this month was the Fab Four Dorking girls all started laying!
Henny laid 21 eggs in January, she lays the biggest eggs! 90 - 100 g dark brown speckled whoppers!
Ginger has laid well this month, 22 eggs and she has done lots of funny things as well! I have worked out that Henny and Ginger are now 2 years old, so they are doing very well for us.
Attila laid 18 eggs BUT is in disgrace for trying to eat the eggs from the Dorkings whenever she can steal them from the Eglu...I am going to have to have a good hard think about her I am afraid as I can't have that happening.
Cathy has laid no eggs at all but is a sweetie and very gentle and loving.
Sweetiepie was a joint star of the month in January and has continued this, laying 23eggs in Feb.
Genghis Hen has been ill and I was very worried, I had to up end her and massage her crop this week as she had got "sour crop" where the contents ferment and go smelly and disgusting. So I now can add "making chickens vomit" to the skills list on my CV...
Genghis NOT at all impressed with the snow!
She is also suffering from Sterile Egg Peritonitis where her egg laying workings have gone wrong and she swells up and leaks fluid out of her vent. I had to clean her bum up as it was raw from the fluid, isolate her from the others (as they would have pecked her red, sore bum until it was torn) and give her lots of TLC. She is OK now and back with the others but it WILL happen again, poor old girl :-(
But yet again, the absolute stars are Babs and Goldie! Yep they laid the most eggs! Babs and Goldie laid a magnificent 26 eggs out of a possible 28 this month.
The big girls laid 136 eggs this month, which is really pretty good, from 6 egg laying hens (forget about Genghis and Cathy the ex battys) they have averaged 4.8 eggs per day, which isn't bad going I think! AND the egg laying was 5 or 6 a day from the 6 laying hens from mid Feb.
The Silver Dorkings continue to delight, Cap't Flint has "claimed" the Fab Four Dorking girls as his personal harem and they live in the Eglu, although he still tries to get off with the big hens whenever he can. Long John Silver is now living in Cluckingham Palace with all the big hens and they are HIS harem.
Long John Silver is very friendly to me and I hope that continues. Cap't Flint has chased Compostgirl a few times and I have had to push him off with my foot and show him who is boss!
Ruby, Violet, Buffy and Willow are very sweet and now cluck and croon at me and follow me around! And, of course, they are all now laying!
After an erratic start mid Feb where we had an egg then a day off then an egg from each of them, they ALL laid an egg every day in the last week of Feb AND they managed to do it in the nest boxes, not on the ground!
They lay quite small eggs at the moment but with the MOST amazing yellow yolks! Even more so than all the other hens!
Ruby has laid the biggest egg so far (50g) and so is therefore Chicken of the Week (see top right sidebar)
The Fab Four Dorking girls coming into lay will mean even more eggs for me to sell and recoup some of the feed bill as well. I have now 3 regular customers who LOVE the eggs and think they are fabulous!
Eggs in the 'fridge, 3 days worth, 30 eggs.....
THANK you all, my lovely, lovely girls and boys, you make my life very happy!)
Eco Club - memberships and games
Quite a few of you have asked me about the Eco Club after school club I run at Compostgirl's school as well as the various environmental education things I do with children at Forest School.
So I thought I would do a post on some of the memberships and resources I have used. Some are free, some require a small membership fee, all are really good and I can personally recommend them. I also have listed some books and ideas sheets where you can find out more about some of the games we play and crafts we do.
Eco Club is an RSPB Wildlife Explorers Club. As part of the RSPB Wildlife Explorers club membership fee each child is a member of the RSPB and gets a magazine every two months as well as various occasional goodies from the RSPB. I also got to go off on a weekend in Bedfordshire for training as a Wildlife Explorers Leader ;-) The RSPB provide a lot of support and help to their clubs. Our RSPB membership is great and the children love the magazines and of course we take part in the Big Schools and Big Garden Birdwatch every year! There are lots of good, free ideas on their website as well.
