We were back home in the garden this afternoon and looking for small creatures.

The beauty of spending time outside in nature, whether on a grand scale or in your own backyard is that it throws up an endless supply of interesting things to look at, think about and learn about. It is also often the case that you go out with intention of doing one thing and you end up doing another and it was no different this afternoon. We went out in search of mini-beasts and ended up sitting and watching baby blackbirds flapping about clumsily and attempting to hide from us in the bushes. We also heard, for the first time, the tiny tell-tale squeaks from the robin's nest behind the light in the car port... but more on that another day.

Not to be put off the task in hand, we refocussed and went about the hunt for small things. Today's wild challenge was to spend a little time looking in the dirty nooks and crannies of the garden, take some pictures and then draw something we found.

Ready, Steady, Go...

...and here are the results:

1) A few little earthworms.
2) Many woodlice underneath the rotten logs.
3) Snails on the lupins and foxgloves.
4) A really skinny centipede.
5) A rolled up millipede.
6) A very teeny weeny spider.

WOODLICE

Emma has been looking at mini-beasts and their habitats at school so she has actually been teaching me and here are her two tips for studying woodlice.

1) You can find woodlice under old logs and stones.
2) Always put any mini-beasts back where you found them.