April was a glorious month at Perivale Wood. The woodland was a carpet of blue and we enjoyed our most successful Open Day yet on April 24th. Over 3000 people enjoyed the bluebell spectacular and took part in lots of fun activities including woodland art with Anna from Creation Station, facepainting and performances from Ealing Morris Dancers and Impact Theatre.
The bluebells have now all gone to seed, providing further education opportunities for learning about plant reproduction. Coston Primary brought their Year 5 classes to the reserve just at the end of the bluebell season, and studied plant reproduction and pollination during the morning and then built model eco-houses during a forest school session in the afternoon.
As we move into May the wood has turned from blue to green and the meadows from green to yellow. We have also welcomed back two local horses who are busy grazing Little Elms Meadows. The grasses and wild flowers in The Paddock are untouched during the summer and provide the perfect habitat for investigating biodiversity.
Our May Rangers session was all about minibeasts and over 40 children came to the reserve with their parents and carers to carry out the OPAL minibeast survey comparing the invertebrates found in the woodland with The Paddock and around the hut. A fantastic diversity of species was found.
Selborne Primary have also been back, this time with their nursery classes to hunt for minibeasts. They came on a rather damp day, so we enjoyed looking at the diversity of slugs found under the logs in our woodland teaching area.
Friday 17th June is Empty Classroom Day. I hope many schools are taking advantage of this opportunity to take their classes outside to enjoy some environmental education.
https://outdoorclassroomday.com/
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