Years 5 & 6 - High Elms - 23 March

"Today, Years 5 & 6 went to High Elms Nature Centre. We put our lunch in the cloakroom and started our day. First, we met our group leader Kate. Then, we played the Mr and Mrs Game. To play this we had a pin attached to our backs with an animal’s name on. It could be something like Mr Worm or Mrs Caterpillar. You didn’t know who you were but you had to ask questions that people can only answer  ‘yes’ or ‘no’. Once you had found out who we were, we had to find our partner. Then, we had to find another pair that either eats you, or gets eaten by you! They were our groups for the day.

We then went out and collected two different types of soil. One of them we collected from a patch near some small trees and then we stopped to have some fun with trees.

In our groups, we had to choose a tree and estimate how high and wide it is. We also took a bark rubbing from the tree. We then collected some eye-shaped pieces of paper from Kate and coloured them in by using mud for brown eyes and leaves for green eyes. We then made a mouth by using sticks, nuts or leaves. We then gave our tree a name. Our group’s was called Ollie the oxygenator.

Once we had had our fun, we went to collect our second load of soil from roots of trees.

After that muddy time, we had lunch. YUM!! We played for a little while and went back to our classroom. We then went to a meadow and played the Bluebell Game. Emily was a bluebell and everyone else was a resource. If Emily chose a resource being acted, that person would be a bluebell too. We played it to understand how plants grow and how resources are limited.

When we got back to the classroom, we painted pictures of our trees in mud.

It was an enjoyable day and I am sad I won’t be going again with my class."

Anastasia I - Year 6

'In connection with our studies, Year 6 visited High Elms Nature Reserve. We looked at different soils, trees and food chains.

We collected soils from two different places and put them in separate bags. Back in the classroom, Katie (our teacher for the day) showed us how to identify the soils. If it felt grainy then it was a sandy soil and if you can roll it into a ball and make a doughnut without it breaking, it was a clay soil.

Then we went out again and chose a tree. Katie gave us some paper eyes. We coloured them brown with mud. We stuck them on the tree and gave it a personality. Ours was a Silver Birch as we found out later on, and we called her Adele Gaga Twiggy Crystal Tree! She was very young and was a singer!

We looked at a food chain and looked at the source, producer and consumer. We drew our tree that we found earlier and painted it with water diluted soil. We stuck the previous eyes on the drawing. The finished result was pleasing. I learnt a lot from that school trip and had a really fun time!'

Rhea S - Year 6

'Today, Years 5 and 6, went to a scientific centre where we learnt about habitats, plants, soil and different life cycles. This year, Year 5 was learning about plants and their own life cycle. We were in groups and went into the woodland to see if we could find different types of flowers or leaves and how they got to where we found them. Afterwards, we went into the meadow and started picking up different types of seeds from all kinds of different things. Then we went back to the centre and in our groups sat down and started to talk about what we had found in the woodland and meadow.

After that, we started to sketch one of the flowers we had found. When we had finished sketching, we found a flower booklet and identified what type of flower we had sketched. Later on our class looked at all the different parts of a flower. Then we had a quiz. We were given a velcro flower on a velcro card and started putting the parts in the right place and also stuck the labels in the correct places.

Afterwards, we went back into the woodland and started to look for different animals under logs or in the soil. After we had found quite a lot, we were given a plastic bag and started collecting soil. Then we went back to the centre and looked at what we had found. Lastly, we made paper pots and put one of the seeds we had collected earlier into the pots and filled it up with soil.

I really enjoyed going to High Elms and am sure I will enjoy the visit as much  when we go again next year.'

Isabelle M - Year 5

'High Elms was really fun and we travelled there by a coach. When we got there it was really woody and natural. When we walked up the path we saw the beeche it is made of A timber frame with straw bale walls and a woodchip boiler.

First we went into the classroom and our guide sat on a chair made out of pieces of wood from their woods. We then sat on the floor and there was a life cycle mat on the floor of butterflies, frogs, geese and trees. So we discussed the life cycles and talked about how when a hazelnut drops off the tree it bounces to a new place and starts a new tree.

We then went into the woods and we looked at the tree canopy with mirrors. We went further into the woods and our guide gave us some card with double sided tape on. Our guide then told us to take little pieces of plants and stick it onto the card and look at all the different colours. We were then given buckets to collect nuts and flowers.

We walked through the woods and onto the meadow, where we collected more flowers and nuts. We were then given some socks and we put them on and we then walked through the meadow in our socks, we then sat down and took off our socks and looked at the plants that had attached themselves onto our socks. We then put our wellies back on walked back to the classroom and emptied our buckets into trays and investigated our finds. Then we sketched one of the white flowers.

We had lunch outside as it was a sunny, warm day. We then returned to the classroom and put our wellies on and went back outside and we looked at the habitats of insects. Our guide then asked us to shovel up some soil and put it in a plastic bag. We then returned to the classroom with the soil and put the soil into trays, made some newspaper plant pots and put the soil in the pots. We then planted the nuts we found earlier and made a newspaper bag for them.

The day went by so fast, I really enjoyed our trip to High Elms.'

Isabella H - Year 5