We discussed what light and dark were and that plants need light to grow. We discovered that plants and trees could cause shadows in the park or woods and that it was darker underneath the trees. We also noticed that underneath the trees there was less plant growth which could be partly due to there being less light.

In addition, we talked about how the lack of light in autumn/winter leads to the breakdown of chlorophyll (the green pigment in leaves) leaving different colours behind such as yellow, orange, red and brown.

Session 2:

L.O. Can I identify flora in a natural environment?

We used a flora identifier chart to name the plants and trees in the area and recorded what we found in a table. The children used a book corner to do more research about what they found.

In this session, we spotted juvenile frogs in long grass near a log, so we discussed that although frogs breed in ponds in spring, they spend the rest of the year feeding in woodland, gardens, hedgerows and tussocky grassland. In winter, they hibernate in pond mud or under log piles.