Nessa Newt's Wetland and Bog Biodiversity Book

Nessa Newt’s Wetland and Bog
Biodiversity Book
NIEA Biodiversity Activity Book
For Upper KS1 Pupils
www.ni-environment.gov.uk Agency
Northern Ireland
Environment

Teacher notes.
Education and the Northern Ireland Environment Agency
Life on our planet = Biodiversity!
Biodiversity simply means the total variety of life on our planet. The state of the world’s
Biodiversity was the central focus at the United Nations Conference on Environment and
Development that was held in Rio de Janeiro in June 1992. 156 countries signed an agreement
at this conference to conserve the earth’s Biodiversity. Northern Ireland has a great level of
Biodiversity, with many different habitats and 22000 species that we can name so far!
N.I.E.A (Northern Ireland Environment Agency) believe that it is vitally important to educate
people about their planet’s Biodiversity and how it is important in terms of the quality of
their daily lives. Obviously the word ‘Biodiversity’ can appear large and is too difficult a
term and concept for KS1 pupils. Despite this we feel that through this series of Biodiversity
Activity booklets even very young children can begin to focus on certain creatures, plants
and habitats that are important to their local Biodiversity while at the same time covering
important curriculum components. This will hopefully mean that when they encounter the
word ‘Biodiversity’ and the greater details of the concept at a later age it will not be such a
problem for them, having already encountered the term and studied many basic elements of
the concept when they were younger.
Books available in this series:
Harry Hare’s Field and Farm Biodiversity Activity booklet.
Nessa Newt’s Wetland Biodiversity Activity booklet.
Owen Otter’s River Biodiversity Activity booklet.
Sarah Seal’s Coastal Biodiversity Activity booklet.
For more information on these topics or to locate more copies of our resources contact:
The Education Manager
Corporate Communications
Northern Ireland Environment Agency
Klondyke Building
Cromac Avenue
Gasworks Business Park
Lower Ormeau Road
Belfast BT7 2JA
Tel: 0845 3020008
Copyright: Crown copyright

Here is your very own chart for you to record how well you have done.
Put a tick or a stamp in the space when you finish a page.
1 I know what a smooth newt is
2 I know where the peat bogs are
3 I know if it is an animal or a plant
4 I know the seasons on the bog
5 I know what we use peat for
6 I know about peat moss
7 I know about Bianca the butterfly
8 I know how things move
9 I know about birds that live on the bog
10 I know about animals on the bog
11 I know about the plants on the bog
12 I know about Nessa’s
pond dipping
13 I know what the bog plants look like
14 I know about pond life
15 I know about differences and similarities
16 I know about animals and their young
17 I know what sort of creature it is
18 I know why we should look after our peat bogs
19 I know about the peatland wordsearch
20 I know about camouflage
21 I know how a butterfly grows
22 I know how to do the peat bog quiz
23 I know how to make a frog mask
Well done you really are learning a lot about Wetlands and Bogs.

Hello I am Nessa the Newt. I am a smooth Newt and I live on
a peat bog. I like to live in damp places. I have smooth moist
skin and four toes on my front feet. I am green and brown. I
like to eat pond snails, tadpoles, worms and insects.
Peat bogs are very wet places. You would need to wear your wellies there. Peat
bogs are covered in peat which is a type of soil made from plants and trees
which were alive a long time ago. When they died, they fell onto the ground
and rotted. After many years they turned into peat.
I hope you like my Activity Book all about peat bogs. There are
lots of things for you to do.
1

Where are the Peat Bogs in Northern Ireland?
There are many peat bogs in Northern Ireland because our weather is cold and
wet, which helps them to grow. In Northern Ireland there are more peat bogs
than forests. But in the last 100 years some of the peat bogs have been
destroyed.
Here is a map of Northern Ireland. All the peat bogs are marked on it.
Enniskillen
L/Derry
l Colour the peat bogs brown.
l Colour the rest of the land green.
l Colour the sea and Lough Neagh blue.
Choose the right word for this sentence:
Lough Neagh
Newry
Belfast
Most of the peat bogs in Northern Ireland are in the north/south/east/west.
2
N
W E
S

Is it an Animal or a Plant?
Here are some animals and plants that like to live on peat bogs. Animals usually
move around to find food. Plants usually grow in the ground. They do not move
around.
Draw a circle around each animal
l Name one of these animals that eats plants ___________________
l Name one of these animals that eats other animals ___________________
3

