As part of our topic on Rivers, Y3 and Y4 got to get out in the fresh air for the day at ‘Thames Explorer Trust’ in Chiswick. The children took part in a fascinating activity ‘Foreshore fieldwork’ where at low tide the children  took part in river dipping, and had the chance to discover first-hand what lives in the river by collecting, identifying and observing fish and invertebrates. The children were fascinated by the various artefacts and living things they were able to collect in their nets along the river bank, the children found many living things including lots of leeches and fresh water shrimp. Amongst the wriggly creatures we also found an old Victorian pipe that we thought to be around 200 years old! The children carried out an experiment to find out ‘How Clean Is the Thames today?’ - the children used indicator paper to test this and many of them were surprised to find out that the result did not match up to their predictions!  By Miss Lake

“I found out that the water is actually quite fresh because the PH level was number 6 which was light green  and I found so many fresh water shrimp, and if the water was dirty they wouldn’t be able to survive!”  By Ralph—Y3

When we went to river Thames with Y3 we started walking to the pier, when we got there we looked  at the features of the river. Then we went to the foreshore and found different animals like the fresh water shrimp  and leech .  One group found a pink shrimp in a little pond.  We tested with a dog biscuit the flow and speed of the river. It was a very fun, exciting day and we found out that the River Thames is really clean! By Darcey & Caroline—Y4