At the beginning of May we headed to Camley Street Natural Park. Amidst the hustle and bustle, noise and traffic of Kings Cross, Camley Street is a hideaway of natural beauty and calm. We were all so excited when we arrived. The park guide directed us into the classroom and we talked about how to look after ourselves and our environment while on our visit. When we went outside we could hear the birds singing in the trees.
The first stop was the pond where we looked for pond skaters. We even saw a ‘bug hotel’ – a section of log where Minibeasts live safely in the winter. Next we went to a much larger pond and were shown how to ‘pond dip’ correctly. We had to lie on our tummies on the viewing deck and scoop our net into the pond. We had to be very careful not to get mud and slime in our net. We found lots of pond life and even discovered a Caddis fly. At first we thought it was a small stick and so were very surprised to find it was alive and thought wow what super camouflage! We left the pond and headed up a path to go tree shaking. We placed a white sheet underneath the tree and were shown how to gently and safely ‘shake’ the trunk and branches. We saw spiders, ants and aphids fall onto the sheet. Moths and butterflies flew skywards. The white sheet showed up the Minibeasts very clearly. It was an action packed day and a fantastic way to conclude our topic.