The National Museum of Minibeasts

Iona is still as keen on animals, and particularly minibeasts, as ever. She keeps trying to make snails, ladybirds, etc. into her pets, and gets most disappointed when they decide to leave! She has lately been finding empty snail shells, and on Monday found a dead woodlouse. This motivated her to create what she called a "National Museum" of minibeasts, collecting them into a coconut half-shell. She said she wanted people to visit, although wasn't bothered about charging for entry. I helped her find a few more dead minibeasts, such as a worm and a moth:

I suggested she make a poster to advertise her museum, though I suggested she change its name to a rather less ambitious one(!), and suggested she could give tickets to neighbours we knew. This was a great opportunity to help her with her writing and spelling (the latter tends to be, how shall I say ... "creative"!!), helping her to use it for something she really wanted to do, rather than trying to impose my ideas of what she should be learning.

(For the tickets I pencilled in the writing, based on how she had written her poster, to ensure that it all fitted on legibly, then she wrote over it.)

Iona got really "into" setting up her museum in our front garden, and was so proud of it that she insisted on wearing one of her dad's ties to look "smart".

We went visiting all of our neighbours that we know, giving them tickets to invite them to the museum. A couple of them, who know each other, came to visit at the same time, and Iona told them about her collection. She whispered to me proudly that "They like each other now", although I tried to explain to her that they already did!

We have done a little reading around the subject, too. I have borrowed a library book about snails, which we have read a little of: Snails Up Close, although Iona is still more of a hands-on learner at the moment.