After a smooth journey, Lewis came to greet us, and we followed him to The Treehouse Study Centre. This is a huge wooden treehouse surrounded by forest in which we played some games to do with recognising bird calls. After a quick snack and drink, we wandered through the varied and most beautiful trees to the minibeast area. I had told the boys that on previous trips, we had been fortunate enough to find baby toads! You can imagine our delight when, not only did we find babies, we found more than twenty of them! We were all intrigued for some time but also found millipedes, centipedes, beetles and woodlice. 

Next, we had a quick look inside the thatched cobb cottage, built in the traditional way, and in a day where Lewis told us about an age-old tradition. Apparently, when a worker from the Beaulieu estate was ‘let go’, they had 24 hours in which to stake their claim for a home on the estate. This they did by building the four walls and roof needed in the said 24 hours! All their friends and family pitched in to make sure the family weren’t made homeless.  

Following our delicious school packed-lunches, we went pond dipping in groups and found delightful baby newts, enormous dragonfly nymphs and a caddis fly larvae amongst many other creatures. It was great fun and luckily no one fell in! 

We then pretended to be predators looking for prey, using different coloured wool strand ‘worms’. The brighter ones were easily ‘caught’ with the more natural colours blending in. A simple yet effective practical demonstration through play. We also pretended to be bunny rabbits bolting from predators in to a burrow – a tunnel above ground yet covered in moss and woodland floor detritus. It was interesting to see how bunnies might feel and what it would be like to find their way through a burrow. After another fun game involving masks to see how moles would feel finding their way, we went on to the bus, waving and saying our ‘thank you’s to Lewis and another smooth journey back to school

Thank you also to Mr Buck and Mr Alford. Another classic 3E trip! 

Miss Anne Erasmus
Year 3 Teacher