Eco Club is also a Woodland Trust Nature Detectives Club , again for a small fee. The Nature Detectives Club is run by The Woodland Trust and they also produce the most amazing free resources as well which are available on their website to download and print off. The spotter and I.D sheets are especially good. The Woodland Trust are also responsible for "Springwatch" and Autumnwatch" as part of the UK Phenology Network, which records when natural events happen.
Eco Club regularly gets free trees and tree seed growing kits to plant, as part of the "Tree for all" scheme (in November and March) This is a scheme run by The Woodland Trust where children are encouraged to plant trees.
We are also registered as a BBC Breathing Places school so we receive emails and information packs from them with more good ideas in them for activities. This is free!
These are just a few of the resources I use. I have many feet of bookshelves full of books and info which I use in my environmental education work :-)
We start most Eco Club sessions with a game or two and here is the link to an an idea sheet I wrote in 2007 on playing environmental themed games. I use these games quite a lot and they are good fun.
We also make various craft things in Eco Club and Forest School sessions and here is an ideas sheet I wrote in 2007 on making craft items from natural materials ( bird feeders, mini beast houses, mobiles etc)
I used lots of these ideas when I worked for our local nature Trust as an Environmental Playworker and have used them since in various places.
There are some very good books with ideas for all sorts of activities and games as well. “Sharing Nature with Children 1” and “Sharing Nature with Children 2” by Joseph Cornell are inspirational books as is “Natures Playground” by Fiona Danks and Jo Schofield. Also “Earthwise” by Carol Petrash is very good. These are available from Amazon via the link at the top right of this page, or your local library may have them. The Woodcraft Folk Games Book is also very good, but I think that will have to be borrowed from a library. If your club joins the RSPB they provide very good guides on how to run a club with great ideas for things to do.
I hope this is all useful information :-) There is a lot of very useful and free stuff on the Internet, I hope these few links are helpful to anyone who either is thinking of helping at a club or just wants some interesting, fun stuff to do with their own children! The RSPB Wildlife Explorers Club and Nature Detective Club are not just for schools and youth groups, both offer family memberships which are also very good and again, I can personally vouch for that, as we are family members here at Compost Mansions.
So, now you have all this lovely information, why not go and play :-)
So I thought I would do a post on some of the memberships and resources I have used. Some are free, some require a small membership fee, all are really good and I can personally recommend them. I also have listed some books and ideas sheets where you can find out more about some of the games we play and crafts we do.
Eco Club is an RSPB Wildlife Explorers Club. As part of the RSPB Wildlife Explorers club membership fee each child is a member of the RSPB and gets a magazine every two months as well as various occasional goodies from the RSPB. I also got to go off on a weekend in Bedfordshire for training as a Wildlife Explorers Leader ;-) The RSPB provide a lot of support and help to their clubs. Our RSPB membership is great and the children love the magazines and of course we take part in the Big Schools and Big Garden Birdwatch every year! There are lots of good, free ideas on their website as well.
Eco Club is also a Woodland Trust Nature Detectives Club , again for a small fee. The Nature Detectives Club is run by The Woodland Trust and they also produce the most amazing free resources as well which are available on their website to download and print off. The spotter and I.D sheets are especially good. The Woodland Trust are also responsible for "Springwatch" and Autumnwatch" as part of the UK Phenology Network, which records when natural events happen.
Eco Club regularly gets free trees and tree seed growing kits to plant, as part of the "Tree for all" scheme (in November and March) This is a scheme run by The Woodland Trust where children are encouraged to plant trees.
We are also registered as a BBC Breathing Places school so we receive emails and information packs from them with more good ideas in them for activities. This is free!
These are just a few of the resources I use. I have many feet of bookshelves full of books and info which I use in my environmental education work :-)
We start most Eco Club sessions with a game or two and here is the link to an an idea sheet I wrote in 2007 on playing environmental themed games. I use these games quite a lot and they are good fun.
