Twilight Walk - Bingley and Ennion group

After dinner, we did a quick change into trousers and grabbed a jumper before we headed down to the lawn for our Twilight Walk. 
 

During the walk, we took the opportunity to admire how quiet Flatford is. We tiptoed like mice through the field and came to a clearing. We listened carefully to what was around us. At first we could hear some loud geese and then faint other sounds. Our tutors told us to cup our hands behind our ears and see what difference it made. We were surprised by how much louder things became. 
 

We then moved onto another area and tested one of our other senses: smell. We wondered why cats and dogs always seem to smell food from far away and realised they have a super power. They have wet noses! We smelled a piece of Rosemary (and shared many memories of tasty food with it on). Then, we had to wet our noses just before we smelled it for a second time. Wow! It made a huge difference. Some of us absolutely loved the super-strength aroma whilst some of us were not so keen!

Another sense we put to the test was our sense of touch. We removed our sense of sight (not literally, don’t worry, just with a blindfold) as we learnt other senses are heightened when one is removed. We completely a tricky obstacle course, guided only by our sense of touch on a rope (plus a few hints from the adults).

Pizza Party!

There was a lot of excitement when we found out that dinner tonight was pizza, chips and peas, followed by chocolate pudding. 
 

Small Mammal Trapping: Bingley and Ennion groups

Our final activity before dinner was small mammal trapping. 
We all learnt about mice, voles and shrews and how to identify them. We learnt that mice have large ears and eyes as they are nocturnal and need to see and hear well at night. They also tend to jump in a random pattern so it confuses a predator where it may go next. Voles have shorter tails and smaller eyes and ears and are diurnal, meaning they move about during the day. We also learnt that shrews are tiny but greedy - waking up every few hours to eat! 
We heard that most of the first group’s traps were destroyed by the ducks, squirrels and crows so we have hidden ours well and crossed our fingers and toes they will be ok. 

Ennion Group

Our first activity today with our course leader, Simon, was Secret Ponds. We were lucky enough to use the main Flatford Pond today outside the Mill (where Constable painted his famous painting ‘The Haywain’). 
 

We learnt how to use a key to identify different animals, and by answering a series of yes/no questions. 

Alice, Lily, Lily- Jay and Lexi found a water scorpion. They found out it breathes through its bottom!

Bingley Group

Our first activity with our course leader, Kirsty, is Disappearing Animals.  We began the session by becoming poo detectives. Every time we saw some poo on the floor, we called out ‘Whose poo is this?’ (Sorry if they now do this at home!). We then had to use a guide to discover which animal the poo may have belonged to. Some of us even volunteered to smell it. 
Once we knew what kind of larger animals (squirrels, moles, fox, rabbit, deer) could be around, we went hunting for smaller creatures. We used diamond nets and sweet nets to see what we could find. Some of us were a little jumpy, especially when some of the creatures jumped in the nets!

Orienteering

As we were delayed on the A12, we decided to not do the full walk so that the year group could have lunch together. To be honest, lots of the children seemed very pleased with this decision too as it is very warm here (22C) and climbing up a mountain (OK, it was just a large hill) is hard work in this heat! 

However, we still looked at some of the key features around Flatford Mill and identified some of the physical and human features at Flatford and in the surrounding valleys. 

Group 2 photos above this post

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Group 1 photos and joint pic below this post

We’ve arrived!!!!

Group 2 have safely arrived in Flatford. There was a slight delay on the A12, but everyone remained sensible. On their arrival, they did a short orienteering activity and then met up with us all in Group 1. 
I think you’ll agree from the happy faces that the year group were very happy to see each other. 
 

The first task for the children was making their bed. Some of the children were amazing and knew exactly what to do (thank you parents!) and then went on to help their friends too. We then began unpacking our cases and some of them found hidden notes in their cases, which put a huge smile on their faces!

Bingley Group - pond dipping

Our final activity was pond dipping. With our cases packed and ready to go on the coach we set the children a very important mission: no wet bums! We succeeded - well, mostly. We only had a few wet toes and luckily spare socks were easily accessible. 
 

We had a great time discovering what animals would be hiding in the pond of Flatford Mill. Back in the classroom, we had the chance to view what we had caught under a microscope; it was amazing the amount of detail we could see!
 

Some of our favourite moments:

• Ewan - I enjoyed the pond dipping best. What we saw what we caught and what we did. 
• Evie - my best thing was everythin
• Olivia - i liked the sensory trail the most.
• Grace - I liked following the rope on the sensory trip.
• Oscar - I liked the mammal trapping best
• Isabelle - the best thing was walking round the church in East Bergholt

• Christian sleeping in a room with his friends.

• Jasmine - walking the final laps of the chirch with the lady who was raising money for the bell cage and the 'shower cap' party.

• Molly enjoyed the twilight walk as she loved following the ropes and crossing the obstacles!

Edward Group - Disappearing animals

This morning, we learnt some reasons why animas are under threat: farming, cars, building and humans! We learnt that humans are often the largest cause of danger towards animals. We played a game which highlighted how different animals are affected by different hazards and how they might become endangered or even extinct. 
 

Another part of this session was discovering what wildlife could be found around the Flatford site. We won’t spoil it by saying what we found, but you can see some creatures in the pictures. 
 

If you’re wondering why there are photos that look like children are sniffing the ground, that’s because they are. Why, you may ask? Well, it’s because they are smelling the poo they found, of course! Did you know that squirrel poo smells sweet and rabbit poo like a digestive biscuit - enjoy that thought when you next eat one :-)
 

All packed, breakfast eaten and ready for another exciting morning!