Thursday 30th April

Good morning from Flatford. The children were excitable as they returned to their rooms after their first day. Macy has been employed as ‘Valley Farm 🕷️🕷️ Catcher’ much to the relief of Mrs Sawtell and Mrs Latchford!
Everyone has slept and are now up raring to get on with the day ahead…well at least to eat breakfast!🍳🥓

Thursday wake up

Valley Farm had a furry visitor last night. Mrs Sawtell, Mrs Latchford and Miss Lomas did try to tell him to go outside to the mammal traps where food, bedding and a lovely drink were waiting. 🤞🏽🤞🏽

There?s a mouse about the house!

Good morning from The Mill.

Morning from The Mill

Inside the Great Hall fireplace in Valley Farm.

Fireplace

Cereal and cooked breakfast was a welcome start to the day.

Thursday breakfast

This morning, we were very excited to check our mammal traps! Ennion Group did catch a mouse. Well done Beau and his partner for choosing the perfect spot! They named their mouse Timmy. We all enjoyed looking at him and comparing him to a vole.

Ennion mouse

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Bingley had success trapping mammal Reuben and Olly caught a shrew called ‘Gary’ whilst Joey and Finley caught a vole called ‘Jeremy’.

Bingley mammal trapping success

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Bingley had a fabulous morning in the pond!

Raiya caused a flurry of excitement for the staff here at Flatford as she caught a swan mussel which is a great find as it is sign that the water is extremely fresh and clean.

Amber and Theo’s group caught red water mites, a baby fresh water mussel and a leach which moves with a sucker on his mouth and bottom!

The children took some of their best finds to take a closer look at under the microscopes.

Bingley Pond Dipping

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Ennion group got their wellies on this morning! We learnt all about streams and rivers. Firstly, we recapped the water cycle and then we walked along a footpath to find a tributary stream which runs into the River Stour. We measured the depth and velocity of the water before heading to the beautiful floodplains where we learnt about how rivers meander. We also found a log that a woodpecker had used and created a perfectly round hole.

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Ennion stream and rivers walk

We enjoyed an amazing, sunny afternoon pond dipping! Did you know a water scorpion takes air in through its tail? Another fact we learnt is that baby eels are called elders and migrate to Europe’s streams and rivers all the way from their place of birth - the Saragossa Sea! That’s an incredible migration across the Atlantic Ocean. We found a stone loach fish and many invertebrates. Our next step is to look at some of them using microscopes.

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Ennion pond dipping

Ennion Group also had fun trying to make invertebrate animals. Can you guess what these animals are?

Ennion thurs animals

What a super afternoon Bingley have had - walking in streams, measuring the flow, width and depth and then to test the flow of the River Stour by playing pooh sticks (which didn’t work again as it was too windy). Everyone loved sliding down the banks of the stream and splashing through the water.💦

The bullocks were not in the field, so we got the opportunity to walk in the meadow and look at the meanders.

Bingley rivers

Our final campfire of the week was LOUD and FULL of MERRIMENT! The wildlife from the grounds of Flatford may never return with fear of hearing the raucous laughter and bellowing singing once again! A great evening was had by all and the hot chocolate with whipped cream and marshmallows definitely helped!
Now for a shower and a well earned sleep.