We also make various craft things in Eco Club and Forest School sessions and here is an ideas sheet I wrote in 2007 on making craft items from natural materials ( bird feeders, mini beast houses, mobiles etc)
I used lots of these ideas when I worked for our local nature Trust as an Environmental Playworker and have used them since in various places.
There are some very good books with ideas for all sorts of activities and games as well. “Sharing Nature with Children 1” and “Sharing Nature with Children 2” by Joseph Cornell are inspirational books as is “Natures Playground” by Fiona Danks and Jo Schofield. Also “Earthwise” by Carol Petrash is very good. These are available from Amazon via the link at the top right of this page, or your local library may have them. The Woodcraft Folk Games Book is also very good, but I think that will have to be borrowed from a library. If your club joins the RSPB they provide very good guides on how to run a club with great ideas for things to do.
I hope this is all useful information :-) There is a lot of very useful and free stuff on the Internet, I hope these few links are helpful to anyone who either is thinking of helping at a club or just wants some interesting, fun stuff to do with their own children! The RSPB Wildlife Explorers Club and Nature Detective Club are not just for schools and youth groups, both offer family memberships which are also very good and again, I can personally vouch for that, as we are family members here at Compost Mansions.
So, now you have all this lovely information, why not go and play :-)
Monday, 2 March 2009
Eco Club - getting started
Several of you have asked me about the Eco Club I co-lead at Compost girl's school, so this is the first in a series of posts about Eco Club and what we do.
Our sessions at Eco Club run after school from 3 15 to 5 pm. We have so many children wanting to be in Eco Club that we have had to hold two duplicate sessions each month! We usually have around 15 children in each session, Sue (Yr 2 teacher) and I lead the sessions (with a couple of parent helpers, usually Compost man is one of them !) Sue and I are both qualified First Aiders, any non teaching staff have CRBs and we take a register at the start and end of the club to ensure the safety of the children.
Eco Club has its own notice board in the school, which is changed by me to reflect the up coming session.
We start with the children getting changed into old clothes then we have a drink, a biscuit and a general chat about what we plan to do in the session; this is also the time for the children to share any exciting news with the rest of the club, or show a book or magazine they have found. Sometimes we look at a web site or a DVD which relates to what is planned for the session. We also talk about what we would like to do in future sessions and ask the children what they would like to do.
Then it is outside for a few environmentally based games (more on those in another post). Then it is on with the activity planned for that session. We want everybody to be able to have fun without worrying about getting cold, wet or mucky so old clothes, warm coats and wellies are essential wear for Eco Club.
We have found mixing KS1 and 2 in a meeting is a really good thing as the older ones help the younger ones. We duplicate sessions each month so each group (Ants or Bees) does roughly the same thing as the other group each month .
We are an RSPB Wildlife Explorers Club, a Woodland Trust Nature Detectives Club and have been a Wildlife Trust Watch group. Each child is a member of the RSPB and gets a magazine every two months as well as various goodies from the RSPB on occasion.
Eco club activities cover a wider range of “green” interests. For example; we make recycled paper (more on that in a later post!),
have planted native hedgerow trees, have bird feeders all over the school grounds, have instigated a paper recycling bank at school, have made bat and bird boxes and erected them around the school,
have made a hedgehog hibernaculum, we take part in various RSPB and Woodland Trust events and we make insect shelters in the Autumn. Eco Club has several raised beds in the school grounds where we grow herbs and insect attracting plants.
We make a lot of compost as well! Bug hunts in the compost heap whilst “turning” it is always a VERY popular activity!
We have held HUGELY successful fund raising events, for the RSPB Albatross appeal alone we raised over £300!
We do a variety of recycled-based crafts
and a lot of bird and plant identifying and above all we have FUN.
What we are doing is part of a bigger message spreading throughout the school, of living in a more sustainable way. This has benefited the school in many ways and has meant the school is now working for the highest level an Eco school can achieve, the Green Flag award. We also recently won a prestigious Green Tree Woodland Trust award at Gold Level.
