Morning everybody, let's hope that this mist lifts before long today but in the meantime, I have a lovely read for you. It's from Freddie and it's the latest instalment of our fabulous WEX blog.
Thanks very much Freddie & over to him... :)
WEX BLOG
This time at WEX we did all about environmental issues and recycling. Firstly I got a big piece of brown paper and I drew different animal and bird tracks on it so it could be made into Christmas wrap. This is because not all wrapping paper you buy in the shops can be recycled. You could also use newspaper or do a collage with pages from magazines.
Next Claire, one of the leaders, showed us two videos about plastic waste. The first one was all about lots of different ways that plastic gets into the ocean. It makes me feel really upset that animals are being killed by plastic. The second video was all about a special machine which was like a giant net, which floats around the Pacific Garbage Patch rounding up litter and taking it out of the sea. It has a camera, sonar and satellite dish which is used to transmit information to the people in charge. I thought it was amazing!
After that John, another of the leaders, showed us a presentation on animals that do recycling themselves! Some of the animals were hermit crabs, who recycle their shells for new ones, Orb Web spiders who recycle their old webs to wrap around flies, octopuses who hide in shells and other containers like coconuts, and worms who recycle soil through their bodies to make it better. John showed us a picture of a strange grass wigwam with rubbish around it. I guessed that it was a bower bird nest and I was right! Bower birds use lots of pieces of rubbish to decorate their little wigwams and attract a mate.
For our next activity we went outside and Claire and her helpers asked us questions about what things could or could not be recycled. We had to run to a “yes” or “no” sign to say whether it could be recycled or not.
Finally we went back inside the classroom and we had three different options. We could either make pom-poms, create junk models or finish our wrapping paper. I decided to make a junk model of myself! Here it is …
My sister Flora made a pom-pom junk person with growing hair!
Here is a picture …
Nicola here again. A while ago, Freddie asked me about how the water levels are managed at Old Moor and how the sluices work. Now ask me about how to take a photograph then I might be able to answer...so I introduced Freddie, and dad Simon, to our very helpful assistant warden Karen. Last Saturday afternoon she spent a bit of time explaining it all to them both. I think it made their day! Thank you Karen & this is what Freddie wrote as a bit of a 'blog extra.'
BLOG EXTRA:
After WEX I spent some time with Karen, one of the wardens at Old Moor, learning all about her job and what she does. I found out about how she looks after the reserve and the very complicated water systems!
I would love to do a job just like hers one day.