Animal Tracking with Mr Priest

On Thursday we had Mr Priest in Room 9. First we sang some songs in maori and then learnt a little about wetas and sang a little song about wetas. Then we continued on with our animal tracking tunnels from last week. Everyone in Room 9 put in an outstanding effort and got the job done. Then we walked down to the Enviro Centre and set up our animal tracking tunnels. I’m sure we all enjoyed having Mr Priest coming in and teaching us. Thanks Mr Priest!

Photographs and writing by Brodie.

On Thursday 26 February, Mr Priest came into our class (Rm 9) and showed us some weta's in a glass box. After that we got into groups of 2-5 people and made animal tunnels for the Enviro Centre. The tunnels give us information of what animals are down in the Enviro Centre.

First we got ready with our equipment - wood, foam, plastic, paper clips, paper, ink, peanut butter, stapler, tape and big real estate signs. Mr Priest explained how to make the tunnels and then we got started.

We got our signs and measured the sign with a vivid and marked it. Then we got a ruler and dented along the sign. We folded the sign into a tunnel and taped it till it was strong. Then we got the wood, foam and the plastic to see if it was the right length then stapled it on to the wood.

We put the plastic under the foam so the ink would not soak into the wood. Then we painted the ink on and stapled the paper clips to the wood at each corner. We wrote our names on the paper and slipped it under the paper clips.  We put some peanut butter on the ink and slid the wood into the tunnel.

Then we put them under bushes in the Enviro Centre and maybe over night some animals, like hedgehogs or rats, might crawl up the tunnel and eat the peanut butter. Their feet get wet from the ink and when they walk out the other side they leave footprints of ink. You can then figure out what animals footprints they are and what type of animals visit or live in the Enviro Centre.

Written by Kate

On Thursday the 26th Mr Priest came into our class and finished off our animal tracking traps.

He also brought 3 wetas from his garden!!All the traps are finished now.We set them out in the

school enviro centre and left them there.I hope we will go have a look at the traps next week to

see what prints we got.Some of you might not know how we get the prints but I'm going to tell you .each group got a piece of wood from Mr Priest and made a square or triangle tunnel out of some card board.In the middle of the wood we stapled on a piece of thik fabric with a plastic sheet underneath so the ink wouldn't run out .Then in each corner we stapled on a paper clip.We soaked the fabric with ink and put the paper under the paperclips in the very middle of the fabric. We put on peanut butter. We slid the wood and every thing else on top, in to the square tunnel and put it into the enviro Center next. Now we're waiting for an animal to walk in one end, then have some peanut butter and then walk out the other end to leave a foot print.

By Juraj