Our fieldwork visit to Whiteleaf Cross

By Year 5

Yesterday, class five (falcons) revisited Whiteleaf Cross. Our time there was spent on many scientific things based on the biodiversity of the chalk grassland. We had already visited in January to scrub-bash near the bottom of the steep hill.        Lilly

In order to collect our samples of natural specimens, we went on a walk through the natural habitat. We found a variety of different coloured leaves, berries and seeds. We kept these in a plastic pocket to use later in the day.                   Hudson

Using a quadrat and working in small groups, we carried out a plant survey and an invertebrate hunt. We had nets and we had to do four huge sweeps of the cloudy-yellow grass. Then we put the invertebrates in a magnifying pot where we could see them scuttling around. We mostly found spiders on the chalk grassland but we also found mot-like butterflies, inchworms and earwigs.   Mattie

One particularly interesting part of the day was when we all cautiously stepped down the steep hill. We went down last January to scrub-bash the chalk grassland. To see the impact we made was lovely and to see that new plants were growing where we chopped down others was very rewarding.           Harry

Later in the afternoon, we used the natural materials collected at the start of the day, to create 3D William Morris art. We arranged the materials so there was a repeating pattern and central motif. We used sticks as a frame and created names for our artwork. When we had all finished, we looked around at other peoples’ designs and instead of taking them home, we left them on the grass for other people to see and enjoy.          Ellie

By the end of the day, we had learned about the biodiversity in many places even in just one small patch of grass! It was interesting to come back to a rare habitat to see the effect of our help. Our visit had shown us that you can help and appreciate the beauty of mother nature.  Ellie