A really wild last day of term

Today we had an extra special Friday as three very important visitors came into our school to teach us lots of new and exciting things.

First we met Jessie and Kerrie who are moth experts. Yesterday they set a moth trap outside in the school garden. The trap was a big box with a funnel on top and a light to lure the moths inside. When the moths are knocked into the box they cannot get back out. Luckily Jessie put some egg-boxes inside so they could a nice wee dark corner to sleep in. That’s where we found them this morning. We found lots of different species of moths. One of them looked exactly like a leaf!

Jessie taught us how to keep a biological record. It must include the 4 Ws – who, what, where and when.

After our moth morning, Ken, an Alaskan Park Ranger came to visit us. He is an expert on Grizzly Bears and we had so much fun learning about all the animals he works with in Alaska. Now we know what to do if we ever have a bear adventure.

Here is what we learned.

If you meet a bear, make yourself look bigger by waving your arms in the air.
Shout at it to let it know you are a human.
Never turn your back and run or the bear will think you are a weak caribou and will want you for his tea!
If the bear charges, charge back with one big step and say “Oh no you don’t bear!”
If the bear still keeps charging the ranger will have some pepper spray in their belt. One little drop will make the bear run away crying. But don’t worry – it only annoys them for 15 minutes – just enough time to escape!

We saw some amazing photographs from Alaska and found that a 6 year old bear is fully grown. So if we were bears we would all be huge and would probably have cubs by now.