James Hill School

Langley, British Columbia, Canada

April 29, 2002: Tunia arrived at our school, James Hill, in Langley, British Columbia safe and sound from Manitoba. This is Tunia's third visit with our school and of course all the children who met her last year and the year before were thrilled to see her again! The Grade 2 students in Division 14 this year have been following Tunia's journey excitedly all through the school year, and were so happy to finally meet her.
April 30, 2002: Now that Tunia is all settled into our classroom, we decided to surprise and sing her songs to her from the web site. We have practiced all year so we know them very well. We also read her The Grouchy Ladybug, because we know that it's her favourite book! At lunchtime today, the children found lots of ladybugs on a tree in the playground. They brought some inside in a bug box and one of our students took them home for a feast of aphids on a tree in her yard. We hope they enjoyed their supper!

May 10, 2002: Tunia has been having a great time here at James Hill School with the Grade 2 students. The weather has been varied with rain, hail, and snow last weekend in the Lower Mainland area where Langley is located. Now we are enjoying some fine sunny days.

Our class has a new flowerbed to look after and cultivate this year in the schoolyard. In the photo Tunia is enjoying the beautiful wild currant bush that will attract the butterflies in the warmer spring days.

Tunia has made a new friend in our classroom this week. A very busy bee came to visit, and he and Tunia quickly became good buddies. We think they chatted about the flowers they will be visiting and the places they will see.

In the fall the children planted daffodils in the flowerbed, and we were hoping that Tunia would arrive in time to see the beautiful golden blooms. You can see that the flowers are a bit ragged. That is because the weather has been very blustery and wild on several days, and the flowers stood bravely against the strong wind!

Our class has been studying about the solar system and one of the children made a diorama of the planets in space. Tunia seemed quite curious about the solar system and was very attentive when we read books about space at story time. The children thought Tunia's favourite planet might be Pluto, because it is the smallest planet and just the right size for her. What do you think?

May 22, 2002: Tunia has been a very busy ladybug here at James Hill. She participates in all the students' classes and she especially enjoyed sitting up on the wall equipment in the gym, watching the children practicing for their Sports Day events. Last week the Langley Fire Department brought the mobile "Fire Safety House" to our school. The children all learned how to escape their house safely in a fire and Tunia listened very carefully as well. She even received a blue Fire Safety ribbon and had her picture taken with the whole class and the Fire Fighters!

Tunia is sitting up high on the ring, watching all the children practicing for Sports Day events. She looks like she is ready to join in with a smile. I wonder what her favourite event would be.

Tunia and Snoopy were so excited to visit again after a whole year. Here they are at silent reading time listening to the Special Helper reading a book. You can see that we have another little ladybug named "Doodles" keeping her company. They have lots to talk about, such as the best place in the schoolyard to find tasty aphids.

We decided to have a "Ladybug Colour Day" last week. We all wore ladybug colours, red, orange, yellow and black. We also brainstormed for ladybug coloured snacks. As you can see the children came up with some imaginative ideas! Just look at those delicious strawberries, cucumbers, cupcakes, cookies and all the rest. Yum, yum!!

May 27, 2002: This is our last day with Tunia and of course we are a little sad to see her fly off and leave us. However, we know how much she has missed her little garden and all the students in Mrs. Cafferty's class at Reservoir Avenue School. It is time for Tunia to return. Today we sang Tunia's songs to her one last time and we read her favourite book, "The Grouchy Ladybug" as well. She smiled the whole time!

Ladybug Invasion!! Last week in our Langley paper there was a small write-up about a huge invasion of ladybugs. Our closest neighbouring community, Surrey, has launched 1.5 million friendly ladybugs into their parks to help control insects pests on the trees and plants. The ladybugs will eat scale insects and aphids on red maples, tulip trees, oaks and
lindens. Tunia was very impressed!

The children planted sunflower seeds about a week ago. They put the seeds near the side of the plastic cup so we could watch the sunflower plant grow. In the photo you can see Tunia studying this seed. If you look closely, can you see the root growing down and the little seed leaves heading for the fresh air and light?

Now that the planting is finished, Tunia rests by the side of the flowerbed to enjoy the flowers and of course, to watch out for aphids! Geraniums and marigolds will grow well in the hot sunshine all summer long. The flowerbed will have red, white, pink, yellow, and orange blossoms soon.

The weather here in Langley has finally warmed up enough for the children to plant their bedding plants in our new large flowerbed in the playground. Tunia came out to help, of course. She needed a bit of help using the shovel, as it was quite heavy, but you can see the plants are happily settled in their new home.

Click on the flower to return to Tunia's main page.

Click the arrow to see what Tunia will do during summer vacation.