Category: Outdoor Learning

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Club Wild – Seed Bombs Away!

Now we can hear the sound of bees we know that spring is definitely here. Our wild flower bed is full of beautiful spring tulips and daffodils but to make sure the bees and butterflies have all that they need through to Autumn, it is time for ‘seed bombs away’.

Last Autumn we collected wild flower seeds from our wild flower patch and stored them in a dry place. We used these along with other seeds that bees and butterflies particularly like. Here is our seed bomb recipe:

1 cup of wild flower seeds

2-3 cups powdered clay or clay spoil

5 cups of Compost

We could tell if the soil had lots of clay by rolling it into a ball. If it stayed in a ball shape it has lots of clay but if it crumbles it does not. The clay will bind all the ingredients together. We delved right in and mixed all the ingredients together to make balls.

Now for the fun part… the throwing. Seed bombs away! 

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Club Wild – Spring is in the air!

Now that the long winter is finally over Club Wild have been busy out and about exploring the wildlife and plants around us and starting to give them a helping hand for the months ahead. Catch up with all our adventures here…

Club Wild – Animal tracks and Signs

 We put on our detective hats and set out to find what animals we have living in the school area. We might not see them all the time as they are shy and hide from us but we know they are there from the clues they leave behind. We took with us identification guides but most importantly our alert senses and curiosity.

 The snow  left the ground wet and muddy which makes an excellent surface for preserving paw prints. Looking down, we identified dogs large and small, ducks and other birds and deer. One small track even looked like it has been left behind by a hedgehog.

 We thought about other clues that animals might leave. Erin said they could leave fur or feathers behind. She is right, sometimes when animals brush past bushes or fences some of their fur gets left. We found some very soft grey/brown fur that we think was left by a rabbit.

 Lucas said that they would leave poo and he is absolutely right. Identifying animal droppings is a great way to kmow what animals are there as all animals eat and get rid of their waste as droppings. Scientists call animal droppings scat. Using our scat id sheet we can now tell the difference between the rabbit (rounded) and deer (pointy at one end) droppings. We also found what looked to be fox poo as we could see fur, tiny bones and seeds within the scat.

 We also found some pellets, again full of animal bones and fur. Pellets are the undigested parts of a bird’s food which are coughed up through the beak. You can tell which bird left the pellet by dissecting it and finding out what small mammals that are around and then eaten.

 We were rewarded with the sight of three beautiful deer! They watched us for a bit before moving on. There are lots of other clues to look out for, nibbled bark on trees, nibbled hazelnuts left under the hazel trees. We have found nuts nibbled by wood mice and those eaten by squirrels before.

 We also found lots of tracks and signs left by us as we stumbled over what humans leave behind… rubbish. From the old rubbish of the Victorian bottle dump to all the litter left behind today. Let’s be more like animals and leave behind things that can decompose.

 Club Wild, Mrs Young and Sarah-Jane

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Primary 1 have green fingers!

We are Learning about the different parts of a plant and what they need

Primary 1 have been busy this week learning about the different parts of a plant and what they need to grow. We planted our own beans and are looking forward to watching them grow.
We know what a plant needs to grow:

Eva: They need sun to grow
Kenzie: They need water
Maisie: They need to be in soil
Harrison: When the flowers get bigger we need to move them into a bigger pot.

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P7 camp – end of day two!

Our second day is over and everyone is tucked up in bed. Dinner this evening was roast beef or stir-fry noodles, before a final activity and then campfire or scrapheap challenge. We have taken lots of photos and will post these tomorrow. Good night from Mrs Mooney, Ms Young and Mrs Dickie!

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Club Wild – Eggs, eggs, eggs!

This week at club wild we dyed eggs using only natural materials. What an amazing result!

Here is how we did it.. First we went outside to collect leaves and flowers, looking for interesting leaf patterns or shapes.

Back inside we arranged the plant material on the eggs and wrapped them tightly with dried onion skins (either brown or red onion skins). We then wrapped the egg in a bit of muslin and tied it with string. Then we placed them in a pan of water which was boiled for 5 minutes and left overnight to cool and soak up the dye.

We carefully peeled the wrapping off and saw beautiful plant shapes transferred to the bright red eggs.

We had lots of fun rolling the eggs down the orchard hill. Erin, Kristina, Oscar and Kyle had indestructible eggs but after roll upon roll Kyle’s egg won. It was still complete with the amazing colour and plant impressions all from nature.

Happy Easter from Club Wild, Mrs Young & Sarah-Jane
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Club Wild – Early Hints of Spring

Early Hints of Spring!

