Minibeast Safari

Minibeasts quaked in their leafy arbors last Sunday as a safari swept across the West bank of the Medina, sweep netting and shaking the bugs out of their hiding places*. Participants were fascinated to see red weevils, a large harvestman, a very fat spider, crane flies, various beetles and bugs, springtails and an impressive looking shield bug turn up in their nets.












*No minibeasts were harmed during the afternoon's activities.

Wetlands Week 2007

Look how much fun we had during Wetlands Week 2007 with over 200 school children looking for bugs and pretending to be a flounder. Wetlands Week is funded by Leader+ and delivered by Island 2000.








We all had an absolutely corking week learning about wetland habitats and wildlife. Four Island schools participated during the week and attended workshops run by Ian, Hannah and Jo from Island 2000, Jill Mears from the Environment Agency and Kathy Grogan from Wight Wildlife.



Jill's Minibeast Safari went down a storm, with all the children scouring the hedgerows for bugs and insects to view in their magnifier pots. We used the excellent FSC field guides to identify everything that was found.














Look at all the weird and wonderful minibeasts that the children made using arts materials brought by Island 2000's Arts team.


















Kathy Grogan and her team from Wight Wildlife laid on some exciting games and activities to show the children how different species were adapted to life in wetlands areas. We all had great fun pretending to be frogs eating flies and curlews eating worms.

Fun in the Sun

An intrepid band of children worked with Danny and Kev to build solar powered boats and cars last week. We're one of the practitioners in this Creative Partnerships Southampton and Isle of Wight funded project in Greenmount Primary School.

As you can see from the picture the solar powered cars were hugely popular - we weren't able to test the boats, unfortunately, as I underestimated just how long it takes to inflate a 12 foot paddling pool using a single foot 
pump. Even with the help of a whole bunch of children we  couldn't get the thing blown up so we've put off the boat testing until our next session.

I've also included a picture of Danny.

Minibeast Safari at Cowes

Ian and Suzie met pupils from Love Lane Primary School on the Cowes-Newport cyclepath this morning on the hunt for ferocious minibeasts and bugs. A fantastically warm sunny morning - perfect for butterflies and bees feasting on the hedgerow flowers we passed.

Unfortunately we didn't find anything dangerous, but there was certainly a lot of life in them there nettles.

Ian brought the bush-sweeper with him so that we could tap the hedgerows and discover the life within. We found a lot of spiders, beetles, leaf hoppers, ladybirds, earwigs, crickets, caterpillars, a red admiral and a white admiral. Not bad for an hour's work.

Growing Places Goes Global (well, almost)

On 26 April Ryde High School hosted a celebration event for the continuing success of their Growing Places Project; a joint project between Creative Partnerships, Ryde High and Island 2000. The Project has created an allotment area in the school grounds and transformed an old concrete garage into a beautiful shed.

Along the way, all areas of the curriculum have been involved in various aspects of the project; building the allotments, growing flowers and vegetables, creating art installations in the garden area, performing on the outdoor stage, tracing the ecological footprint of the school, using the area during lesson times for inspiration and creating a film of the project for media studies.

The celebration event included a student version of the Greek Tragedy "Theseus and the Minotaur", and the first of this year's planting was completed in the new herb bed.









Island 2000's esteemed leader planted ceremonial elms at the new gateposts, and gave the project his blessing.