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Fabulous Den Building Skills.

Our 2 groups came together today to Welcome Linda Tedford, who is one of the Park Rangers from Eglinton Park. We all had a fabulous time and learned all about habitats and where to look for mini-beasts. We found lots of amazing creatures, some were familiar and some were very unusual. Linda showed us how to use sweep nets and pit fall traps and we also did some tree tapping to encourage the insects to land on our sheet. We were amazed at how many different types of mini beasts were hiding in our surroundings. We found worms, spiders, centipedes, millipedes, leopard slugs, woodlice, aphids, flies, bumble bees and Devil's Coach Horse Beetles. What an amazing time we had, being outdoors and exploring the environment around us was wonderful.

P4/5 scooted to their 'Wild Space' for the first time as a group- we worked together to ensure we were all safe on the scoot and respectful to other path users. Our 'wild space' is found just off the National Cycle Network 75 in Easter Inch Moss- it's an area that is designated as a Local Nature reserve meaning it is rich in biodiversity and is an ecologically valuable habitat. When we reached our 'wild space' the class were given some time to freely explore this new place. Many of the class used their time to find snails. They were fascinated with how many were in this one small patch of woodland and set off to gently collect as many as they could- some were found high up in the trees, others low down on the forest floor. They admired their beautiful shell patterns in our magnifying pots before returning them back to their woodland homes. Others in the class used this time to make dens using ropes and tarpaulin sheets. These groups had to work as a team to identify suitable trees that would make a good den structure and practice their knot tying skills in order to make sure the shelters didn't fall down! Others discovered good climbing trees, comfy woodland spots to sit and chat with friends, spiders and beautiful flowers. We then each found a special spot in the forest which would become our own special 'magic spot'- We spent a few moments sitting in silence in our spots and used all of our senses to fully appreciate the wonder of nature around us! We fed back to the class what we experienced in our magic spots- this included bird song, soft moss, peeling bark ( of a birch tree), snails and sharp twigs. We then returned to school on our scooters having had a great morning together in our 'wild space

We used branching keys to help us identify some of the bugs we found in the forest. We think this will be a good activity to lead with our P1-4 buddies later in the term.

First we designed our paper planes, then we made one 50%, 25%, 75% of its true size. We discussed how to conduct a fair test to see which went the furthest, then we went outside to fly them. We flew each plane 3 times and then worked out the average/mean to see which model was the best.

What do your teachers do on a wet and windy Friday night?...Ours shovel compost. Thanks to Bob from One Seed Foundation and Grant from Keenan Recycling for gifting us a tonne and a half of compost. Our flower beds are going to look AMAZING!

Look at all the new gardening equipment our lovely Parent Council have bought for us...thank you SO much!