We picked a sunny day, a true autumn day, roped in some friends and headed out for the day. There was plenty of playing, a scavenger hunt for autumnal signs, a picnic in the sunshine and then a trip to the pond to check out what it looked like for autumn.
Bear and The Cub had packed their investigational kit, including all the necessities - binoculars, magnifying glasses, big jars, a fishing net and so much more. It all came out of the bags, and all the kids had an ace time checking out the pond and its inhabitants.
Two adults, four kids and one net - it took us for longer than I care to admit to catch one of the little buggers, but it was worth it to see them excited to check it out once it was in the jar and under the magnifying glass.
They were all really mindful of the critter and were quick to want to throw it back after they'd all had a look, and then they went back to their other investigations, spent some time discussing the water, checking out the lily pads and fishing out the few bits of litter to make it clean.
As with our tree trudy, this was done back at the start of Autumn, and we have just gotten around to completing our research and journal page. We looked up the water boatman and the pond skater in Bear's minibeasts book to check out the difference, as I always thought that pond skater was the nickname for a water boatman, but it turns out that they are two very different creatures.
The water boatman is a small insect that looks like a little row boat but can swim under the water as well as on the surface and the pond skater is a thinner little thing that literally skates on the surface of the pond.
Bear drew the water boatman as part of his journal page.
Again, as with the tree study, we will be heading back to the pond in Winter, probably early to mid January, and hopefully when there is a chance it has frozen over so that the boys can see the effects of the cold weather and what it does to both the water and the insects that we witnessed there during Autumn.
Mama Bear x
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