Today we explored the tidal pool at East Beach Shoeburyness with 27 people funded by Active Southend on Thames @southendcityc - check out the booking link www.bookwhen.com/beachschoolexplorers for more free sessions over the next couple of weeks #beachschool #southend #activeessex
We discovered a beautiful seagrass meadow at East Beach, Shoeburyness yesterday! Seagrasses are flowering plants that live in the shallow, sheltered areas of our coast. These sensitive plants are different from seaweed and grow bright green leaves forming dense underwater meadows. These meadows are full of life, supporting thousands of marine species, producing oxygen, storing carbon, stabilising our coastlines and keeping our ocean clean and clear. Yet, they are globally threatened and are facing significant loss around the world. Saving seagrass means saving our seas. We need to protect and restore seagrass whilst supporting the continuation of sustainable
human activities that occur amongst or depend directly upon seagrass ecosystems. We need
to do this now, as a connected global community, using and sharing knowledge and
expertise, recognising, and espousing the vast body of largely untapped local ecological
knowledge and empowering action from the local to international scale. Seagrass meadows are critical to the survival of every living thing on Earth. @projectseagrass #seagrass #eastbeachshoebury #teachatthebeach #southendonsea #activeessex
Well that was exciting!!! Yesterday at East Beach, Shoeburyness we bumped into a couple of crabs 🦀 having some mummy & daddy time 😜 we weren’t sure what was happening at the time but on further research, we discovered that after making a chemical connection, the pair of crabs will engage in a premating embrace, where the male will wrap his claws and legs around the female. In some species, the female will go into this position willingly; in others, the male must prove himself through the hug. Once she’s convinced he’s strong enough, she’ll stop struggling.
The embrace can last several days, after which point the female will molt and the pair will mate. The male transfers sperm by inserting his gonopods (sexual organs resembling antennae) into the two genital pores, called gonophores, on the female’s underside. The female stores the sperm in a storage sac called a spermatheca until she is ready to use it.
Some crabs will mate standing up, facing one another, but most species actually prefer the missionary position, with the female beneath the male. Once copulation is complete, the male will guard the female for a few days (giving her shell time to harden) before taking off in search of a new mate. 🦀 ❤️ 🦀 #crabsofinstagram #crabs #southend #shoeburyness #teachatthebeach #matingcrabs #everydaysaschoolday #crabbing #rockpooling #activeessex #activesouthend
We always undertake a litter pick when we arrive at the beach - not only is it part of the risk assessment, it also teaches the children about looking after the environment and of course they love it!! @chelmsfordforyou @loveyourchelmsford #beachschool #riverschool #teachatthebeach #activesouthend
Today’s little game was adapted from musical chairs 🪑….. no chairs at the beach so we used buckets 🪣 and no music 🎵 at the beach so we did a Simon says instead! The children and adults loved the game and it got very competitive and everyone got chance to be the caller in their own unique way! #beachschool #beachgames #partygamesforkids #loveourplanet #teachatthebeach #canvey #thorneybay
Love an art 🖼️ project that turns into a 5 star review! 🙏 #beachschool #childrenarethemostimportantwork
Another wonderful family beach school session at Mill Beach Seaside Resort. We are back again next week. Link above to book or we are at Thorney Bay tomorrow. @thebeachhouse.mb #heybridge #millbeachseasideresort #barnacles #seasnails #maldonessex #essexcoast #beachschool @maria.masher
The Big Seaweed Search - We contributed to real scientific research for the Natural History Museum and the Marine Conservation Society by searching for 14 seaweed species at any UK seashore, you take part at any time of the year and as many times as you like. See the link above for more info. @natural_history_museum @mcs_uk #naturalhistorymuseum #marineconservationsociety @thebeachhouse.mb @mill.beach #beachschool #maldon #heybridge @maria.masher
