CERES Learning Story 2020 Insect Hotels P-2

During Term 2, 2020 Foundation – Year 2 students had a focus on living things, namely insects, and the different places where their basic needs, including, food, water and shelter, are met. We began the unit by having a scavenger hunt around our school environment. The children noted what insects they could find as well as a description of where they found the insects. In the following weeks we shared Picture Storybooks and non-fiction books about various insects and their homes. This was followed by a walk around out school to make some decisions about placement of the Insect Hotels we were going to create. At the same time the children were encouraged to gather insect hotel materials from their homes and surrounding neighbourhoods. These were brought into school and placed in collection containers outside the Year 1/2 classrooms. The Foundation level were encouraged to collect a recyclable container to house all their collected insect hotel materials. Four basic Insect Hotel frames were built (by an outside community member and a member of staff). During an extended Outdoor Learning session the Foundation classes gathered materials from around our school grounds, and then along with materials they collected from home, the children constructed individual Insect Hotels. These completed Insect Hotels were then placed in various locations around our school.The Year 1s and 2s had a whole class project. Each class was allocated one of the four purpose built Insect Hotels. Each class gathered materials from around our school grounds, and then along with materials they collected from home, they filled the various levels of the Insect Hotels. These completed Hotels were then located along our Environmental Trail close to where our proposed Community Kitchen gardens are to be built.

During the Remote Learning period children were given the task of building their own Insect Hotels for their own home gardens, based on the knowledge they had previously learned. During the following Terms these Insect Hotels were monitored and restocked.