Langley

James Hill School

Langley, B.C., Canada

May 9, 2000: Tunia arrived safely at James Hill school in Langley, British Columbia yesterday and of course we are all so excited to finally meet her. She spent the day being introduced to the students in our classroom and the teachers on staff. Some of our Grade 2 parents also popped in after classes to meet Tunia at last. Tomorrow we will be taking Tunia on a field trip with us to a local nursery where we will go on a tour and learn all about the plants that grow in our area of Langley. I'm sure she is enjoying our cooler weather here in the Fraser Valley of B.C. We had a high of 14 degrees Celsius or 58 degrees Fahrenheit yesterday, with cloudy skies and a little rain in the morning.

May 10, 2000: Today we took Tunia on a local nursery tour to learn all about the plants that people buy in Langley to put in their gardens. It was raining very hard this morning so we put Tunia in a little plastic see-through backpack and opened the zipper so she could have some fresh air. We learned about annuals that grow from seeds every year and perennials that grow back on their own every year in our gardens. We saw many different trees, some evergreens and some deciduous trees that lose their leaves every fall. Tunia really liked the miniature roses and she checked them carefully to see if there were any aphids on them. Maybe she was getting a little hungry! This nursery actually sells ladybugs to gardeners in Langley so that they will have no pesty aphids eating their plants. Right now it is too chilly for the ladybugs to be at the store, but we will keep looking for them in our own yards. Tunia is resting after her busy day.

May 12, 2000: Tunia has been enjoying the cooling rains in Langley this week. We are hoping for some sunny days before she has to leave us to head back home to Rhode Island. Today we learned about the life cycle of the sunflower plant. Last fall our class went on a field trip to an orchard in Langley when we were studying all about apples. We brought home a large sunflower and saved the seeds for planting this spring. Tunia seemed very interested in hearing about how the sunflower seed grows into a large plant that can be up to 10 feet tall! On Monday we will be planting our seeds in little containers and when the sunflower plants are big enough, we will each take one home to plant in our own garden.

Our school, James Hill, is located in the Township of Langley, just outside of Langley City. This is a suburban area with a lot of new houses being built, but still a lot of trees and farmland. Right behind the school there is a small forest with a lot of squirrels and other little creatures. Some of the children live on acreage and some families own horses, rabbits, goats, dogs and cats. The weather is very mild here, with just one snowfall this winter. We have quite a lot of rain and this means that everything is green and healthy looking. The provincial flower of British Columbia is the dogwood blossom. Right now the dogwood trees are out in full bloom, so we are sending you a picture of one near the school.


This photo shows a dogwood tree in full bloom.		Above is a close-up of a dogwood blossom in Langley.

May 15, 2000: Tunia had a quiet weekend resting from all her activities last week with our class. She seemed happy to see us this morning and it was such a lovely day, with blue skies and warm sunshine. Today we planted our sunflower seeds in little cups and placed them on the windowsill where they will enjoy the afternoon sunshine. It will be exciting to see the seeds sprout and grow into little sunflower plants we can take home and plant in our gardens. One of our students, L H, brought in some ladybug cookies she had made with her mom. They were delicious! The children wrote some "ladybug" poems for Tunia to enjoy. Some are posted below.
	Ladybug Colored, spotted Walk, smell bad Excited, sad, sleepy, full Beetle		Tunia Red wings Shed their skin Happy, excited, very full Ladybug
			by KW
	by ER
	Ladybug Wings strong Love aphids, munch! Greedy, grumpy, hungry, grouchy! Tunia			Ladybug Beetle, red Eating aphids, munching Making my stomach full! Tunia
	by EM		by KG


Here is a picture of Tunia enjoying her new little ladybug friends at the ladybug table in our classroom at James Hill School.

May 18, 2000: The weather here in Langley was warmer and sunnier today so we decided to plant our annual garden around our classroom tree in the schoolyard. We chose plants that love to grow in the hot sunshine because our tree is out in the open near the blacktop area. The sun will shine on the plants all afternoon. Tunia came out to help supervise our planting, of course, because she knows a lot about plants after all her travels this year. We planted marigolds, portulaca, zinnias, and geraniums. There were already some little calendula plants growing in the flower bed from seeds that lay in the soil over the winter. Tunia was all smiles when she looked at the plants all watered and happy in their new home. We are sending a photo of her sitting at the edge of the finished flowerbed. We know she is getting excited about returning to the children in Providence, Rhode Island. Just imagine all the adventures she will have to share!

Tunia is sitting at the edge of the finished flowerbed at James Hill School.
May 23, 2000: Today was our last day with Tunia in our classroom, and we decided to sing her songs to her and read her The Grouchy Ladybug one more time before we said good-bye. We will miss her, but we know she is very excited about returning home to the children at Reservoir Avenue School after being gone so long on her travels. She has had many adventures this year to tell everyone about. It has been raining quite a bit in the last week, but today it was sunny and warm outside, so we took Tunia outside for recess to check on the garden that we just planted last week. She looked and looked but couldn't find any aphids on the flowers. We have also been keeping a "Ladybug Lookout " chart in the classroom. Whenever we sight another ladybug, we put a ladybug sticker next to the name of the variety that was sighted. Our chart is getting full, and the most common ladybug in this area so far is the 19 Spotted Lady Beetle. Have a safe trip home, Tunia.

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