A little nature

There is nothing like exploring our own backyard and finding little creatures that live within.  There was a huge commotion today as a preying mantis was spotted on our water rill and the children could not wait to share it with teachers.  What was fascinating though was that it was brown in colour not green and when we moved it to safety away from the water and onto the tree, we noticed it was really hard to spot as it was the same colour as the tree trunk.  This lead us to talking about how it was camouflaged.  We had fun tracking it's movement and trying to spot it, "look it's there" pointed Georgia.  On our expedition of finding a good home for the praying mantis, we also spotted a wee ladybug and jumping spider too, it's amazing observing them and it was great to see everyone was so careful of our small friends.