Today I gave the children 4m lengths of string which had been marked at 1m intervals and tied in a knot- when stretched out on the ground they form a metre square.  I formed a square and showed them how to arrange everything within the square into a pictogram. We then thought about the two different areas of the woods that we go to – one deciduous and one evergreen. I asked the children if they thought there would be more things to sort out in the evergreen side than the deciduous side and they mostly thought there would be. So, we hypothesised that the variety and type of things  on the woodland floor would depend on the type of trees.

well, we managed but the children were wild today – full moon?! Some groups made a great job and we noticed that there were pine cones on both sides even though there were no pine trees in the deciduous woods. Squirrels perhaps…

In the end I asked the groups to make their materials into pictures and we toured them.