Spring Bulbs for Schools winners visit St Fagans National Museum of History

Model Church in Wales Primary from Carmarthen were this year’s Wales winners for the Spring Bulbs for Schools Investigation. Schools who participated in the project planted bulbs in October, took daily weather readings from November to March, monitored their plants and recorded their flowering dates and heights and uploaded all this data to the Amgueddfa Cymru website. 

The prize for the winning Wales school each year is a trip to one of Amgueddfa Cymru's seven museums, with coach hire and activities. This year Model Church in Wales Primary elected to visit St Fagans National Museum of History. The day included a Sustainability Trail that involved exploring some of the museum’s historic buildings and a Mindful Bug Hunt, where we explored some of the museum’s beautiful gardens.

We were extremely lucky on our Mindful Bug Hunt, which involved being attentive to our surroundings and watching, listening, and smelling intently. We saw emerald green and sapphire blue damselflies dancing above the water at the fishponds, and many little fish darting about beneath the surface. Some were lucky enough to catch a glimpse of a grass snake as it slithered into the water and away. 

We saw busy bumble bees and colourful butterflies pollinating sweet-smelling plants like Lavender. We saw and heard long legged grasshoppers in the undergrowth of the flower beds, along with ladybirds, aphids, ants, beetles, centipedes, snails, earwigs, and woodlice. We ducked as a giant dragonfly fed on insects above our heads, diving at us repeatedly. 

We watched and listened as solitary bees buzzed around a mound in the lawn, burrowing new homes into the soil. We saw hundreds of baby garden spiders burst out of their egg sack and scatter throughout a hedge. 

We watched water boatmen swim leisurely past the stone footbridge, and water snails beneath feeding slowly on algae. We watched the familiar wild ducks, the stately Canadian geese and all their young chicks as they carried about their business along the water’s edge. 

We identified different plants and trees and saw how many of us it took to surround the entire width of the 400-year-old Oak tree. We were each immersed in the present and in wonder at it.

Model Church in Wales Primary have shared the following photos with us to depict their day at the museum. 

Model Church in Wales Primary at St Fagans National Museum of History

Model Church in Wales Primary at St Fagans National Museum of History

Model Church in Wales Primary at St Fagans National Museum of History

Model Chuch in Wales Primary at St Fagans National Museum of History

Model Church in Wales Primary at St Fagans National Museum of History

Model Church in Wales Primary on their Mindful Bug Hunt

Model Church in Wales Primary on their Mindful Bug Hunt

Model Church in Wales Primary on their Mindful Bug Hunt