Spring Checklist

Some of the teddy bears were playing in their garden recently on a warm, sunny day. "Do you think it's Spring yet?" asked Henry.

Teddy smiled. "Actually, Henry, it's been Spring for quite a while already," he replied.

"But how do you know?" asked Henry, refusing to just accept Teddy's response. He wanted to be able to tell if it was Spring without having to ask anyone else.

"Because of lots of things," continued Teddy. "The days are longer, the weather is warmer, lots of plants are growing and there are bees buzzing around. You don't get any of that in Winter."

Harry had also been wondering how to tell it was Spring - was it certain flowers? He joined in the conversation. "Are there any specific plants or bees or something that we can use as our indicators?" he asked.

"What a lot of questions!" Teddy laughed. "I'll tell you what - I have a checklist of things to look out for in the garden that definitely point to it being Spring. Would you like to try it?" he asked.

"Oh, yes please!" replied Henry and Harry together, and Teddy ran back indoors to find a copy of the sheet he had printed off from a Nature website only recently. It was covered in pictures of flowers, butterflies, bees, moths and lots of other things. It was very colourful and he was sure that the two little bears would like it.

When he returned with the list, Henry and Harry were very excited. "Oooh, it's just like a treasure hunt!" said Henry. "Let's see if we can find any of these things in our garden.

They set off to have a good look around. "Don't be too disappointed if you can't find everything on the list!" Teddy called after them. "Not every garden can contain everything on that list!"

At first the two bears were a little disappointed that they couldn't even find the first thing on the list. Then Henry suddenly shouted "Over here! Isn't this one of the yellow flowers we're looking for?"

Teddy and Harry hurried over. Teddy had brought one of Bubbles' nature books with him - all about wild flowers and the bears had a strip of wildflower meadow in their garden where Henry was now pointing at a lovely yellow flower.

Teddy checked his book. "Unfortunately it's not one of the items on the list," he confirmed. "But - it is a really pretty wildflower and it has a really unusual name too - Bird's-Foot Trefoil." He showed the other bears the picture in the book.

"Yes, that's exactly it!" said Henry. It was a lovely flower and he was only a little disappointed that it wasn't on the list.

"Let's look some more!" encouraged Harry. And, almost straight away, they noticed a butterfly landing on a flower near by. "I think that's on our list!" Harry exclaimed. Henry rushed over.

Sure enough, it was a Small Tortoiseshell butterfly which really was on the list. And what's more it was sitting on a dandelion - also on the list! That was two they could cross off at once! They were very pleased.

"And I think this is a coltsfoot!" Harry shouted as he turned around. "Another one off our list!"

This was great fun and even though not everything they saw was on their list, they did find a few more. Teddy was very pleased that they had enjoyed ticking off the checklist so much.

"Even though you haven't found everything," he told them, "You have actually seen lots of other flowers and butterflies and bees which we've been able to look up and find names for, so you're learning about lots of new things."

"You're right," said Henry. "I'm so glad we did this. And thank you, Teddy, for giving us the checklist to tick off. It's been great fun."

The bears went inside to get some nice long drinks of cold lemonade and to tell all the others what they had been up to.

"That sounds like a wonderful way to spend an hour or so," said Lizzie. "Teddy, can I have a copy of the checklist too? I'd like to see how many I can find."

"Me, too," piped up Richard. "And me," agreed Bubbles. Custard put up his paw. "Me as well," he declared. Teddy printed off a copy of the checklist for all the other bears and handed them round. Soon the house was empty - all the bears had gone outside to join in the Spring Treasure Hunt!

You can print off a copy here of the checklist that the bears followed. You could even make up one of your own - you could cut out pictures from nature magazines or print them off from a nature website. Have fun!