Silsden Primary School – Reception Blog

Today the Reception children were very lucky as we went on a fantastic school trip to Nell Bank in Ilkley. The centre  provides experiences for schools across the full age and ability range.  The award winning activities and inclusive facilities make it a top choice for learning outside the classroom.

Our journey began with the coach ride and despite the cold and wet weather, all of the children and adults were very excited to get to Nell Bank.

Once we arrived the amazing Nell Bank staff were there to great us. We sat down and had a little biscuit snack and a drink whilst the staff told us all about the exciting day ahead!

We split up into 4 groups and each group had a chance to explore the water play area, go hunting for mini beasts, explore the woods on a bear hunt and go pond dipping for under water mini beasts.

Here are some pictures from the day of us enjoying each activity……..

The Bear Hunt 

We also had a go at building a little house for the bears. we did some amazing team work. Our bears looked very cosy.

The Water Play Area 

Minibeast Hunting

Pond Dipping

We all had an amazing day and loved all the wonderful outdoor learning opportunities provided by the fantastic Nell Bank Team. We just wish we could have stayed longer to explore even more!!

Friday was a very exciting day for all Reception classes as we had a very special visitor. ‘The Bug Lady’ came for the whole morning and brought some of her friendly critters with her. We were all ready for her sitting in a circle and she explained that all of her mini beast visitors were very friendly and we could stroke or handle them all.

We started off with the cockroaches and she explained that these were Madagascan Cockroaches and we all had a little tickle with our feather fingers.

We then looked at some of the stick insects. The Daddy stick insect was very small and thin and the Mummy ones were much bigger and thicker. We all let them have a walk on our legs. Some of them tried to walk over our shoes onto the carpet.

Finally we looked at the giant African Land Snails. Some of them were huge! They were very friendly and some of them licked our hands. One of them called Fred was very funny and he tried to escape. There was also one called Milky who was an albino snail.

We were all very brave and proud of ourselves for holding and touching the Mini Beasts and we learnt such a lot from Lisa.