Who would have thought that at the start of last week Club Wild were out and about in the area around the school looking for the early signs of Spring. In January, February and March, Mother Nature gives us some clues to show that change is in the air… Spring is coming!

Over by the football pitch we found clumps of snowdrops to make us smile. Snowdrops are one of the earliest bulbs to flower. We spotted bluebell and other shoots emerging from the ground. These pop up early in Spring to make the most of the light before they are shaded by the trees as they get their leaves. On most trees now, we  can see the leaves getting ready to unfurl from their buds and on some of the elder trees the leaves have already burst.

We saw bright yellow catkins dangling from the branches of alder and hazel trees. Sometimes called lamb’s tails, the catkins are the male flowers and if you look closely beside them you might see the tiny pink female flowers.

We can also tell that spring is on the way by listening and watching the birds. It is like the birds are singing to tell everyone that Spring will be with us soon and soon they will be busy building nests. We can help the birds build their nests by making nesting bundles. We collected natural materials such as dry grasses, seed heads, moss, feathers, sheep wool and mixed it together with pet fur and wool cut into very short lengths, less than 2cm long. Using forked twigs we attached the nesting bundles to the sticks using twine and hung them from trees, climbing up to make sure they were safe from predators. The birds will now be able to choose what materials they line their nest with and maybe we will see some cosy nests with our bits of coloured wool.

With all the snow over the last week it is especially important to help the wildlife in any way we can. Once the snow has melted, maybe you could look out for the early signs that show, nature is waking up, Spring is on its way.

Look out next week for more ways that Club Wild is learning about and helping wildlife.
Club Wild, Mrs Young and Sarah-Jane
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P4 Daily Mile Madness!

The aim of The Daily Mile is to improve the physical, social, emotional and mental health and wellbeing of our children.

Its impact can be transformational – improving not only the children’s fitness, but also their concentration levels, mood, behaviour and general wellbeing.

The Daily Mile is a social activity, wherein the children run or jog – at their own pace – in the fresh air with friends. Children can occasionally walk to catch their breath, if necessary, but should aim to run or jog for the full 15 minutes.

Primary 4 had great fun running our daily mile yesterday!

 

 

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P7 Lunchtime Problem Solving

As the sun shone on us today at lunch time Primary 7 decided to use the logs to create their own game. They had to risk assess which logs were safe to stand on and tested out the log path to ensure it was safe to leep across. Then they decided on rules on how to play the game in a fair way. They had lots of fun and Miss Burton even had a go too (with some support!), everyone who joined in managed to earn themselves a dojo! Well done P7!

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Club Wild – Follow the path!

This week at Club Wild, we set to work building a path through the wildlife area within the school car park. With our shovels and wheel barrow we collected the wood chips left for us by the park workmen. It is great to recycle the trees and shrubs. With our rakes, we spread the wood chips and had fun stamping them down. We used logs to line the edges of the path to keep it together and to make it look like a natural woodland path.

The path will give a safe route through the wildlife area, free from jaggy brambles and will take you to all the different wildlife habitats we have created here. It leads from the bug hotel at one end to the rock, wood and compost piles at the other. Take some time to meander along our path, listen to the birds visiting the bird feeders and follow, follow through the trees our zig-zagging , snake-like path.

Club Wild, Mrs Young & Sarah-Jane

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Club Wild – RSPB Big Schools Birdwatch

This week Club Wild joined schools up and down the country to take part in the RSPB Big Schools’ Birdwatch. The Schools’ Birdwatch started in 2001 and since then 2000 schools have been involved with 90,000 pupils getting out their binoculars to become real citizen scientists.

We set up two birdwatching areas in the playground and in the wildlife area at the front of the school. It was lots of fun setting up the bird hides with camouflage netting and we all enjoyed using the binoculars. The only bird we saw in the playground was a pied wagtail although we noticed the big birds; seagulls, crows and magpies circling above waiting until we had moved on.

We carefully set up our hide in the thicket of trees at the front of the school and waited patiently and very quietly. The birds soon came in numbers and it was great to see our usual friends of blue tits, great tits, sparrows, wood pigeons and a robin. We were so lucky to be there as a flock of wee long-tailed tits came together and feasted on the fat balls. Kristina loved the long-tailed tits, so cute and pink.

Back in school we submitted our results to the RSPB who will gather together all the data from the Big Schools Birdwatch with the data from the Big Garden Birdwatch. The RSPB uses the data to monitor long term bird populations and the analysed results are published in March. Freya said that she really felt like we were helping the birds today. The annual birdwatch is as great thing to do.

We hope you enjoy our photos. Hopefully we can share a video of our learning at assembly soon.

Club Wild, Mrs Young & Sarah-Jane.

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