It is a lot of work for me, I cannot deny it and I do not get paid money for doing it BUT I enjoy doing it and I love helping the children to come to see the wonders of our natural world. I feel very privileged to be able to share my knowledge of the environment with the next generation and that is worth a lot! I am also lucky enough to have converted my interest and passion for educating about sustainability/the environment into a whole new career as an Environmental Educator, purely from becoming a volunteer Master Composter and volunteering to run Eco Club.
If you have similar skills, why not try helping at YOUR local school or other youth group?
Our sessions at Eco Club run after school from 3 15 to 5 pm. We have so many children wanting to be in Eco Club that we have had to hold two duplicate sessions each month! We usually have around 15 children in each session, Sue (Yr 2 teacher) and I lead the sessions (with a couple of parent helpers, usually Compost man is one of them !) Sue and I are both qualified First Aiders, any non teaching staff have CRBs and we take a register at the start and end of the club to ensure the safety of the children.
Eco Club has its own notice board in the school, which is changed by me to reflect the up coming session.
We start with the children getting changed into old clothes then we have a drink, a biscuit and a general chat about what we plan to do in the session; this is also the time for the children to share any exciting news with the rest of the club, or show a book or magazine they have found. Sometimes we look at a web site or a DVD which relates to what is planned for the session. We also talk about what we would like to do in future sessions and ask the children what they would like to do.
Then it is outside for a few environmentally based games (more on those in another post). Then it is on with the activity planned for that session. We want everybody to be able to have fun without worrying about getting cold, wet or mucky so old clothes, warm coats and wellies are essential wear for Eco Club.
We have found mixing KS1 and 2 in a meeting is a really good thing as the older ones help the younger ones. We duplicate sessions each month so each group (Ants or Bees) does roughly the same thing as the other group each month .
We are an RSPB Wildlife Explorers Club, a Woodland Trust Nature Detectives Club and have been a Wildlife Trust Watch group. Each child is a member of the RSPB and gets a magazine every two months as well as various goodies from the RSPB on occasion.
Eco club activities cover a wider range of “green” interests. For example; we make recycled paper (more on that in a later post!),
have planted native hedgerow trees, have bird feeders all over the school grounds, have instigated a paper recycling bank at school, have made bat and bird boxes and erected them around the school,
have made a hedgehog hibernaculum, we take part in various RSPB and Woodland Trust events and we make insect shelters in the Autumn. Eco Club has several raised beds in the school grounds where we grow herbs and insect attracting plants.
We make a lot of compost as well! Bug hunts in the compost heap whilst “turning” it is always a VERY popular activity!
We have held HUGELY successful fund raising events, for the RSPB Albatross appeal alone we raised over £300!
We do a variety of recycled-based crafts
and a lot of bird and plant identifying and above all we have FUN.
What we are doing is part of a bigger message spreading throughout the school, of living in a more sustainable way. This has benefited the school in many ways and has meant the school is now working for the highest level an Eco school can achieve, the Green Flag award. We also recently won a prestigious Green Tree Woodland Trust award at Gold Level.
It is a lot of work for me, I cannot deny it and I do not get paid money for doing it BUT I enjoy doing it and I love helping the children to come to see the wonders of our natural world. I feel very privileged to be able to share my knowledge of the environment with the next generation and that is worth a lot! I am also lucky enough to have converted my interest and passion for educating about sustainability/the environment into a whole new career as an Environmental Educator, purely from becoming a volunteer Master Composter and volunteering to run Eco Club.
If you have similar skills, why not try helping at YOUR local school or other youth group?
Sunday, 1 March 2009
I'm back!
I have had LOTS of problems recently with my computer, my broadband provider, Blogger and everybody.....
so PLEASE forgive me if it is all a bit erratic!
I WILL try to post all the many posts I have written, if circumstances allow..........
So watch this space....please!
I AM trying!
so PLEASE forgive me if it is all a bit erratic!
I WILL try to post all the many posts I have written, if circumstances allow..........
So watch this space....please!
I AM trying!
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