On a bright, early Thursday morning Year 3 were eager to get onto the bus and reach their destination… Perlethorpe in Newark. It was an early start, but this didn’t bother the Year 3’s as they were rearing to get into a river!

As soon as we arrived, the children noted how peaceful it was! The river was nestled in a working life farm and truly tranquil. We met with our leader for the day who told us about the action plan and reinforced important river safety tips which we listened carefully to.

Take a look at this video as it captures the activities you can do at Perlethorpe click here

Our first stop the river of course! We each took turns to wade in the river to search for river wildlife using nets and magnifying glasses. We used our river habit identifier sheet to help us as we each took turns going down to see what we can find. We managed to find the elusive water Scorpion (which is rare!) and fresh water scrimp amongst other creepy crawlies. We then gently returned our new river wildlife back into the river where they belonged. Some of us might have even got a little wet but it didn’t matter as we had lots of fun (and spare clothes!). Before returning to lunch we took part in a rubber duck race…it got a little competitive!

After that, we had a spot of lunch before venturing out and taking part in an orienteering exercise. We learnt how to use a map to find different clues around the site in our adult led groups these clues were based on river features. For every clue we solved we gained another map to get closer to solving all the clues. I was amazed at how much knowledge the children could apply! We worked well as a team and listened to one another which made for great teamwork!

Towards the end of the trip, we took time to admire the woodlands and we created river artwork using nature around us. We created different features of a river using the nature we found in the woods such as logs for meanders, pinecones for rapids and floodplains made from weeds.

The children’s behaviour was impeccable on the trip! They were an absolute delight! I’m sure they will remember their river topic in Primary school fondly! 

Also a big shout out for our parent helper!

Please see below for pictures!