This year’s LCE is a big group, so finding activities that suit all has been a bit of a challenge. One thing that went down really well, however, and which the students agreed was the most fun to do, were two early morning excursions in April and May.
The students had learnt the English words for a number of birds and plants beforehand, which is not easy if you are not used to watching birds and perhaps don’t even know what they are called in your first language. Most students did well with magpies, crows and seagulls, and blackbird is always an easy one, and so is swan, but many had difficulties telling a blue tit from a great tit (once they had managed to stop tittering) or recognise the very common fieldfare, jackdaw and wagtail.
Trees, flowers and plants were not easy either, especially on the first excursion when the leaves had not opened fully. With a bit of practice, however, most of the students now know at least a few trees and plants in English, e.g. birch, pine, oak, rowan, bird cherry, dandelion, wood anemone, forget-me-not, fern and moss.
To help learning new nature terminology and make learning more fun, we played Nature Bingo, Nature Lotto (see below) and even did a music quiz on birds.
Once outside, the students were told to observe the birds, trees, plants and insects around them and try to draw some of them. Some students also wrote really nice poems. Have a look at their pictures, read their poems and perhaps you will be inspired to observe nature a bit more closely yourself this summer!
Bird illustrations by Hermes, Marius, Gervais and Hadrien
Nature Poems by Maya, Emy, Goki and Tess
