SUMMER NATURE CLUB
Last week we ran our summer nature club, which despite the weather, was thoroughly enjoyed by all our young visitors. The main aim of the week was to teach children about the natural world through a number of activities taking place across our 400 acre site. They were given the opportunity to explore and discover a variety of different areas. Much enjoyment was had within our area of mature woodland with lessons in fire lighting, dam and bridge building across the stream and some exploring along our ditch system.
Alongside all this exploration, we were able to teach the children about the natural world with some tree identification, pond dipping and learning to view the world as different animals do by using our hawk vision to search into the distance and walking like a fox to make no noise when moving. This all helped lead towards achieving an award for ‘Leave No Trace’, these are the 7 principles by which we can explore nature without leaving a long lasting impact. All the kids did fantastically well, and each and every one was keen to learn how they can limit their impact on the natural world and everyone received a ‘Leave No Trace’ certificate to show they had completed the course.
We also made bird feeders from pine cones, bird seed and vegetable fat, created a fairy glade using clay fairies and animals, all hand-made by our visitors. We camouflaged and hid ourselves to show how animals in nature can hide, We made natural pencils using willow and elder. We also played a variety of games aimed to improve their knowledge of the natural world and also have fun.
We will be running another Nature Club, in partnership with Braintree District Council, during the October half term. More details to follow.
We are delighted with the feedback we have received:
I just wanted to email to say thank you to the team last week on the summer nature club. My daughter, had an amazing time. The experiences that she gained were great and thoroughly enjoyed every minute of it even coming home with mud everywhere including the inside of her welly boots!
The club was amazing value and I would recommend it to any parent.
Thank you again.
Michelle
I just wanted to let you know how much my children loved the Nature Club last week.
“Helen and Will were fantastic with the children and must have worked extremely hard to keep them all entertained. The weather was really against them, my children came home each day covered in mud and soaked through but excited about returning the next day. Ditch walking, den building, tree climbing, fire lighting, to name just a few of their favourite activities. They had daily camp fires with hot chocolate and without even realising they were fed valuable information about looking after nature and our important wildlife. They have already asked if they could attend again next year! Thank you for making me aware of the course and please send on my thanks to your team.”
Catherine
