Quotes from the kids of Class 4WW Coed Eva Primary School from the pond planting day...

All of the following quotes were prepared by Class 4WW of Coed Eva Primary School afterwards with Mrs Walters. They capture the day more or less accurately with a bit of artistic embellishment. They show how getting the kids out of the classroom can have a profound effect on their early life experiences. They may get super interested and come volunteer with us in years to come. The positive effect on our small group was also fantastic. The kids were buzzing, but us oldies were buzzing too. The quotes have been left in their un-edited state.

Henllys Nature resurve was fun and exiting.It was only a ten minute walk and I really enjoyed it. We planted lots of flowers like the marsh marigold, the bog bean and lots more. Every one that was wearing wellies was allowed in the pond. In the pond there were blue dragon flies fliying all around the place. Mr Wayne had to go in the middle of the pond witch was the deepest and the water was up to his chest. I really enjoyed myself and would like to come again.

Angharad

I enjoyed it very much at the nature reserve I liked getting muddy and wet and walking there and back. It was a advancer and it was very fun my trousers got very muddy.  it was exiting seeing mr wayne go in the warter.  john hat to cut a stick for Mr  Wayne to see how deep it was In the water. It was a big thick stick and a brown stick it was bigger than him.

Codie

Henllys nature reserve is really great it was the best Friday ever. It is amazing let me tell you really it is. The view is beatyful Green grass  purple flowers yellow looesestrife ,for get me nots, Water mints there all so beatyful lovely Chris was really kind and nice Mr.wayne  stood in the middle  he held a stick  in the pond to see how deep it was. It was about  30-40 cm  deep.it was really the best day of school. Megan had  wellys  on John cut a chunk of wood  for Mr. Wayne Mrs. Waters  actually stood in the pond. 

Eleanor

On Friday 12^th off July 2013, we went to Henllys Nature Reserve to plant pond plants. We walked there and back. We all wore wellys and trousers or leggings so that when we went in the pond to plant the plants we didn’t get wet. Mr Wayne, who came with us, went in the pond in wayders to see how deep the pond was. I planted a bog bean. I thought it was a very funny name. We planted all different types of plants like the Marsh marigold and the water lily and water violet. They all went in different places in the pond. We walked through Glan Rhead right past my house! The day before we went we researched all the different plants and where they go in the pond. It was all gooy ,sticky and muddy in the pond but I liked it. Skimming across the water was dragonflys called blue darts. I thought that they were beautiful. There were lots of water spiders in the pond too. That was my day at the Nature Reserve and I would love to go again.

By Ellie Chapman.

Friday 12^th of July 2013,  Coed Eva Primary school year 4  went to the Nature Reserve in Henllys. We walked for about 15 minutes .when we got there was two  people called Chris and John  there Mrs water said “ everyone sit down”  so we all sat down Chris  said to  stand by the deep  part for about 10 minutes then John came along  and said I look like a lemon just standing there . After that I went in the water me and Ellie Chapman  got stuck in the mud .  The water went over my wellys . I had to walk home with wet wellys and that’s my trip to the nature reserve.

By Alice Grace Stockham.

On Friday the 12^th of July we went Henlly`s nature reserve it was a 15 min

Walk. We planted water plants in the pond we planted bog bean and water lilly and lots more. I liked planting the plants. I didn`t like the water. I enjoyed every minute.

By Harry

My favoriture bit was  when   we   planted  the  plants  in  the  pond. Mr Wayne  was  funny  when  he  went  in  the  pond to  see  how  deep  was  the  water. I  had lots of  fun  at   Henllys  nature  reserve. I want  to go a  again.

Jessica

 

My favourite bit of today was sorting the plants into order because it really got our brains working. Another good bit of today was watching Mr Wayne go in the

Pond because you will never know how deep it could be.

Kayleigh

I enjoyed going to Henllys nature reserve because it was really fun planting the plants in this special pond soil. I loved going in the pond and helping my best friend Ella get out of the mud. I also loved the beautiful site of the land and trees. I spotted some colour full dragon fly’s they were really beautiful. I was muddy from the pond I was soaking wet.

