Bring lessons alive!
The school workshops have been designed to enable schools to draw upon the skills of an experienced naturalist and to utilise an extensive collection of exciting live creatures from around the world. Most of these animals would be impossible to maintain in a school or local teacher resource centre.
At present the bugsnstuff ‘staff’ includes some of the following: Giant Land Snails, Scorpions and Millipedes from Africa, Hissing Cockroaches from Madagascar, Stick and Leaf Insects from Asia, Tarantulas from Mexico, Corn Snakes from America, Blue-tongued Skinks, Tree Frogs and Spiny-tailed Monitor lizards from Australia.
The resource includes thousands of photographs of which many can be used to illustrate a given point during a presentation (using IT media such as PowerPoint and Keynote). With such a rich bank of resources, it is hardly surprising that Guy can make National Curriculum Natural History topics come alive in children’s minds in an exciting and imaginative way.
Animal welfare is paramount so all of the animals used have stand-ins to ensure none are over-worked and become stressed.
The workshops meet National Curriculum Key Stages 1 and 2 teaching programmes, covering many aspects such as rainforests, minibeasts, evolution, food chains, senses, variation, classification, lifecycles, habitats and adaptation. During the workshops the children will be allowed to touch some of the animals; being able to feel the sticky skin of a frog and the exoskeleton of an insect brings them closer to these amazing animals.
The children will discover how the different creatures hear, smell, taste, see, move, grow and feed compared with us. How they use their senses to hunt and the wonders of camouflage are discussed. Covering locomotion, Guy explains the leap of the frog, slither of a snake, swaying of a stick insect and the strike of a praying mantis.
The presentations are aimed at primary school children. It is anticipated that you will want Guy to undertake four or five 45 minute to 1 hour workshops during the day, depending on your school timetable. You can pick ‘n’ mix presentations, request shorter or longer time spans or ask Guy to prepare a tailor made topic to meet your planning requirements.
Nursery / Reception / Early Years: A touchy feely workshop aimed at very young children, whether in nurseries, play-schemes or toddler groups. As its name implies, it's all about exploring the world with your fingers – for adults that is the forgotten sense but one which children embrace with excitement! Cold, warm, hard, soft, rough, smooth, scaly, silky, slimy, hairy and of course tickly as we introduce children to a host of fascinating animals – all of which have been chosen for their suitability for working with young children. Have you ever run your fingers down a tortoise's scaly leg or had two hundred tickly legs walk across the palm of your hand? If not you could be in for a treat!
The children are invited to stroke a whole host of things, from a silky live snake, a smooth lizard, tortoise, the rough exoskeleton of a giant stick insect and stroking a spider's hairy legs!
Let bugsnstuff bring natural history to life in the children’s minds and stimulate them to think about the natural world. Emphasis is placed upon encouraging children to think in new and original ways, not only about the vast range of creatures with which they share this planet, but also about themselves and the world around them.
Rainforest workshop - our most popular session!
"Having travelled to many of the world's most amazing places, Guy has researched the topics he teaches 'in the wild' so you can be sure that when you book bugsnstuff for your school, he can tell you first-hand about the sights and sounds of these magnificent places and the amazing creatures that live there!"
The Rainforest workshop is aimed at both the top end of KS1 and any year group in KS2 where teachers intend to study a specific habitat at a far greater depth than is usual with our one hour workshops. Whereas the Minibeast workshop examines a number of different habitats, the Rainforest workshop is designed to last for a minimum of two hours and, as its name implies, focuses on the rainforest. Normally, if the school is two form entry, we have one class in the morning and one class in the afternoon. We can also provide a full day session for just one class, our most in-depth workshop!
Our Rainforest workshop is our most popular session and a firm favourite with a large number of schools often booking a year in advance. Children can enjoy a more leisurely pace, the usual amazing live animals and a touch of drama as Guy takes the children into the rainforest on an imaginery field trip! He first equips the expedition with what they will need as scientists and then introduces them to the rainforest itself.
Introduction over, we begin to explore the forest and meet the animals which are to be found in the micro-habitats of the rainforest. Rivers, forest floor, understory, canopy and emergent layer are all covered with live animal examples for each included.
Guy demonstrates the blow-pipe and his resource includes thousands of artefacts, photographs and video clips from his own travels from the past 30 years. We even use a rainforest soundtrack - what more could you ask for?!
The Rainforest workshop animals include cockroaches, stick insects, praying mantises, treefrogs, giant toads, tarantulas, millipedes, caterpillars, giant moths, geckos, monitor lizards and snakes and more. Click here to see the bugsnstuff 'staff'.
Let bugsnstuff bring natural history to life in the children’s minds and stimulate them to think about the natural world. Emphasis is placed upon encouraging children to think in new and original ways, not only about the vast range of creatures with which they share this planet, but also about themselves and the world around them.
Want to see more? Take a look at what we get up to on our field trips on our YouTube channel or visit Guy's field trip gallery here.
How to Book
e-mail: info@bugsnstuff.com or use the Contact Us form below. Telephone: 07758089017.
The best time to ring Guy is after 6 pm. You can then easily discuss dates and quickly sort out a booking. Otherwise, leave your message and contact details on the answer phone.
When arranging a booking by e-mail or telephone, please have a number of alternative times and dates. Guy will only reserve a provisional booking for three working days. Once you have confirmed a booking he will then send you, by email, a written confirmation, invoice and payment information.
It is intended that all of the workshops are not only amongst the best in the field but also fully insured and competitively priced.
Click here for prices, booking info and Terms and Conditions.
Click here to download the Schools flyer and poster.
Click here to read our Risk Assessment / Health & Safety info.
Click here to see more pictures from our school workshops.
We have been awarded our Animal Welfare License (2018 Regulations) for Activities Involving Animals. This license came into force on April 1st 2019 so if you're booking anyone for events involving animals, please make sure they have this in place. License no. DCC/ALA/076803.
Guy has Enhanced DBS clearance and is appropriately insured (copies available on request).
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