Pilrig Park Special School

Learning Intentions

• Be able to recognise a nettle plant
• Learn how to safely pick nettles (using gloves for some learners)
• Participate in a group activity outdoors (with a specific role in the group e.g. nettle picker, wheelbarrow driver etc.)

Materials Needed

• Visual aids
• Laminated step-by-step guide with symbols/pictures
• Gloves for those who want to wear them
• Long sleeved tops/trousers/good shoes
• Hand trowels
• Wheelbarrows
• First aid kit
• Rope/flags to mark out area you’re working in for the session

Lesson Plan

Beginning:

Use picture cards to introduce nettles:

• What they look like
• Where they grow
• Why they sting

Show the gloves and tools we’ll be using in the lesson. Possible nettle that’s already been picked to show the children.

Middle:

Once in the space, set out flags/rope and explain that children are not to go beyond this area. Demonstrate how/help to put on gloves. Demonstrate how to use the hand trowel to get the nettle up from the root. Show the wheelbarrowers where to take the nettles.

Plenary:

Children can show or share how they felt about the activity/their job by sharing their thoughts or giving thumbs up/down.

Children remove gloves, lock gate, showing that this lesson is finished.

Extras:

• Those who enjoyed the task could perhaps continue with the job over the next week
• Possibility of using the nettles to make nettle tea or nettle soup?

Evaluation:

The children managed to clear more space than the teachers thought they'd be able to, and the children really enjoyed it! A frog was found amongst the nettles and all the children were excited by it. The frog was used as an opportunity to engage the children in further learning and thinking, where did the frog come from, what does a frog eat, how does its skin feel etc.  

“The kids really enjoyed that. I can’t believe how fast they worked.” – Class PSA

Learning Intentions

• To identify some common native Scottish wildlife (plants and animals) 
• To engage sensory skills through touch, sound, and sight 
• To improve social and communication skills through teamwork 
• To develop confidence and independence in outdoor learning 

Resources:

• Printed bingo cards with images  
• Leaf/bug identifiers  
• Seek by i-naturalist (an app that the adults could have on their devices to check what the creatures you find are called) 
• Pens/pencils for marking bingo cards 
• Clipboards to lean on  
• Magnifying glasses or bug viewers  
• Insect nets 
• Binoculars  
• First-aid kit  

Lesson Plan: 

Beginning: 

Use bingo cards to introduce the animals and plants we might see in the space. Can they think where they might find some of the animals? (On the ground, in trees etc) 

Go over rules for today’s session (if you want to use the rope to mark out an area to contain them in, if they require an adult to put the bugs into the viewfinders, walking in the space, asking an adult to pick leaves etc – whatever rules/boundaries you’d like to set for your learners).Can they think where they might find some of the animals? (On the ground, in trees etc) 

Middle: 

Ensure children/pairs have their bingo cards and go on the hunt! Children (or adults) can collect leaves, bugs etc as they go. Every child can have a shot of the insect sweeper net if they’d like to!  

Encourage senses where possible and if appropriate for each learner: Can you hear…? Does it smell? What does it feel like?  

Plenary: 

Children can share their bingo cards. Did anyone get a bingo? Share the bug pots to look at. If possible, can they share the most interesting thing they found or their favourite? Encourage confident children to release the bugs in a safe place. 

Show of thumbs for how they felt about the lesson. 

Extras: 

• Use leaves collected for printing in art 
• Use collected items for a sensory tray/table 
• Carry out nature hunts during different seasons – are the plants and animals different every season? 

Evaluation: 

The children really enjoyed using all the equipment. They found a variety of creatures and one pupil even managed to catch a bee to study it in the magnified bug pot! Using iNaturalist's 'Seek' helped the teachers with identification and teaching. The lesson became less about scoring off a bingo card and more about using all of the equipment to find the most interesting creature and for this reason the children were very engaged in the lesson.  

"I think we need to buy some sweeper nets." – Class Teacher  

 "I've caught a bee!" – Pupil  

Learning Intentions 

• To recognise some UK animals and plants
• To understand that animals and plants help each other survive 
• Show how living things are connected using pictures and movement 

Resources:  

• Printed image cards of UK animals and plants laminated  
• Velcro boards 
• Smaller image cards for Velcro board  
• Rope/string/wool 
• Printed image of simple food web  
• Sensory friendly props (some animal teddies, leaves etc – if you have some/want to bring them!)
• Parachute (for game at end)
• First-aid kit  

Lesson Plan: 

Beginning: 

Show picture cards of the animals and plants (and soft toys etc) and ask children if they know what they are. Use BSL to help children learn signs. Can the children explain what some of the animals do? e.g. the bee helps flowers to grow. 

Middle: 

Part 1  

Give each child a card (adults can have one too) then arrange the children in a sitting or standing circle (whichever will work best for your learners).  

Pass the rope/string/wool between each connected species i.e. the flower goes to the bee, the caterpillar goes to the leaves etc. A web should form.  

Give the children the chance to pull the rope/string/wool – what do they notice? This shows how everything is connected! What would happen if ____ disappears? This should give the children the chance to see how we need every single animal and plant for it all to work. Show the children the simple food web to extend learning.  

