Hello, welcome to the Learning at Home Green Activities page.

During the closure period, I will post activities you can do at home or in your garden with your children; they will mainly be practical activities which will be fun, hands on and help us to take care of our planet. We are an Eco School, so I know our boys and girls will be eager to continue our environmental work at home.

Boys and girls, please keep caring for our environment and all the creatures from your house and garden, thank you, Miss Thain. 

No one is too small to make a difference - Greta Thunberg

Unlike honeybees who live in a hive, solitary bees like to take up residence in gardens or sheds. Have a go at making them a home in your garden. 

How to Make a Bee House - this needs to me made with an adult

You will need

• One old, clean 2 litre plastic bottle
• Bamboo canes (different widths are best, so the holes vary in size)
• Saw or secatures (pruning shears)

1. Cut the top off the old plastic bottle
2. Cut the bamboo canes to the same length s the depth of the bottle.
3. Pack the bamboo canes tightly into the bottle. Place in a sunny, dry, sheltered spot, 1metre (3 ft) above the ground.

Provide bees with water to survive and honeybees to cool the hive when the weather starts to get warmer. To make your garden more bee friendly, simply fill a tray or shallow dish with water. Put a couple of large stones in the tray or dish so the bees can rest easily and safely as they drink.

🐝 Make a Pine Cone Bumble Bee 🐝 

Take a pine cone and some wool (yellow or orange and black).

Use the bottom of the pine cone as the bee's face and begin wrapping wool around the pine cone, tucking the wool into the parts that stick out.

Repeat and layer so that the bee has stripes of yellow/orange and black.

Make two eyes from white paper and stick on the bee's face.

To make the wings, find two leaves in the garden and tuck into a strand of wool.

Take a length of wool and attach to a strand of wool on the bee to hang the bee from a tree or hang indoors.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z9zZ48jJZyk

https://www.simpleeverydaymom.com/bee-craft-for-kids/

http://www.housingaforest.com/yarn-wrapped-bee-craft/

https://www.localfunforkids.com/home/15-easy-bee-crafts-preschool-big-kids.html

🦋 Our focus this week is Butterflies 🦋

Did you know that......

• butterflies are insects.
• A butterfly's lifecycle is made up of four parts, egg, larva (caterpillars), pupa (chrysalis) and adult (butterfly).
• Butterflies attach their eggs to leaves with a special glue.
• Most caterpillars are plant eaters (herbivores).
• Butterflies have four wings.
• Butterflies often have brightly coloured wings with unique patterns made up of tiny scales.
• Butterflies can live in the adult stage from anywhere between a week and a year, depending on the species.

Butterfly Activity Ideas

• When you are in your garden try spotting different butterflies, try to find out the names of the butterflies you see in your garden.
• Find out about the amazing life cycle of a butterfly. Draw the stages, label them and write a few notes about each stage of the life cycle.
• Take photographs of the butterflies you see in your garden (please be careful not to disturb or touch the butterflies as they are very delicate). Use the photographs to sketch the butterflies, look at the detail in their wings. Add some colour with pencils or paint.
• Take a piece of A4 or A3 paper and fold the paper in half. Open the paper and lay on a table. Take different coloured paint and dot the paint on one side of the paper. Carefully fold the paper and press down on the surface. Open the paper and see the beautiful pattern you have created! When the paint is dry, draw a butterfly shape over the pattern. Cut out and colour the body of the butterfly in black. The beautiful patterns you created on the paper will now form the butterfly's wings. You can make antenna for your butterfly with paper or pipe cleaners if you have them. You can make different sized butterflies and stick them on your bedroom window or hang them together using string.
• Please take a look at some websites for more activity ideas and interesting facts about butterflies -
• https://www.kidsbutterfly.org/
• https://www.childfun.com/themes/animals/bugs-and-butterfly/
• https://www.natgeokids.com/uk/discover/animals/insects/butterfly-life-cycle/

Activity Idea - Rainbow Scavenger HuntHave a go at this rainbow scavenger hunt....…look around the house and in the garden. Good luck!

• Find something red • Find something yellow • Find something orange • Find something green • Find something blue • Find something purple • Name a fruit that is red • Name an animal that is yellow • Name a vegetable that is orange • Name a plant that is green • Name a flower that is purple • Name something outside that is blue.

I hope you have fun finding the colours of the rainbow!

Take care and keep well, Miss Thain.