On Friday 18 November, Lower Prep travelled to Rushall Farm with a mission to investigate river and pond animals, linked to our Sharing the Planet theme.

After a picnic lunch in the barn and an exciting tractor ride to the river, we set about searching for river animals. It was a particularly cold November day and so many of the animals were hiding in the warmth of the riverbank. However, we did manage to catch a stickleback fish and freshwater shrimp – they were much smaller than we had imagined in class! 

There were also rainbow trout but, despite our best efforts, they were too quick for us to catch. After releasing the river creatures back into the water, we had fun playing poohsticks from the bridge, just like Winnie the Pooh, and testing water speed with an orange. 

We discovered that the water was travelling fast following the recent rain. We then returned to the farm for pond dipping. Again the cold weather meant that many of the animals were hiding, but we did catch three water boatmen – great work team!