Week 8
Lorton Meadows Visit
Our minibeast topic visit was to Lorton Meadows which we visited with Years 3 and 4. Everyone had a partner from Sharks class to sit with on the bus and to walk from the main road to the centre which was half a mile away. Once we arrived Sam met us and we split into our class groups for all our activities. First we played camouflage caterpillars. We had to find different coloured caterpillars (made of wool) hidden in the hedgerow. The blue and red ones were really easy to find but the green ones and brown ones were much harder. After a snack break we went into the meadows to go meadow sweeping. We found grasshoppers, common brown butterflies, soldier beetles, snails, mirid bugs, frog hoppers, ants and many more. After that we did tree shaking in the woods to see what minibeasts lived there. We came across wingless aphids, spiders, woodlice, froghopper nymphs, leaf hoppers and snails. Then it was time for lunch.
After lunch we all had a go a pond dipping. It was amazing the variety of creatures that we found and were able to watch. These included Ramshorn snails, newts, damselfly nymphs, pond skaters, water boatmen and phantom midges. We made close observations of the habitats, the environment, the plants and the mini beasts, meaning every learnt lots.