Seasons on the Peat Bog
Peat bogs look different in each season of the year. Fill in the blank spaces to
find the right answer.
Spring
These white flowers are the first sign of spring
Frogs lay these eggs in ponds in spring
Blue flowers which are shaped like a bell
Birds build these to lay their eggs in
Summer
Plants need this to grow
These insects have colourful wings
These insects have stripey bodies
The colourful parts of a flower
Autumn
These fall off the trees in autumn
Squirrels start to gather these to eat during the winter
Frogs get ready to do this in the autumn
Some birds fly away to a hot country
Winter
It is not hot in winter, it is...
This is made when water freezes
There are no leaves on the trees. The trees are...
These white flakes fall from the sky
4
s_ _ _ d r _ _ _
f r _ _ s p _ _ _
b l _ _ b _ _ _ _
n _ _ t _
s _ _
b _ t t _ _ f _ _ _ _
b _ _ s
p _ t _ _ _
l _ _ _ _ _
n _ _ _
h _ b _ r n _ t _
m _ g r _ t _
c _ _ _
i _ _
b _ r _
s _ _ w

What do we use peat for?
Peat is a type of soil. Sometimes people call it turf. It is made up of many dead
plants. It takes thousands of years to make peat. If you look closely at a lump of
peat, you can see the types of plants that grew and died a long time ago.
In Ireland, peat has been used for hundreds of years for different things. This
means that there is very little peat left in the country.
These are some of the things that peat has been used for:
Draw a line from the words to the picture.
Making fires
Building houses
Making electricity
Used in the garden
Can you think what will happen if we keep on using peat?
______________________________________________________________________
5

Peat Moss
Peat moss is a plant. It likes to grow in wet places. Peat moss has been used for
many things in Ireland.
Draw a line from the words to the right picture.
Bedding for horses
To pack vegetables
Bandages for soldiers
Babies’nappies
Why do you think that peat moss is good for packing vegetables?
_______________________________________________________________________
6

Butterflies
Hello my name is Bianca and I am a butterfly. I live on the peat bog. I am a
special type of butterfly called the Marsh Fritilary. There are very few of us left
now. My wings are brown with orange and cream spots.
Why don’t you colour my wings in? The letters will tell you which colours to use.
B = Brown
C = Cream
O = Orange
C
C
C
B
B B
B
B B
O
O
C C C
O
C
C O C
O
C
O C
O
O
C
C
C C C
C
O
O
C
C
O
O
O O O O O O
C
C
C
C C
C C C C
C
O
O
O
O
C
C O
C O O C
O
O C
C
C
C
C O
O
C
C
C
C
O
O
C
C O
O O
C
O
C
B B
O O
C
7
C

How does it move?
All animals can move from place to place. Some of them move in different ways.
Draw lines from the animals to the word which describes how they move.
Some of the animals may have two ways of moving.
Write down all the ways that you move
fly
crawl
hop
run
swim
__________________________________________________________________________
8

Birds on the Peat Bog
Peat bogs are good places for birds to live. It is quiet there so birds can build
their nests and bring up their chicks in peace. There are lots of different types of
food there for birds to eat - insects, spiders and berries.
I am Ciaran the Curlew. I am
quite a big bird with long legs
and I like to live on the peat
bogs. I have a long, curved
beak and a long neck. I am
brown with white just below
my tail.
I am Harvey and I am a Hen
Harrier. I am a bird of prey.
This means I like to eat small
birds and animals. I am grey
with black feathers on the
end of my wings. I have long
wings and a long tail.
I am Sheila the Sparrow hawk.
I am a bird of prey. I like to
eat small birds. I can fly very
quickly. I have sharp claws
called talons for gripping my
prey. I have a hooked beak
and a long tail.
Put these words in the right places:
Long, curved beak Long neck Brown feathers
____________________
____________________
____________________
Put these words in the right places:
Grey Black feathers Long tail
____________________
____________________
____________________
Put these words in the right places:
Sharp claws Hooked beak Long tail
9
____________________
____________________
____________________

Animals on the Peat Bog
Peat bogs are too wet for some animals to live there, but many animals love to
live on the bogs.
How many peat bog animals can you find in this picture? ___________
Can you name them?
f _ _ _ c _ _ _ _ _
h _ _ _ b _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
d _ _ _ _ _ f _ _ n _ _ _
s _ _ _ _
Now colour in the picture.
10

The sundew is a plant which grows
on peat bogs. The leaves are covered
in _ _ _ _ _ and are sticky like glue.
When small _ _ _ _ _ _ _ land on the
leaves they get stuck. The leaves close
up on the insects and the plant _ _ _ _
the insects.
insects eats hairs
Bog cotton grows on _ _ _ _ bogs. It
has narrow _ _ _ _ _ _ . In the summer
time it looks like cotton _ _ _ _ .
wool leaves peat
Plants on the Peat Bog
The cranberry is a small plant. It has
pretty _ _ _ _ flowers in the summer
time and large red berries in
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ .
Birds and small animals like _ _ _ _
love to eat the berries.
september mice pink
Heather is a bushy plant with small
purple flowers which attract _ _ _ _ .
Small _ _ _ _ _ like to hide there.
birds bees
11

Pond dipping
Nessa was looking in one of the ponds on the peat bog and found lots of small
creatures. Help her finish off her chart. She found:
Four pond snails
Six great diving beetles
Two pond skaters
Five water boatmen
Eight tadpoles
Questions
1. Which creature did Nessa find most of? ____________________
2. Which creature did Nessa find least of? ____________________
Which of Nessa’s
creature’s
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
do you like best? ____________________
12

