On Monday 7 October Fiona Ware, Rachel Edwards and I took the P6 class from East Linton Primary school to the shore at Yellowcraigs, East Lothian, as part of an international schools partnership program between East Linton Primary and Shimoni Primary School, a coastal school in Kenya.
The children were split into small groups accompanied by a teacher or adult helper and armed with a bucket. The groups went to look for plants and animals which were brought back to a central area where we discussed what had been found, before returning all the specimens to suitable a habitat. The plan had been for the children to take photographs of everything they found but they had so many questions that this will have to happen next time instead! The children in Kenya will be doing a similar trip in the next few weeks but of course finding very different things!
Following their trip to the shore the children will create species lists/cards of the plants and animals they have seen and the two groups of children will compare and contrast their findings. Future trips will consider changes over the seasons and litter (local and washed in). The project aims to raise awareness of marine issues on a local and global scale but will also include lots of opportunity for cultural exchange between the children.
East Linton Primary has been blogging too! You can read about their day here.