We began the
afternoon by walking to the meadow area at Lincolnshire Rural Activities Centre
near Kenwick. It looked beautiful as it appeared to be full of ox-eye daisies.
The children were
asked to see how many different leaf shapes they could find and record in a 3 metre
long strip.
We talked about
why meadows are so magical and special. The children (11) were given Meadow Activity Sheets and encouraged to
explore the meadow. They were able to take the sheets home to use in
other meadows.
They were also
able to use the pootle pots and magnifiers to look for insects.
They were told
about the Love Lincs Plants project .
The children chose
the two plants that would be added to the Natural History Museum and Joseph
Banks collections. There were a great number of common spotted orchids in
flower and two of those were dug up and laid on a tray.
The other plant
that was chosen was the meadow cranesbill which was again in abundance and two
of those were dug up.
The children then
each chose a flower to be added to the Watch collection. They collected a flower
and leaf from each specimen. These
included ox-eye daisy, germander speedwell, black medick, common mouse- ear and birds-foot
trefoil.
We walked back to
the Centre where the children were ready for the drinks and biscuits, donated
by Northgate Coop in Louth.
The specimens were
identified and recorded. Each was arranged on paper on a board laid on
newspaper and then covered with paper and another board and placed in a press.
The resulting
dried specimens will be mounted at a later meeting.
We had a very
pleasant productive afternoon in a beautiful place.
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