Plants on Peat Bogs
Nessa the newt went for a walk on the peat bog and saw some plants growing
there.
Help her work out the names of the plants she saw there.
Draw a line joining the plant’s
Bog cotton has long narrow leaves
and looks like balls of cotton wool
The sundew is a plant which eats insects.
It has small white flowers.
Bogmoss is a small green plant
with tiny leaves but no flower
Heather has tiny purple flowers
The cranberry has a pretty pink flower
name to the right picture.
13

pond snail
great diving beetle
pondskater
water boatman
tadpole
Pond Life
The ponds on peat bogs are great places for small minibeasts to live.
Write the sentences under the right water creature.
I hatch from frogspawn.
I skate across the top of the water.
I am a large beetle.
I swim upside down.
I grow into a frog.
14
I have a hard shell.
I have four legs touching the water.
I am a good swimmer and diver.
I use my back legs for swimming.
I have a soft body.

Differences and Similarities
Nessa is putting the animals she has seen on the peat bog into two groups.
One group has animals with 2 legs in it.
The other group has animals with 4 legs.
Help Nessa by drawing a circle around the animals with 2 legs
and a box around the animals with 4 legs.
Which is the odd animal out? _________________________
Which group could you put this animal in? _________________________
15

Animals and their Young
Animals are either male or female. Females can have babies.
The baby animals eat food and grow up into adult animals.
Draw lines to join up the adult and baby in each family.
Some animals look like their parents and some look completely different. Write
down two of the animals which do not look like their parents:
________________________
________________________
16

What sort of creature is it?
If you look at a creature close up, you can count how many legs it has. This
helps to tell you what sort of creature it is.
Count how many legs each of the creatures has to find out its name.
No legs
Four legs
Six legs
Eight legs
More than eight legs
17
Great diving beetle
Spider
Millipede
Frog
Snail

Why should we look after our Peat Bogs?
There are lots of reasons why we should make sure that our peat bogs are not
destroyed. Here are some people to tell you why they think we should look after
our peat bogs. Draw a line to connect the person to what they might say.
Peat bogs are full of
water which we need
for drinking, cooking,
washing and lots of
other things.
Peat bogs are beautiful
places to visit. They are
wild and very peaceful.
18
Many old things have been
found in the peat bogs which
tell us about how people lived
in the past. Wooden tools,
clothing and jewellery have
all been found.
There are lots of animals
and plants living there.
We do not want to destroy
their homes.

Peatland Wordsearch
Hidden in the wordsearch are the names of animals and plants found in peat
bogs.
Put a circle around the words when you find them.
c p e a t r n t w c
u d n g a o e f f o
r s u n d e w l r t
l d o u p q t z o t
e g p m o s s a g o
w l y l l k m j e n
a c x h e a t h e r
d r a g o n f l y b
h c r a n b e r r y
Cotton
Cranberry
Curlew
Dragonfly
Frog
19
Heather
Moss
Newt
Peat
Sundew
Tadpole

Camouflage
Some animals use camouflage. This means that they are the same colour as the
plants and soil around them. Frogs have camouflage to hide from their enemies.
They are brown, green and yellow. The colours and patterns on a frog’s skin
match where it lives.
20
Colour in the frog so that
he is hidden in the plants.
Colour in this box so that the
letters stand out and you can
read them.
Colour in this box so that the
letters are hidden and it is
hard to read them.

How a Butterfly Grows
The butterfly lays an egg which hatches into a caterpillar. The caterpillar eats a
lot of food. It holds onto a twig and makes a shell around its body. This is called
a chrysalis. Inside the chrysalis the caterpillar is changing into a butterfly. A
butterfly comes out of the chrysalis.
Put the right word next to each picture -
l Egg - tiny white eggs laid by a butterfly
l Caterpillar - the caterpillar grows very quickly
l Chrysalis - the hard shell where the growing butterfly is protected
l Butterfly - the butterfly lives for a very short time
21

P
E
A
T
B
O
G
Peat Bog Quiz
P
E
A
T
B
O
G
Colour Me In
22
Some people burn this in their fire.
This hatches into a caterpillar.
If it’s not a plant it must be an...
This animal grows up into a frog.
A caterpillar grows into this.
The colour of a marsh fritillary.
The colour of peat moss.

Make a Frog Mask
23
Cut out then colour in!

Certificate
Well done ______________________________
you have successfully completed Nessa Newt’s
Wetland and Bog booklet

Northern Ireland Environment Agency
Klondyke Building
Cromac Avenue
Gasworks Business Park
Belfast BT7 2JA
T. 0845 302 0008
www.ni-environment.gov.uk
Our aim is to protect, conserve and promote the
natural and built environment for the benefit of
present and future generations.