As part of the topic ‘Out of this World’, Year 1 has been learning about rock pools, sea creatures, oceans of the world and plastic pollution. They have been inspired by the life of Jacques Cousteau, ‘protector of the seas', and the urgent messages from Sir David Attenborough to change our plastic habits and make an effort to save our oceans and protect the plants and creatures who live in them.
They had a fantastic trip to their beautiful, local beach at East Head. They were met by guides, Kate and Mary from the Chichester Harbour Conservancy who were full of interesting facts to share with the children. They introduced them to the different features of the seashore and how to be safe when visiting the beach. The children moved down on to the sand and took part in a sandcastle building competition to see how many sandcastles each class could make in a straight line from the sea to the strandline. Amazingly, it was a tie and each class managed to build 56 sandcastles. We used the sandcastles to track the tide and by lunchtime all of our sandcastles had disappeared under the waves!
The remainder of the trip was spent learning about the sea creatures that live on the beach, collecting shells and learning about the delicate habitat of plants and creatures that live on the sand dunes. The children made some wonderful discoveries including a large crab skeleton, hundreds of slipper limpet shells and a whole oyster shell. Unfortunately, there was no pearl inside!
The weather held and the children finished off their visit with a yummy picnic lunch overlooking the sand dunes and sea. It was a fantastic trip, which was thoroughly enjoyed by all.
