This week’s theme:

The Mysteries of Animal Habitats

This week’s colouring in sheet:

Download and print this week’s colouring sheet here.

Fact of the day:

There are over 500,000 kilometres of hedgerow in Britain. That is a very large habitat for butterflies, mice and birds, spiders, and hedgehogs.

Resources list:

Paper/card, drawing pens/pencils, high-vis vest; green, brown and colourful household items; youtube; bug hotel materials; Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland story download, paper, pens.

Activity 1:

Hedgerows can also be thought of as ‘wildlife roads’ along which animals and birds can travel safely between other habitats. On paper or card, make some of your own road signs like this, this, or this for the butterflies, mice, birds, spiders and hedgehogs that live in hedgerows. If you can find a high-vis jacket you could even dress as a Lollypop man/woman and invite some of the creatures to cross your wildlife road!

Activity 2:

Thick, flora-rich hedges provide valuable nesting and foraging opportunities for a huge range of wildlife. Have a forage around your house or garden for items that are green and brown like a hedge or have pops of colour like berries and flowers. Use these materials to create a hedgerow ‘art attack’ on a table or on the floor. Draw some animals to nest in your hedge, peeping out from the foliage (or download, print and colour ones from here, here, and  here.

Activity 3:

Hedgehogs communicate through a combination of snuffles, grunts and squeals; try making some snuffling noises of your own! Hedgehogs have weak eyesight but a strong sense of hearing and smell; test your sense of hearing by trying this sounds quiz!

Activity 4:

Hedgerow habitats are under threat as many hedges are being destroyed. To create alternative habitats for some of the bugs that would have lived in hedges, you could try making a simple bug hotel using things in your recycling like  this hotel, this bug hotel, this hotel, this one, or this one.

Activity 5:

Dormice make their nests in hedgerows. A dormouse is one of the characters at the Mad Hatters Tea Party in ‘Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland’. Download and read part of the story here and create some drawings/paintings, or make or list of things, or forage around your house for objects that start with the letter ‘M’.

Add-on Activity:

You could make a simple hedgehog house or make your own binoculars to imagine viewing nature up close.