Nature. Why should we care about it?

As David Attenborough says, ‘Nobody is going to protect the natural world unless they understand it.’

In a recent survey, involving 700 children, they found that half of them were unable to identify a daddy long-legs spider, an oak tree, a blue tit or a bluebell.

Over recent weeks, we have been venturing into wild places – to complete a range of different tasks in nature.

Week 1 – Tree identification

The Woodland Trust’s spotter sheets for leaves, twigs and blossom were the inspiration for this week’s activity session. These spotter sheets encouraged them to explore wild spaces and identify trees from their leaves, twigs or blossom.

In school, we are fortunate to have some brilliant wild spaces – there are so many different species of trees and blossom in the woodland. When we ventured out into the woods, we found leaves from the following trees: ash, hazel, sycamore, horse chestnut, holly, field maple, oak, beech and birch.

As you can see from the photo gallery, the children have developed their understanding of the natural world, and they have started to deepen their connection with it.

Sally Luxton