Can you spot this amazing creature featured on the Woodland Trust site as one of ten strange creatures?
Known as a Water Bear or Moss Piglet this eight-legged creature can survive in outer space! They feed on small insects and can grow up to 1.5mm in length. Amazingly they always have the same number of cells in their bodies meaning that their cells just get bigger as they grow rather than dividing to increase in size.
Look for them in damp places, stone walls where there are mosses and lichens.
Yesterday we were back in Forest School and as the topic for the week revolved around the Rainforest we decided to use this for our inspiration.
We all collected together bits and pieces to make an imaginary rainforest creature. There was lots of discussion about what they could do from shape shifting, which eventually became colour changing, to poisonous spider eyes.
Here are each of our creatures.
After this we returned indoors. Some of the children wanted to draw their creatures so we did this and agreed a layout of facts Top Trumps style to write for each creature. Here is our work.
Later in the afternoon we were sharing some poetry from The Poetry Store compiled by Paul Cookson.
We found a poem called Ten One-line Poems about Sport by Ian McMillan. We decided to use this format to create our own version of the poem using our rainforest creatures. Each of us wrote a line for our creature and here is the compiled result.
So on to today and another random act of wildness. It looks like it's going to rain all day so you could look back at the Develop a Wild Memory post which has an ideal activity for a wet day or why not Google some wild facts and discover some secrets about your favourite animal or something that is just really weirdly wild.
Today for your random act of wildness put away all those pencils, paper and glue and get outside to make a rainforest creature.
This is the schools focus for the week. So why not have a go outside?
Collect together materials from your garden or on a walk and make your own creature. Why not photo it and make a poem or fact file to go with it.your creature could be real or imaginary.
Here are some creatures made earlier in the year in Forest School.
Have fun 😀
Down by the pond: Our little amphibious friend is back cooling down on a warm evening. First time for a week or so. Thankfully the local cats haven't found him yet.
Today's random act of wildness is a creative one. Make a fairy plate. Find lots of natural and colourful items and present them as a wonderful plate of food, just like Ready, Steady Cook.
Here are some made by children in the autumn so it would be wonderful to see some summer examples.
If you would like to find out more about the magical and mysterious wild world then this is a great book to get you started.
With chapters on Elves and Fairies, Monsters,Mythical Beasts, Mermaids and Giants it will even tell you how to make your own bottle of dragon's blood there are 100's of activities to keep you entertained in the outdoors in a wonderfully colourful book. Find out more at @goingwildnet on Twitter and www.goingwild.net
This weekend the challenge is to keep watching and if you can record some of the things you see.
Today has been another walking day for me exploring new local routes with the help of an OS map. Over the past few weeks I've found lots of new route through familiar places. Here are some photos from today.
But if you can't get out and about there is always a space close to you, a local walk or a garden or yard space. I've set up a new squirrel run and within minutes the squirrel was along and had worked it out.
How did you do yesterday? As the weather got worse there seemed to be a lot less bees about. If you didn't spot any you can always try another day or try to work out the ones in the pictures below.
Today's Random Act of Wildness challenge is to watch a wild webcam. There are lots of places that have webcams live-streaming so here are a few to get you going.
1. BBC Springwatch HERE have both live streams and catch up viewing.
2. The Wildlife Trusts HERE have access to live streaming around the country including badgers, bats and puffins.
The Trusts have a variety of sites to visit and explore the outdoors, perhaps nearest is Elmdom Manor next to Elmdom Park which has woodland, a meadow, ponds and an old walled garden.
(please note at time of writing many Trust sites and carparks are not open. Where a site is open they would ask you to only visit if you are able to walk to the site from your home. Please follow government guidance to Stay Safe and Stay at Home.)
Their websites have a wide range of information about habitats and the plants and animals that live on their reserves. So how can you get involved?
Each year they run an initiative 30 Days Wild during June. Forest School is usually involved with this and activities are based around the challenges they have. See pictures below.
Individuals and families can also sign up and keep a diary of their random acts of wildness.
I've usually taken part too and perhaps most successful has been the wildlife pond and trail camera installed in the garden.
The pond was simple just a plastic box sunk into the ground with some soil in the bottom with gravel over the top and some pond weed and a stick so anything that falls in usable to get out. In Forest School we've done a very similar thing with buckets. It's amazing what comes to live there, tiny creatures, hoverfly larvae, newts, frogs and more. The children always love going to see what is in the pond. But if you can't go to this why not try just a jar of water outside. After a few weeks you'll find something living in it.
The trail cam has been amazing. I'm really surprised at what manages to find its way to our garden.
Here are just a few of our highlights.
Hopefully this will inspire you to have some random acts of wildness and don't worry too much about the whole 30 days just have fun😀
Spending time outdoors is fun. We all appreciate a little bit of sunshine, a warm breeze, hearing birdsong or a refreshing summer rain. But learning a little about nature also helps to connect us to our surroundings and to feel a part of our wider world.
Research is also revealing to us the health benefits of being out in nature through things like a simple walk, forest bathing or quiet moments of mindfulness.
Whatever your motivation for spending time outdoors there are plenty of places to find encouragement and ideas.
Here is the first organisation and links to their materials to help you along your way.
The Wild Network website has many ideas including a weekly set of challenges which can be done either in or outdoors. I particularly like their animal clothes challenge. What animal can you make your clothes into? Here's an idea:-
They also have walking bingo cards, a different one each week and a free film which introduces how the wild network was started.
The challenge I've taken is to build an obstacle course for a wild animal.
Over time quite a few creatures have visited our garden, i'll share them in future posts, but a the moment we have a couple of squirrels that come each morning.
Now these squirrels aren't very bright. To stop them taking the bird food I put up a nut feeder just for them with a lid.
What did they do? They ate it! Don't believe me? Here's the evidence or what's left of it.
So without any high hopes I decided to build a squirrel run. The plan was for them to run along the top of the fence, along a rope to the first tray of nuts. Then along the rope and onto the arch to a basket with more nuts suspended from the arch.
Needless to say it didn't work out like this so the run was adapted and here is a short video to show you how it all went.
An adaptation of the run is under construction. The magpie ate all the nuts in the tray and then the squirrel discovered running up the stick.
If you feel inspired it would be great to hear how you got on. Have fun😃
