Year 2 Spring visit to Mop End

The showers on Monday, certainly didn’t dampen our enthusiasm for exploring a range of wildlife on our trip to Mop End. It was lovely to return to the area, following our first trip in the autumn and see how the environment was different in Spring. Linking with our Science work on habitats, we began our day by thinking about the different types of invertebrate the children expected to see living in the woodland setting. We had ‘Ashley the Water Boatman,’ ‘Max the Mayfly Nymph’ and ‘Elsie the Mosquito Larvae’ who helped to demonstrate exactly how these animals moved in the water. Finally ‘Oscar the Leech’ made us all squirm to learn that they enjoy sucking onto the occasional frog. The children thought about some of the challenges and how they might need to move to survive life in the pond, which sounded pretty tough for some!

As we began the pond dipping, it didn’t take long before shrieks of delight were heard as children explored their catches! During the afternoon, we ventured out into the woods to explore the range of minibeasts - who like us, were taking shelter from the rain!

All the children had a great time poking through the leaves, twigs and moving logs to see what was hiding beneath. We sorted them in collection pots one for ‘sticky’ and one for ‘leggy’ creatures. Amazingly, the rain seemed to bring out several toads, as the children leapt in delight! After some shared observations, the children ensured they were carefully returned to their habitats.

It was all smiles as the children returned to school, we hope you have been regaled with stories of their adventures at home this week too!