This week, Primary 1 visited the The Royal Botanic Garden in Edinburgh.

They had been invited there by Edward Bear, who wanted to show them what creatures like him need to survive in the wild.

When we first arrived at the Yurt that was our base for the day, there was no sign of Edward Bear at all!

After a quick snack we set off on a walk through the garden in search of him. Luckily, he had left a trail for us, so all we had to do was follow the clues! By following the clues we began to understand that Edward needed SWAF to survive.

We learnt that this stands for SHELTER, WATER, AIR and FOOD.

Soon we were playing a game to help us remember SWAF.

The ‘bears’ were very good at knowing what they needed!

  Next, we tried using our ears to listen to the sounds around us. We didn’t hear Edward Bear, but we did hear lots of birds!

Here we are finding and reading the clues. This one told us that some animals enjoy eating berries. They are a source of food. We also saw a bush that the bees like to visit. Bees make honey and we knew that some bears love eating honey. We still couldn’t find Edward Bear though.

We could feel and hear the air around us as we walked through the trees and past the tall plants.

We also found evidence of  insects.

The trees also provided us with shelter.

Keep looking! There’s a bear around here somewhere.

 We found water, but still no bear.

 A badger has been scraping here to find food, not a bear! We found a really big badger hole too, and we had to walk carefully round the edge of it.

 Sadly, we couldn’t find Edward Bear anywhere, so we decided to walk back to the Yurt for lunch. On the way back we listened to a story about a rainbow in the garden. Then we were each given a little coloured card, and we had to find as many things as we could to match the colour we had. We searched all around us as we walked, and soon we had found things to match all the colours of the rainbow.

At last we arrived back at the Yurt. What a surprise! Edward Bear was waiting there to meet us. We were delighted to meet him at last.

After lunch it was time for another game. Can you see lots of bears sheltering under the trees?

At the end of the afternoon we worked together in small groups to create an island that provided SWAF for the creatures living on it. We shared ideas, tried out different things and eventually agreed on what was needed. Great teamwork!

What fantastic islands we made. They clearly demonstrated all the things we had learned throughout the day.

We enjoyed going around looking at what the other groups had made, and checking they had included SWAF too!

Primary 1 really enjoyed their day at the Royal Botanic Gardens, and they represented the school so well on their very first outing. Well done boys and girls! We must also say a special thank you to our parent helpers who helped to make the trip possible, and who joined in so enthusiastically with all the fun.