Friends of Castle Meadows recently concluded its Summer programme for young visitors with two entertaining sessions for Year 1 pupils from local  schools. In collaboration with MonLife's Countryside Warden, the Friends’ offer a range of free, nature based activities for schools and groups, which can all be linked to the key stages of the Curriculum for Wales.

Cantref Primary School, recently chose pond dipping and food web activities for twenty-nine Year 1 pupils.

Using the Friends’ dipping platform the children were able to identify an impressive fifteen pond creatures. The children then utilised their nets to place the finds into their trays and compared the pond life to ID pictures.

Pupils also had the opportunity to learn a fun method to remember how nature's food chain work both in the water and outside of it.

Class teacher, Hannah Woodhouse, commented: “The children had a wonderful morning and learnt so much from the sessions.” She went on to add a massive thank you to the Friends team and MonLife for the “great experience”. The final session for the season saw Llanfoist Primary visit for another pond dipping slot. They also opted for some Minibeast spotting activities in the Castle Meadows copse.

The six year olds were excited (and more than a bit surprised) when they found a newt, not in the pond, but in among the trees and flora.

Like their Cantref contemporaries the Llanfoist pupils also discovered fifteen species of pond creature, although not exactly the same ones.

Between the two groups, the list of finds included” the water boatman, pond snail, ramshorn snail, small water snail, pond skater, water mite, water flea, water measurer, diving beetle, bivalves, damselfly larvae, midge larvae, hoglice, tadpole, baby newt, stickleback, leech and the whirligig.

Afterwards, Llanfoist Year 1's class teacher, Gemma Taylor, stated: “Thanks again for a lovely trip, as always, and thanks to all the volunteers.” The school sessions followed on from a series of successful walks and talks covering bats, birds, butterflies aimed at adults as well as children. In addition, local groups - such as the Scouts - enjoyed tree planting sessions.

If you would like to learn more about the visits and activities available in this rare and wonderful floodplain meadow on Abergavenny's doorstep, check out the list below.

Orienteering: Teamwork exercises in the healthy outdoors. Resources - maps, clues, flags and i.d. charts 

The Food Web: Games involving what eats what, predator and prey. Resources- laminated cards for each animal or plant in the food chain

Tree-Mendous: Identification of our trees, their age, height, how they work. Resources - tape measures, calculators, work sheets

Minibeasts: Identification of our small creatures, what eats what, food webs. Resources- our woodland tunnel, our bug hotel, i.d. charts, bug pots, recording tables, hand lenses, story book “mad about minibeasts”.

Caring for the Countryside: Responsible use of the countryside, the problems of litter, dog mess, chasing stock, antisocial behaviours. Resources – Game about how long it takes for litter to rot, photos of animals caught up in litter, plastic dog poo etc.

Watch the Birdie: Why are some blackbirds brown? Is it a swift or a swallow? Our local sand martins etc. Resources – Binoculars, i.d. charts

Pond dipping: Food webs, identification. Resources – The new dipping platform, nets, trays, i.d. charts, food web ID cards

All activities are free of charge and can be linked to the Curriculum for Wales e.g. Science and Technology's requirement to 'support understanding of biodiversity, biological processes, health and disease, and evolution', as well as cross cutting themes incorporating Health and Wellbeing; Language, Literature and Communication, and Maths and Numeracy. 

Mondays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays are the Friend's preferred days.

The Friends’ revamped website will be going live again shortly, however, if you would like to arrange a visit, please call 07425 172727.