The sun shone for Leswalt Primary’s trip to Logan Botanic Gardens this morning. Every year the Gardens hold an open week for schools and two of their Rangers, who are based in Edinburgh usually, come down to lead some nature-based activities. We were excited at the prospect of meeting Kath and Kate again and enjoying the Gardens.
P1-4 headed off with Kath. First of all they enjoyed a mini nature walk. They then needed to do a Texture Hunt, working in small groups to look for 3 things which were spongy, firm, shiny, dull, hard etc.
They then used microscope slides to take a closer look at the leaves of the giant rhubarb plants. The underneath of those leaves are so spiky! We think that’s to put off any little creatures who fancy snacking on them!
Next they worked to make a 3D map of Logan Gardens in little groups using twigs, leaves, ribbon provided by Kath and lots of other bits and pieces which they found. Some of the groups got very arty with this!
Finally, and very excitingly, Kath had a sponge which had a ‘Magic Potion’ on it! Each pupil used a little piece of sponge to dab some of this potion on their nose, which Kath said would help them to smell much easier! The boys and girls then went on a Smell Hunt finding lavender, eucalyptus
and something very peppery. The potion worked its magic!
P5-7 were led by Kate. Initially we headed to a clearing and discussed different types of maps. Kate used a compass to set North on the grass and we filled in the other compass points. We were then set the task of re-creating a visual 3D map of the quadrant we were standing in using sticks, leaves, flowers from the ground. The finished article was very creative.
To head to our next activity base, we used a compass in pairs to set our bearings. We needed to locate North with the compass, then set the bezel to the bearing given and follow the direction shown by the arrow and no one got lost!
Finally, we talked about scale using maps and ways in which we could recreate our own maps of the area using our artistic and scientific skills. Kate let us choose whether we wanted to use the Art or Science resources. We then needed to stick our recording on the correct position on the scale. Some of did bark and leaf rubbings, leaf prints, used bug viewers to take a closer look at snake and flat-backed millipedes, tested the PH of soil and took a weather recording – a varied response!
We all had such a lovely morning together. Looking forward to April 2018 already!