Holiday Club to the beach by train 🚂 today! We had a wonderful day. The staff at Chelmsford station were super helpful. We loved all the poems & artwork at Walton in the Naze station. We got creative at the beach with writing, engineering and crafting. We splashed in waves and not a drop of rain fell from the sky🙌 We beach combed and found whelks, mussels, piddocks, oysters, pretty top shells and rose pink tellins. We found a limpet village on the upper shore and even a limpet home scar - we discovered blow lug casts and holes and even saw a gull swoop down and catch a nice red worm 🪱 first his lunch 😋! A keel worm tube on a piddock and lots of beautiful seaweed in readiness for next week’s The Big Seaweed Search by the Marine Conservation Society @mcs_uk and The Natural History Museum @natural_history_museum - We made kites 🪁 , ate chips 🍟 & 🍦 😋- train 🚂 journey home with a game of ‘Would you rather….?!’ - bet you’re exhausted reading this - imagine how we feel 😜 😴 #chelmsfordholidayclub #beachschool #chelmsfordforyou #waltononthenaze #greateranglia #sunshinecoastessex #beachcombing #essexmums #chelmsford #chelmsfordessex #chelmsfordmums #maldon #heybridgebasin #southend #essexcoast #marineconservationsociety #naturalhistorymuseum #weprotectwhatwelove
TODAY! We are at Seascape for climate Action, St Lawrence Bay - Stone Sailing Club offering Free Family Sea Safaris. Come and see what you can find along the Blackwater estuary ! This little fella was friendly and the children loved exploring St Lawrence when we were last there! Lots of other things going on at Seascape - book on www.bookwhen.com/beachschoolexplorers #seascape #stonesailingclub #essexwildlife #essexwildlifetrust #seagrassproject #hadleighbikepark #beachcombing #climateaction #restorenature #restorenaturenow #weprotectwhatwelove #essexcoast #essexlife #bbcessexradio #loveourplanet #tomorrowistoolate
Never too old for a beach day by train 🚂 #greateranglia #waltononthenaze #chelmsfordrugbyclub #beachvolleyball #funatthebeach #essexcoastline
Beach School became River School today in Chelmsford. The children learnt how to river dip. There’s nothing so satisfying as splashing in a river, but have you ever taken a closer look to see what lives there? Although in Chelmsford, we found plenty of minnows even in a small stream, today we also found pond skaters and common snail leeches .
Freshwater creatures can be more involved and tricky to ID but we used @inaturalistorg to help us .... we also just enjoyed watching them. It’s a great way to get a glimpse into a hidden underwater world. You might need a magnifying glass, but prepared to be amazed! We also took our sketch book and paints and sat chatting and painting while butterflies 🦋 flew around us and crickets chirping in the long grass! A beautiful fun filled day in Chelmsford. P.s we also took our litter pickers and did a little clean up on route. @loveyourchelmsford @chelmsfordforyou #chelmsford #chelmsfordessex #chelmsfordmums #chelmsfordbusiness #getkidsoutside #getkidsoutsideessex #loveourplanet #restorenaturenow #wildandfreechildren
End of year wraparound party. 🎉 still got Mon & Tues to go (longest term ever 🥱!!) but the children loved the surprise paint party 🥳 #wraparoundchildcare #essexchildminder #essexbusiness #childminderlife #partygamesforkids #partygameideas #chelmsfordmums #chelmsfordbusiness #bloomingmoulsham #bloomingmoulshamchildcare
Such an exciting day 🙌 🦀 ❤️ #seaspider #shorecrabs #periwinkles
More chitons!! we found quite a lot of these wonderful creatures today. Chitons belong to the phylum Mollusca (along with sea snails, sea slugs and bivalves), and are sometimes known as ‘coat-of-mail shells’, which alludes to their carapace of eight overlapping and interlocking plates that resemble the chain mail sported by knights of old. #chitons #teachatthebeach #chalkwellbeach #rockpools #essexcoastline #getkidsoutside #getkidsoutsideessex #thingstodosouthend #thingstodochelmsford
We always take our litter pickers to the beach with us! Today we found a lovely necklace, a nose clip for swimmers 🏊♀️, a plastic flower and a balloon 🎈 😢amongst all the other litter we collected. We noticed the Southend Beach Award flag 2024 and hope we helped to keep the beach clean & tidy #2minutebeachclean #southend #chalkwellbeach #seasideaward2024 #loveyourchelmsford #beachschool
Love their imagination 💭 spa day anyone? 😜 #beachschool #imaginationiseverything #lovethebeach #spadayessex #childrenroleplay #exploringoutside #chalkwell #southendonsea
Beautiful day at beach school holiday club today ! Lots of fabulous sea creatures in our rock pool - the children were so excited with their finds. Chiton fun facts - 1. Chitons are ancient creatures, first appearing about 500 million years ago. 2. They are the only known group of molluscs living today to have living tissue integrated within the outermost layer of their shells. 3. they have 8 overlapping shell plates. 4. Chitons have no eyes in their head, but they can ‘see’ through their shells using minute sensory organs called aesthetes, not found in any other group of animals. #chitons #chitonshell #beachexplorers #chalkwell #rockpooling #holidayclubessex #chelmsfordmums
Beach School Explorers live at St Lawrence Stone Sailing Club! Book in to Seascape at Stone Sailing Club on weds 24th July for a family sea safari search Seascape on Eventbrite for more information. #beachschool #essexcoast
