Stepps Nursery Wildlife Watch Group has just launched with their first wintery session! Find out how they got on below.

Wildlife Watch Groups are the Trust’s nature clubs for children. Ran largely by volunteers, our groups across Scotland do an incredible job at connecting children to nature. You can find out more about our Wildlife Watch groups here.

Donning their fabulous Scottish Wildlife Trusts shirts, the Stepps Nursery children joined the group on their very first official Wildlife Watch as part of the Scottish Wildlife Trust.

On the way, we sang a song that went:

This is the way to Wildlife Watch, Wildlife Watch, Wildlife Watch
This is the way to Wildlife Watch on a cold and cloudy day…

The children noticed a robin red breast on the journey down to our site. The robin was eating some red berries amongst the foliage and we wondered what other animals we would see. Some of the children’s suggestions were “squirrels,” “a wolf,” “a bear,” “an owl,” “more birds” and “a fox”.

After navigating our way through the trail, we read a story called The Leaf Thief while the children had a well-deserved drink. The children then spent some time looking at fact sheets about our local wildlife, a book on Autumn and a puppet squirrel, just like in our story.

The children looked up and to watch the trees canopy moving in a gentle breeze and noticing “our one does not have many leaves.”

On the return to nursery the children loved sharing their experiences with the ladies, each other and extremely excited to tell their parents and carers!

The children are learning facts about their local community’s nature and developing an understanding of their whole environment, while developing a caring attitude towards wildlife and participation in conservation.

Maxine Connolly, Teacher and Wildlife Watch Leader at Stepps Nursery Class