52 ways to explore: Nature detectives

QUOTE:
"If you want to live and thrive, let the spider run alive." proverb of American Quakers

ACTIVITY:
Print your own free minibeasts hunt sheets from naturedetectives.org.uk Woodland Trust.*
Explore your local outdoor bush, woodland or garden equipped with your sheet and a pencil to tick off what you see - wasp, dragonfly, honey bee, fly, moth, butterfly, aphids, snail, woodlouse, harvestman, grasshopper and centipede. You can even create your own hunt sheet on the template provided.

BOOK:
The Nature Detectives' Handbook is a book created for the Woodland Trust.* An ideal resource to help children understand the world around them and encourage them to explore nature in their own garden, woods or nature trails. Fifty species are included, from trees to birds, and amphibians to butterflies. Each fact-file provides identification tips and detailed illustrations to help record and understand ‘nature’s calendar’.*The Woodland Trust is a woodland conservation charity in the UK started in 1972 to care for 1,000 different woods in the UK.

THEORY:
The Importance of Insects. Insects perform a vast number of important functions in our ecosystem. They aerate the soil, pollinate blossoms, and control insect and plant pests; they also decompose dead materials, thereby reintroducing nutrients into the soil. Burrowing bugs such as ants and beetles dig tunnels that provide channels for water, benefiting plants. Bees play a major role in pollinating fruit trees and flower blossoms.
Learn About the Problem and more at Teaching the News