Brilliant Nature

All sorts of wonderful things are happening in the garden and parks at this time of year, so lets get out and do some great things with the wonderful wiggly worms, flippy flappy butterflies, busy buzzy bees and all the other bugs in the garden.  Have a bit of messy fun and have a great time!

Before you start, go through a few basic rules for the Outdoors to keep the little ones safe and the bugs alive!

1. Do not eat anything you find.  Some berries can be harmful.
2. Don’t touch anything unless a grown up agrees it is safe.
3. Do not pick up any bugs or creatures in case they sting or bite you.
4. Wash your hands when you have finished in the garden or park./span>

Keep a note book and record what you find.

1. Go for a bug hunt and when you find something draw it in your note book.  Or you could photograph it and stick it in.  Talk about what it looks like, how many legs it has, what colour it is etc.

2. Make a wormery!  Take a tall transparent plastic bottle and cut off the top.  Fill with layers of soil with some small pebbles and some grass or leaves on top.  Put in a dark place.  Place a couple of worms into the wormery and leave.  Take a look each day and see if the worms have made tunnels and left worm casts on top of the soil.  Set them free after a couple of days.

3. Hide some toy bugs in a sand box and see how quickly you can find them.  Count them out and group them in colours.

4. Digging in the garden can be a great activity.  Take some spades and dig some holes in flower beds.  Talk about how much energy you need to do the job and which parts of the body you are using.  When you have a nice howl, sit back and see if any birds come along to search for worms.

5. Snail racing is fun if a grown up is nearby to ensure the safety of the snails.  Find two snails, draw a chalk circle on a patio slab and place them side by side in the middle. See which crosses out of the circle first.  Does cheering help?