By Layla Sophia Bourne

 I   learnt a lot about nature  reserve.  I have learnt  about  planting plants in the dirty water. I liked the trip because I have been there a copal of times this year. The weather was rally hot and Mr.Wayne went in the water to plant some plants.

We had so much fun at the nature reserve and in the pond. I am coming again because it is so good and fun.

The nature reserve  is  fun and we planted  the  plants in  the  pond it was dirty. Some of the plants water violet and fringe lilies. There  are living things in  the  dirty  water  and  there  is dirty stuff  in  there aswell. Thay could die.

Llewi

My favourite thing of the day was puting soil in the black bags and then going in the pond with Mr wayne. My wellies got stuck in the mud, that was the best thing that happened,and my favourite plant is a bog bean. It was boiling hot at the Henllys nature reserve.The only bad thing was the 15 minute walk.

Matthew

I loved about Henllys nature reserve Mr Wayne because he when  in the pond and planted mine and codie’s plant it was fun and funny.

The best part was when Mr Wayne went in the pond . This man called  john cut Mr Wayne a big thick stick. For him to have in the water when he went in the pond .

Milly

 Friday 12^th July 2013 I went to Henllys Nature Reserve!

Today has been a blast because I went to Henllys Nature Reserve. Also Mr Wayne dressed in waders to plant pond plants in the pond that 3as my favoute part and the water was up to his chest. The plants we planted were called whitelilly bogbean lillypad and there was meny more. I had so much fun I want to go there again! I forgot to say that the walk there was so amazing that when I got home I tolled my mum all about it when I got home like I said I loved it so much I wont to go there again and see what my plants look like!

 Shanaya

I loved it at Henllys nature Reserve, and I loved planting the plants in the muddy, sqwishy  pond. I would  just like to say a big thank you to Henllys  nature Reserve. I would like to come again. Only because it was fun . Chris asked  John to cut a big, huge branch off a fallen down tree, for Mr Wayne to go in the pond to see how deep it was to put the plants in the right order.  I hope that the plants that we planted in the mucky pond and I hope that they grow nicely.      

By Sophie

The kids were absolutely amazing, you could tell they were excited, but they planed the work ever so carefully beforehand. They were also extremely well behaved on the reserve and a credit to Coed Eva Primary School. They’ve started the Henllys LNR pond records book year 0 today which will be handed down to next year’s Class 4 and hopefully on and on and on. Looking forward to next year’s events already.

Chris Partridge, Friends of Henllys LNR.

 

Pond planting and Sampling with Coed Eva Primary School

Working with year 4 of Coed Eva has been amazing fun and really inspiring for our small group. Most of the plants in the pond look great and Class 4RP (Ms. Payne) did a great job of sampling. Here's a little report including the results of their work...

Twenty Eight volunteers from Friends of Henllys LNR and Coed Eva Primary School’s Class 4RP came along to sample macroinvertebrates from the two adjacent ponds.

Look at the concentration

Year 4 were studying water quality in class and we decided it would be good idea investigate the pond water quality by recording the macroinvertebrates caught. The class learnt from the Friends that some bugs like very clean water and some live in dirty water and looking at the range and average of these bugs caught can give clues to water quality.

Dragonfly nymph (likes good quality water)

Moreover, they could scientifically test to see if there are any differences between the two ponds which are only 40 metres apart from each other. After a quick demonstration of pond dipping and how to look at what they’d caught using sample trays, the children split into three groups which they called themselves , dragonflies, fireflies and cased caddis flies. Armed with a crib sheet and tally chart prepared beforehand by the Friends, the children set to their tasks admirably. After a suitable length of time, they cleaned their nets, but all the bugs back and headed over to the second pond. They carried on sampling in this pond noting that some of the pond was green and there was some plantlife inside this one, which was not present in the first one.

Greenish growth in pond 2

 

The data was summarised with loads more dragonfly larvae found in the planted up pond (Class 4WWs) compared with the top pond.

