Exploring Minibeasts (Reception)
This is a hands on day that explores the world of minibeasts at Skelton through lots of outside activities, including bug hunts, games and crafts. All the activities encourage the children to look at minibeasts closely, thinking about how they move, their colour and shape, where they live and how they are the same and different.
This day supports delivery of the EYFS framework including the EYFS principles and learning and development requirements, particularly Knowledge and Understanding of the World.
Available for Reception classes May to October.
What the day involves
The day begins with an introduction by the day leader, welcoming the children to the Centre and explaining what will be happening in the day. We have a general discussion about minibeasts, and have a warm up game.
The class is then split into groups (normally four groups, depending on class size) for the remaining activities: Crawling, Sliding, Swimming and Flying.
Crawling
We have a brief chat about minibeasts that crawl and then go outside to hunt for some in one of our minibeast habitat areas. Children identify the minibeasts caught by using simple pictures. On a walk we look for spiders and webs and see if we can find any caterpillars.
Sliding
We introduce the children to our wormery, where the worms eat our waste food and turn it into lovely soil. We investigate the vegetable garden looking for slugs and snails chomping on our vegetables. Finally we meet Skelton's Giant African land snail, Brian!
Swimming
We talk about what ponds are like and what sort of creatures might live there. We then go and have a pond dip and put the creatures in a tray so we can have a closer look at them. During the activity we talk about what the minibeasts look like, how they move and other characteristics.
Flying
After a chat about minibeasts that fly we have a look at the ladybird life cycle and paint a picture of a butterfly. We then go outside and hunt for flying minibeasts with meadow nets. After a short and simple discussion about how bees pollinate flowers we play a game outside where the children pretend to be bees and collect nectar.
Visit our Links page to find some fun ideas for pre-visit or follow-up activities!
