Nature Journal
Updated weekly by our very own Nature Club.
- 30/11/23
Thursday 30th November 2023
I had planned to perform a collective acrostic poem celebrating autumn today, but the weather decided winter was here already, which is quite fitting since winter officially begins on 1st December. Instead, we performed a collective poem to mark the end of autumn! The pond and nature area is c...Read Full Story - 24/11/23
Friday 24th November 2023
Thanks to Mr Norman planting onions and garlic last year, we were able to harvest them last week and enjoy onion tart. First of all, they went and picked a load of thyme to garnish the tart and then began finely chopping the onions. We then sweated them down for 30 minutes so that they caramel...Read Full Story - 16/11/23
Thursday 16th November 2023
As it has turned a bit cooler, nature club built animal and bug hotels for those creatures that will become more dormant over the winter. They had to use materials they could find, choose a sheltered location and ensure creatures could get inside. Leaves, twigs, rope and cardboard were used. W...Read Full Story - 10/11/23
Friday 10th November 2023
Apart from Louisa, no-one has used their herbs yet. Louisa had a go at a mint tea infusion, but didn’t really like it and doesn’t need it for indigestion, but well done for having a go. This week we had a meeting to plan the rest of this term’s events and each child cho...Read Full Story - 03/11/23
Friday 3rd November 2023
During a very wet nature club session, we learnt all about worms. Sometimes our most taken for granted wildlife can be surprisingly interesting. We have about 31 species of worms in the UK, but only see about three of them. We started off with the UK’s biggest which can burro...Read Full Story - 27/10/23
Friday 27th October 2023
Today nature club were on a mission to look for signs of autumn. They covered a lot about flora and fauna, but I decided to concentrate on the different coloured leaves they had gathered and what those colours tell us. We started by thinking what autumn feels like for the tree as it gets darker and...Read Full Story - 13/10/23
Friday 13th October 2023
After the unseasonably warm weather we have enjoyed over the past few days, it felt decidedly autumnal this afternoon. As it had rained, it seemed a good time to dig over the outside bed where the blackcurrants grow. It had definitely benefited from the mustard seed we dug in last year, as we...Read Full Story - 05/10/23
Thursday 5th October 2023
First of all we were really pleased to welcome Lucas from Class One who found all manner of bugs today. Club members showed him the fruit trees, wormery and compost heap. Everybody took it in turns to mulch the fruit trees, courgette and blackcurrants. We talked about the leaf mould that we we...Read Full Story - 28/09/23
Thursday 28th September 2023
As part of our ongoing commitment to more responsible food production and consumption, we were very excited to unpack our worms and put them in the bottom of the wormery. Food scraps and tea bags have gone in the tray above and even the dregs of the lovage soup. Waste from the staff room was then pu...Read Full Story - 22/09/23
Friday 22nd September 2023
Last year nature club used nettles to make fertilizer and nettle soup, so this autumn we had a go at making Lovage soup. It was based on a Roman recipe, but I brought a potato from home to act as a thickener. We learnt that the name Lovage is derived from the place-name Liguria in Italy and th...Read Full Story - 14/09/23
Thursday 14th September 2023
Nature club have made a list for the rest of the term for jobs we need to do. Some of them have already been crossed off! Firstly, we moved the composter into the field, so that children can put their apple cores, banana skins etc in it at play times. Then, we used the wheelbarrow...Read Full Story - 08/09/23
Thursday 7th September 2023
As we are experiencing a mini heatwave the nature clubbers watered everything except the Mediterranean herb bed which was humming with bees. One of our fruit trees, the Victoria plum, has produced fruit in its second year. We counted 22 and they weighed in at 5 oz. They washed them and enjoyed eatin...Read Full Story