Reception visit to Hardwick Park

On Wednesday 4th July, Reception visited Hardwick Park. We were looking forward to pond dipping! We had a lovely coach ride to the park during which we spotted lambs, cows and horses in the fields and lots of tens numbers on the road signs. We were very good at playing I-spy and  noticing lots of familiar landmarks in Darlington Town Centre. During the day, both classes tried out pond dipping. The group leader for the day was called Jane and she read the story,  The Bog Baby, which we loved and helped us to understand how important it is to enjoy looking at the creatures we found but then to put them back in the pond where they belong and are happy.  We all had a turn dipping our nets in the water and finding mini beasts. We found lots of water boatmen, water worms and some midge larvae. After pond dipping, we went on a walk to find the Bog Baby. We had to follow his ‘blue sneezes’ until we found the bog baby himself, hiding in a sheltered den in the woods. After that, we made our own bog baby. We were given a ball of clay which we wrapped around a polystyrene egg and then we hunted for sticks, leaves and nuts to give him arms, legs and a tail. We were very proud of our bog babies and were able to bring them home with us.

We also had time to explore the park ourselves. We went to look at the tall tower and learned that the narrow cross-shaped window was designed for firing arrows out of whilst staying safe from the enemy. Class 2 found a dragon in the forest who was guarding the tower and walked down the dragon staircase back onto the path. Class 1 did some bark rubbings on a group of trees we found before finally looking at all the different ducks, geese and swans and their babies. Finally, we walked along the board-walk back to the coach. We had so much fun and learned such a lot about the wildlife that is all around us.