We had an amazing day learning about minibeasts at Hyde Hall!
We spent half of the day outside. First we searched for fallen leaves, petals and sticks that matched a colour chart we had been given. This gave us the opportunity to explore the main garden, to look at and smell the beautiful flowers and to go over the bridge over the lower pond. When we got to the outdoor classroom we tipped out our hauls and in our groups made pictures of different minibeasts using the items we found. We then picked our favourites from our haul to make a beautiful bookmark to remember the day. Next we went to the forest school area. Here we learned about how birds build their nests then had a go in our groups to build one in the trees.
Then it was the much anticipated lunch time! We sat on tarpaulins and chatted to our friends, teachers and helpers and had a perfect picnic.
For the other half of the day we were in the classroom and had a carousel of minibeast themed activities. We could make a clay minibeast, explore the ‘Dead Table’ full of artefacts from the garden with magnifying glasses to look up close. There was a full shedded snake skin, a field mouse, a bat, skulls, antlers among other things. The children were fascinated! They made a plant pot from old newspaper and planted nasturtium seeds; used painting pencils to draw a minibeast then used a wet paintbrush to blend the colours and used tissue paper pieces to make a butterfly puppet. The final activity was to take their butterflies into the education garden and let them sit on all the different flowers (except those in the poisonous bed that the children had learnt not to touch).
The children were busy and engaged all day and made sure to thank the lovely staff at Hyde Hall for making their day so interesting and enjoyable.
Mrs Davies and Mrs Taylor
