ENWC Winter pond study

It has turned very cold here this last week or 2 so it was no surprise to see that our pond was completely frozen over.

The children had great fun poking and prodding at the ice with any sticks they could find and skimming stuff over the surface!

There were no wildfowl on our pond but plenty on the lake in the only section that wasn't frozen - Canada geese, moorhens, coots, gulls and mallards.

ENWC Winter tree study

Today we revisited our tree, Euonymus alatus, in its Winter season. 

We clipped off a twig to look at more closely and examined the position of the buds and side shoots along its length. We brought it inside to see if we can force the buds to open early.

 

The buds are small and brown with a slightly larger terminal bud and smaller axillary buds arranged in opposite pairs.

ENWC Nov - Fungi

This week we were focusing on fungi.
We discovered

• fungi have no chlorophyll
• they obtain their food from other dead material
• they send out threads called mycellium
• mushrooms are the fruiting body of the fungi
• mushrooms produce spores not seeds

Here is what I spotted - no idea what they all called!

Also spotted a rabbit and a rainbow ;)

The boys found more fungi in the garden

Her is the largest and smallest!

We made some spore prints - pretty cool

ENWC Oct Autumn Trees study

 After having a walk down into the local woods the children all decided to choose a tree from the garden to study over the next year. Ben and Amy both decided on this one in the front border- Euonymus Alatus - its bright colours attracted them I think!

 Luke decided to look at the plum tree in the back garden.


Here are the notebook pages the children made:

I love our tree studies - never noticed the little fruit on this plant before

ENWC Oct Pond Study

On Friday we visited out local park to see what was going on at the pond in Autumn

Three pairs of Mallards watched us carefully

Emergent plants

Think these are flag iris

Water lilies (partially submerged)

Lots of duckweed at this end

A view from up the hill

Here are our nature journals

ENWC Sept Seeds

We have started to look at Exploring Nature with Children.

We took a walk round Kersall Moor with some friends and observed different types of seeds and discussed how they were spread - by animals, wind or self dispersal. The favourites were these balsam seeds which they had great fun "popping!" Oh dear - not helping to reduce their spread are we.

Here are our notebook pages