The children are always keen to explore outdoors and living things are of extra interest.
Last week we found 8 snails under the tractor tyre in the digging pit so we brought them inside to have a close look, even try some races!
They took a long time to venture out of their shells but eventually our patience was rewarded!
However the race didn't really work out - snails don't seem to be good navigators, and wouldn't go over the starting line!
The previous week Farmer Jake gave us a snake skin he had found on the farm. We took out the magnifying glasses and microscopes to have a really close look.
This led to our getting out some of the other interesting things we have found while 'out and about'. The snake skin now has a permanent home on our nature table, with the antlers and sheep's skull and the magnifying glasses , microscopes and reference books, for the children to examine at their leisure.
Another creature found it's way under one of our climbing tractor tyres. The little toad was quite an attraction, I had to stop making the playdough to take a look (hence the glitter on the hands holding him!)
Please don't worry no living creatures were harmed in the making of this blog!
In fact the children gave the snails a lovely new home amongst the spinach we had not eaten in the vegetable patch. The toad was released next to school's nature area, (the other side of our fence), where there is a pond the children thought he might like!!