On Wednesday the 12th of March, wildlife educator, Michael Bell, came in to 3rd, 4th and 5th class to talk about biodiversity around us and why it is important. Michael brought in a badger skull which was remarkably small, antlers from a deer, a stuffed pine martain, a dolphins spine joint and a rib from a fin whale which was huge! The rib was washed up on Strandhill beach! The fin whale is the 2nd largest whale in the world! He showed us a very interesting powerpoint on flowers, plants, trees, birds and animals. We all wrote notes in our copies so we would remember all the interesting things he told us.
Then he gave us all clipboard and a worksheet and told us to go outside. We went into the senior infants yard and found a leaf each. With the leaf, we made a leaf rubbing on our sheet. Most of the leaves were ivory or oak. Next we went on the basketball court. Our first mission was to find a flower and draw it. We all drew the flower from the gorse bush. It was very tricky but we loved doing it. Next we were to find as many things that a bird might eat. We found slugs, worms, berries, ash seeds and snails. Then we had to stay quiet for a minute and then write them all down. It was hard as we could hear talking and playing, but we also heard the trees swaying, crows and starlings.
The next activity was our favourite. We all split into groups of four. Each group was given a bug box and we were told to find as many mini beasts as we could. We found worms, snails, woodlice, earwigs, slugs, beetles, millipedes and centipedes.We drew them all on our sheet.
We went back into class and we gave back our clipboards and he gave us a different worksheet. We had to draw our favourite flower, what might eat a nut, make our own food chain, and draw what may come out at night. At the end he gave us all a booklet with lots of different animals in it. It was an experience we throughly enjoyed.
By Ellen (Website Committee)
April 12, 2014