Part 2 

Use Velcro boards so children can use the cards to match up what each animal eats and what might eat it. They could do this individually, in pairs or as a whole group – again, whatever works best for your learners. 

Plenary: 

Children can select a card, or they can say what animal they are. All children hold on to the parachute and the teacher calls something out like, “I eat leaves” and the children whose animal eats leaves gets to run under the parachute. Other suggestions:  

I can fly; I live in the ground; I love flowers; I have 6 legs etc.  

Extras: 

• Sensory storytelling about the day in the life of… … a fox; a bee; a rabbit etc. 
• Create a food web poster using smaller versions of the cards 

Evaluation:

Using the string to help connect the animals helped the children to understand how important each species is in the web, although this required a lot of input from a significant number of adults as some children did not want to hold the rope or the photo card. Explaining about apex predators in this lesson is quite important as some of the children were trying to find an animal that would eat a fox etc, and some children did not understand that some animals eat more than one thing, for example a fox will eat birds as well as rabbits, and berries etc. Some understanding of herbivores, omnivores, carnivores, producers, consumers and decomposers is useful in this lesson.  

Learning Intentions:

• Recognise different UK animals/insects and where they live
• Match animals to their homes using visual aids  
• Think about the kind of homes the WWS will provide for animals

Resources:  

• Printed pictures of UK animals/insects and their homes
• Matching card boards
• Realia (optional, but could include twigs, straw, mud etc)
• First-aid kit  

Lesson Plan:

Beginning: 

Show picture cards of the animals. Can they name and sign them? Do they remember what they have seen before? Do they remember what the animals eat/are eaten by?  

I wonder where these animals live…? 

Middle: 

Part 1  

Show the children the images of homes: nest, web etc and ask they if they know who lives in these places. Have they noticed any in school or at home? Use the cards to match up the animals to their homes – you can organise this how you think works best for your learners i.e. groups, pairs, individuals. 

Part 2  

Go into the WWS and have a look for any homes/animals. Ask questions like, what do you think ladybirds would like their home to be like? What will help bees live here? How could we have more birds living here? 

Plenary: 

Quiz time! Teacher/leader uses home cards and children use the animal cards from before. Teacher will ask, who lives in a pond? Children have to select correct card (children working as before either in groups, pairs or individually) to answer. 

                                                                                               "Are you sure bees live in a hole in the ground?!" – PSA  

Extras: 

• Watch live webcams to keep a track of animals in their homes: 

- Live osprey nest camera at Loch of the Lowes Wildlife Reserve https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3nAa-VoFasg  

- Watch the live stream from our bat roost at Hanningfield Reservoir Nature Discovery Centre https://www.essexwt.org.uk/wildlife/webcams/bat  

- Badger Bank Cam 

https://www.gloucestershirewildlifetrust.co.uk/gloswildlifecams/badger-bank-cam  

- LIVE Barn Owls, Stoats, Kestrels & Tawny Owls | From Fotherdale, Yorkshire, UK 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1laEOsLJLV4

Evaluation:  

The children learned lots of new information e.g. proper names for animal homes, as did some of the staff! For the most part the learners do understand where the more basic animals live i.e. the insects but did struggle when it came to mammals and the specific language around their home e.g. sett.  

Learning Intentions 

• To work together to create a plan for the space
• To have every pupil’s voice heard in the design
• To use the learning over the past few weeks to help with the input in the design plan 

Resources:  

• Large bird’s eye view of the space (I will bring this!)
• Paint/colouring pens etc to decorate the plan
• Cards from the past sessions to help the children discuss what they’d like to have in their space
• Photocopies of elements which could be used in the plan/design (these are attached in the email!)
• Scissors and glue (to cut out and stick down the elements they want to include)
• iPads to check ideas/resources for the space
• First-aid kit  

Useful links before the lesson takes place:  

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zMEWyWCYsUY (you may want to watch in chunks as there’s lots of information on all different animal houses!)
• https://www.rewildingbritain.org.uk/how-to-rewild/rewilding-advice/how-to-make-your-garden-wilder  

Lesson Plan:

Beginning: 

Tease out learning over the past few weeks using picture cards. Can anyone remember the animals we’ve seen in the WWS? What kind of animals would you like to come and visit the space? How will we encourage them to visit us?  

Middle: 

Introduce the large map and explain what it shows. The children need to be careful with the paper as it can tear easily! Explain that we want to collect their ideas on how to make the space even better. What would they like to have in the space? Here the children can get creative: draw, paint, glue on the photocopies, look up ideas online to see what they could have etc.  

Plenary: 

Ask each child what they have decided they want in the space and why.  

Evaluation: 

Children enjoyed explaining what they wanted to see in the WWS and they liked the practical aspect of the task: drawing as well as cutting and sticking. They were discussing things they'd learned in previous sessions like what butterflies will need to survive. Having access to iPads might have been useful to give the children more ideas and not limiting them to the pictures provided in the resource. 

 "But bats need homes." – Pupil  

"Squirrels like quiet. It's too noisy round here, that's why we never see them!" – Pupil