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The John Muir award is an award that helps people learn more about nature and the world around us. Here is some of the things that we did for the John Muir Award and we are still doing it. Picking Willow herb, an invasive species, planting wild flowers, finding bees for the Great British Bee Count, listening to a story that Ranger Greig had told us which was quite interesting, looking for different kind of plants. We also had a competition between the P6 classes to see which class could pick the most willow herb out all of them. Once we also did some thing quite amazing. We pretended we were trees and we had to see what it was like to be a tree and then we wrote a story.

Every Tuesday we have been going to the trees with Ranger Greig, who has been working really hard to create fun activities like a Bio-blitz. We also did planting for the first session and I planted an ox-eyed daisy. For the second session we did the bio-blitz and we were trying to catch bugs. We caught a lot of bugs like the long horned beetle, zebra spider and a hover fly and I think the hardest and rarest insect we caught was the zebra spider. Last Tuesday we went out to the trees and we were blind folded and my partners (Shreyas and Murray) took me to a tree and I had to examine it and then they took me back to the place I started. Then I had to guess the tree with the blindfold off.

I remember one day we went up to the trees. We had to go in partners because one person was blindfolded. Holly and I went together. We have to take the blindfolded person to a tree and they have to touch and smell it and we un-blinded them at a different place. Holly found her tree and got greenflies all over her. Then we did a scavenger hunt. One of the things was a six legged species and we found a leaf with loads of baby green flies on it. Then we played nature games with Ranger Grieg. My favourite wild activity all year has been the fire building and making smores.

For the John Muir Award we picked the willow herb to improve biodiversity in our wild area. We went out with Ranger Greig to pick willow herb and she found a frog and put it in her hand. We went out with Ranger Greig again and planted flowers and caught insects to see what they were and then let them free. We caught caterpillars and bees and it was really fun and interesting. We caught a hover fly and it looked very cool. We also looked at trees to see what tree they were and then write it on a piece of paper. We all had a competition with the other P6 classes to see who could pick the most willow herb and everyone did a good job. We built dens outside and it was really fun we used old willow herb to build the den. I put red berries to decorate the den. My favourite wild activity all year has been den building.

My favourite bit about the John Muir award is working with Ranger Grieg. I like planting all the flowers and then watering them. I really liked playing all the games especially the one when you are blind folded. But I couldn’t forget about the bio-blitz. Holly, Morven and I got to do the tree detectives . We got some sheets that had pictures of the leaves on them so it was much easier for us to see what’s, what. It was really fun this week with Ranger Grieg because we were toasting marsh mallows. I’m really happy about getting this award it’s a really big achievement. My favourite wild thing I did all year was the marshmallows.

The John Muir Award is an award about the importance of wildlife! We picked some Willowherb, planted some flowers, looked for some insects and bees, looked for some plants that we have never seen before, listened to a story, played wildlife games and experienced what it is like! It took a few weeks to learn all this stuff and it wouldn’t all have been possible without Ranger Greig and Mrs Ní Laighin! I hope this has inspired you to do all this stuff we did and why it is really, really important for us!

We have done lots of fun things for the John Muir Award. My favourite thing is that I have found a baby green caterpillar when we were doing a bioblitz with Ranger Grieg. My favourite thing we do when we go up to the trees is climb trees. I am the best in my class at it! My favourite things we did with Ranger Grieg were when we played wild games and toasted marshmallows on a fire.

I remember one day a couple of us found a rope and hung it over a tree. I found a piece of wood to tie around the rope to use it as a seat and then we lifted each other to the top of the tree. We did a bio blitz and I had to identify different trees. It was hard to know which tree was which. We did a blindfolded walk around the trees and you had to guess which tree we went to. In our free time we play hide and seek and build dens. One time we played games all to do with animals. There was a rabbit and fox game, a bat and moth game and there as an oxygen game. I enjoy going up to the trees. My favourite wild activity all year has been cooking marshmallows.