Nursery: What can you find on your nature trail?

We have been learning the poem ‘Nature Trail’ by Benjamin Zephaniah as part of the whole school’s Benjamin Zephaniah week. Each key worker group has learnt separate lines to recite and together we have learnt the first verse and the Makaton signs to match what we are saying. Our reception classes have each learnt a verse and the EYFS staff have enjoyed learning the final verse so collectively we can now recite the whole poem. We have created a video so that we can continue to revisit the poem with the aim to recite the whole poem by ourselves by the end of the year.

The poem is about different animals that can come and visit our gardens including hedgehogs, frogs, creepie-crawlies, birds and cats. The children enjoyed going on their own nature trail in our garden looking to see if they could find any of the creatures that are mentioned in the poem. We also used seeds and mud to make bird pizzas to try to attract more birds into the garden.

The children also enjoyed using different art materials to make different representations of the animals. We painted using forks to make hedgehog paintings; the forks help to create the quills. We also used scissors to cut brown paper to make hedgehogs. We also used playdough and different materials to create our own animals and insects.