Over the last term children across school have been learning about birds. They have been looking at the feeding habits of birds of prey. To try and help them understand the sheer speed of these birds and what it might feel like to be their prey we have been playing a game of Kestrels and the Mice. Here we have some photographs of the beginning of the game where the children are learning about hiding in plain sight. Imagine you are a small mouse, spotted by a bird that can go from 0 – 50kmph in 3 seconds. What are you going to do? As the game progresses each round gives the “mice” less time to hide, starting with 5 seconds and ending up on 1 second. This is to indicate the diving times of the hawk from hovering to full attack. The game moves through different habitats ending up in woodland. The children soon realise that they can’t go far, being small and very still is their only option particularly on open ground.
It’s interesting to see how different ages interpret this game, younger children seem to adapt more quickly using instinct, whereas the older children take longer as they tend to over think, which can lead to some interesting talking points. There is no time to hesitate or you will end up as someone’s lunch!
Afterwards the children have been fashioning nests out of materials they find including mud and clay to hold the structure together. Plenty of Foresty fun to keep everyone moving and learn about nature at the same time.