	Planted Pond	Top Pond
Caught	Sum Planted	Sum top pond
Pondskater (BI 5)	11	12
Water boatman (BI 5)	16	14
Dragonfly nymph (BI 8)	9	2
Water beetle (BI 5)	2	2
Pond snail	6	0
Frog	1	0
Tadpole	1	0
Caddisfly larvae (BI 5)	2	0

 Using the calculated Biotic Indices and an unpaired t-test the probability of a difference between the 2 ponds was p = 0.118.  From this, with a 0.05 confidence limit, they are not significantly different. However, the numbers of dragonfly larvae caught were quite a bit larger than at the top pond (I'd be tempted to do it again with a smaller group to minimise errors).

NOT BAD FOR 9 YEAR OLDS DOING SOME PROPER SCIENCE EH?

We were supported again with equipment and experience by TCBC’s ranger Jon Howells.

 

For more pictures, have a look at http://flic.kr/s/aHsjGZ9YUJ Many thanks to all the teachers who were really encouraging and positive with the kids, a real credit to Coed Eva and brilliant for Henllys Local Nature Reserve.

 

More vols out on the pull

10 volunteers came out last night including our youngest ever volunteer at 3 years old to pull up Himalayan balsam on Henllys LNR. The numbers were again swelled by 1st Henllys Scouts and we carried on in the area which we pulled with the scouts a couple of weeks ago. The hot weather has battered the balsam with many plants wilted to the point they can no longer support their height and they collapsed, which made pulling them that little bit harder. even the only stand of Japanese knotweed looked like it had been sprayed with glyphosate, but it was just heavily wilted from the dry ground.

Before

Oliver, one of the scouts and a veteran balsam puller, demonstrated to the 4 new volunteers how to identify, pull up, bend in half, Chinese burn and finally stack the Himalayan balsam. everyone then got really stuck in and we did another good area.

After

One of the volunteers, Rafe (6) asked me "what I was doing down in the stream?". I said "getting bitten by midges and mosquitos". He followed up quickly with "Is it because you smell?"; fair cop.

 

Jake (l) and Rafe (r) jump up from behind our balsam pile

Coed Eva Primary School confrmed to do exciting pond work

Pupils and staff from Coed Eva Primary Schools will be joining Friends of Henllys LNR and TCBC to plant up some native plants in and around the new ponds on the afternoons of Fri 12th and 19th July. One class will be planting while the other will be sampling the water quality by looking at the bug that have made home in the ponds in the 1 year they have been in existence. The class will be able to compare the 2 ponds and see if there are any recordable differences and if so see if they can come up with any ideas why. This fits in very nicely with the current curriculum and helps the children with numeracy, literacy and scientific investigation skills. We are very much looking forward to this project.

The plants were part of a grant received from Henllys Community Council and we are grateful for their support.

Friends of Henllys LNR and 1st Henlys Scouts batter the balsam

28 volunteers braved driving rain to pull up a vast area of balsam on Henllys Local Nature Reserve. The event was part of a 3-way balsam puling competition between us, Keep Wales Tidy in Cardiff and conservation volunteers with Tim Sykes from the Environment Agency on the River Cadnam in the New Forest.
The bar was set high earlier in the day with 6 piles totalling 2m in the New Forest, but a 2.5 m (h) x 4 m (w) pile in Cardiff.

 

At the start

Our volunteers were built from Friends of Henllys LNR volunteers heavily bolstered by scouts, beavers, cubs, leaders and parents who worked like troopers over 1.5 hours. The area was dominated by balsam on an area of the reserve we have been unable to tackle in the past as there was just too much of it. However, with the huge numbers we had, we cleared an amazing area using the wheelbarrow to transport the pulled up balsam to the ever increasing central balsam pile. With only 10 minutes to go we started to build up the height to try and get as close to 2.5m as possible and stopped at a precarious 6ft 8 or 2.003m high. We also noticed it looked like a dalek, so gave it twig arms and an antenna for the final photo (balsam art).

 

part the way through

Just like last time, everyone was wet muddy, but certainly Friends of Henllys LNR were extremely grateful for the help from 1st Henllys Scouts who helped us to do an area which our small group would have tackled over in two weeks but we did it in 1 night.

10 minutes before the end

The competition made it very exciting too and we reckon we can build on this next year into something even better with more groups taking part across the country. Well done to both Cardiff and the New Forest Groups.

2.03m high balsam pile

Our Himalayan balsam dalek

 

links to all pics on Flickr: http://flic.kr/s/aHsjGywo8X