World Oceans Day 8.6.22

Today we were celebrating World Oceans day! We all came to school wearing our blue and 'ocean' themed clothes. Thank you for all your donations, we have raised over £25 for the Ocean Conservation Trust.

We started our day watching a live stream from Mount Batten beach, hunting for creatures in the rockpools! During the session we learnt the 'Seashore code' and the rules to follow when searching in rockpools:
1. Handle creatures with care -Make sure all creatures are treated with
respect and returned back to where they are found.
2. Be careful where you step! - Make sure you’re not standing on any
shoreline creatures.
3. Use hands only - When rock pooling, we need to make sure we are
gentle and considerate to the organisms. We must only use our hands
(make sure they’re wet before you touch anything) and not use tools like
nets.
4. Don’t evict any Rockpool residents - Any animals that are removed
from rock pools to be examined must be returned safely to where they
were found.
5. Leave the beach clean - It is important that you leave the beach in the
same, or better condition as when you arrived. If you bring any rubbish,
make sure you dispose of it responsibly.
6. Stay safe, danger never takes a day off! - Make sure that you use safe
techniques to move across slippery wet rocks and when handling
animals. Also, keep an eye on the tide so you don’t get swept away.

During the session we spotted some different seaweeds, sea lettuce and bladder wrack as well as some small anenome. We also saw a small shore crab and a spiny starfish!

Before our welly walk this afternoon we watched a World Oceans day video and talked about where our nearest local blue space is and how it is connected to the ocean. We then started to draw a map with an outline of the walk from our school to the River Cerne at the top of the school field, following the river to the 'waterfall'. On our walk we followed our map and looked closely at the area surrounding the river, the wildlife, climate and any pollution. We recorded what we could see, feel, smell and hear with pictures and words. We also recorded what living things were there (including plants and animals). We then added some memories to the map and added details about where else we might go when walking past the river.

Memory maps can help us to build our 'sense of place'- the meanings and emotions we connect to a particular place. As it grows and develops it influences our actions and we are more likely to take care of our environment and become guardians of our blue space. We hope this activity has helped the children to understand (and feel) their connection to the ocean via our local blue space. We will be returning to our blue space in upcoming weeks and thinking about what we can do to best protect it.