There’s something innately fascinating about the millions of tiny lives that are all around us in forest school. But please don’t call them minibeasts! It’s not a word. It’s an of dumbing-down and is totally unnecessary. Think of all the dinosaur names that very young children can say: tyrannosaurus rex, quetzalcoatlus, pachycephalosaurus…

The more we use the proper names for things at forest school, the more familiar they become and then they become part of our natural vocabulary and also part of our world. Common and indigenous names are great too as they can tell you many things about the creatures, as well as the people that named them. But that’s a post for another day!

In this short video I’ll show you how to use a pooter, a useful bit of kit for investigating invertebrates. It’s not a common bit of kit and it’s not always obvious how to use it. And it’s got a silly name!