What a fabulous week for mini beasts! 🐛The meadow is carpeted with buttercups and our walks into the forest are scented with the sweet smell of elderflowers. This has brought bumblebees and butterflies to visit, prompting no end of questions and excitement. An especially interesting thing to our little learners has been spotting 'cuckoo spit' on the nettles - they have been trying to peek through the foamy liquid to spot the spittlebugs inside. We've also been visited by many different types of caterpillars and have been learning how to use spotting sheets to find out what type of butterfly they will become! 🦋
We celebrated World Bee Day this week and followed up on our earlier bee adventures to consolidate and expand our previous learning. The children shared lots of facts they knew about bees and we talked about how to stay safe when they share our space. We investigated the shape of honeycombs and what they were used for in a bee hive, then created our own prints out of toilet paper rolls. To make our own flying bumblebees, we wound yellow wool around pinecones and then added felt or pipe cleaner wings. To help feed our busy, buzzy friends we also assembled bee feeding stations using stones, flowers, and water. 🐝
The wet weather coaxed worms, slugs, and curiously coloured snails out of hiding, and the children were quick to identify them and welcome them back. The rain also heralded the return of our favourite muddy activity - puddles! The children tried to guess how many jumps it would take to empty a puddle, with some discussion about if a bigger or smaller puddle would need more jumps. They determined that some puddles could be emptied in ten big jumps, but some were far too full, no matter how many children were jumping! No waterproofs were dry by the end of the day, but there was a smile on every face as they tried their best to empty every puddle with their enormous jumps! 💦
Little Forest Folk
Wimbledon