Nature lessons give kids passion for the outdoors
I HAD a lovely day with a school enjoying a Forest School session, in fact their parents were invited too.
It was brilliant to play games and cook food over a real fire with the children, all led by my brilliant colleague, Molly Toal.
As well as being a Forest Schools officer, Molly works for me in communications and introduced me to teachers, parents and children as ‘her boss.’
Well, Molly was the boss for the day, giving me a right royal scolding when I wandered into the fire circle without her permission: I was too excited to notice.
Getting the children into the wild seems to help with their learning and, as I spoke to the staff and some mums and dads, they were really passionate about the improvement their children have experienced since getting outdoors.
One young lad was having problems communicating with other pupils and struggling in class. Seeing him running around with friends and asking questions about nature made me think they were talking about another boy.
It was a wonderful and quite emotional thing to experience.
Anyway, we were out in the wild, discovering worms and other assorted beasties, when one little ‘un turned up with a small red ‘butterfly.’
“No, that is in fact a day-flying moth: the cinnabar moth.”
The kids got really excited when this black and red insect flew away, it looks completely red in flight ... breath taking.
The cinnabar loves ragwort plants, but flies in grasslands and garden in both day and night.
It goes from a yellow and black caterpillar to a red and black moth, which is an amazing change.
The bright colours are a warning to predators that cinnabars don’t taste nice after ingesting poisonous ragwort plants.
After finding the cinnabar moth, I took great delight in photographing a bee which was luxuriating in the long grass.
Bees have been all over our garden this year and, hopefully, it’s a sign that they are staging a bit of a comeback.
Please ensure you have bee-friendly plants in your garden and join our campaign to grow more flower-filled grasslands around the north west.
Forest Schools has received funding for the past five years in our patch from players of the People’s Postcode Lottery.
If you buy a ticket every week, you are contributing to some pretty special education for our children.
And you are giving me a great excuse to get out and about looking at our fabulous wildlife before coming back to tell you about it.
To support the work of the Wildlife Trust for Lancashire, Manchester and North Merseyside. Text WILD09 with the amount you want to donate to 70070. The Wildlife Trust for Lancashire, Manchester and North Merseyside is dedicated to the protection and promotion of the wildlife in Lancashire, seven boroughs of Greater Manchester and four of Merseyside, all lying north of the River Mersey. It manages around 40 nature reserves and 20 Local Nature Reserves covering acres of woodland, wetland, upland and meadow. The Trust has 29,000 members, and over 1,200 volunteers. To become a member of the Trust go to the website at wwwlancswt.org.uk or call 01772 324 129. For more information about Cheshire Wildlife Trust call 01948 820 728 or go to cheshire wildlife trust. org.uk.