WildTime

Spending time outdoors is fun. We all appreciate a little bit of sunshine, a warm breeze, hearing birdsong or a refreshing summer rain. But learning a little about nature also helps to connect us to our surroundings and to feel a part of our wider world.

Research is also revealing to us the health benefits of being out in nature through things like a simple walk, forest bathing or quiet moments of mindfulness.

Whatever your motivation for spending time outdoors there are plenty of places to find encouragement and ideas.

Here is the first organisation and links to their materials to help you along your way.

The Wild Network website has many ideas including a weekly set of challenges which can be done either in or outdoors. I particularly like their animal clothes challenge. What animal can you make your clothes into? Here's an idea:-

Click here to see some more.

They also have walking bingo cards, a different one each week and a free film which introduces how the wild network was started.

The challenge I've taken is to build an obstacle course for a wild animal.

Over time quite a few creatures have visited our garden, i'll share them in future posts, but a the moment we have a couple of squirrels that come each morning.

Now these squirrels aren't very bright. To stop them taking the bird food I put up a nut feeder just for them with a lid. 

What did they do? They ate it! Don't believe me? Here's the evidence or what's left of it.

So without any high hopes I decided to build a squirrel run. The plan was for them to run along the top of the fence, along a rope to the first tray of nuts. Then along the rope and onto the arch to a basket with more nuts suspended from the arch.

Needless to say it didn't work out like this so the run was adapted and here is a short video to show you how it all went.

An adaptation of the run is under construction. The magpie ate all the nuts in the tray and then the squirrel discovered running up the stick. 

If you feel inspired it would be great to hear how you got on. Have fun😃

Gymnastics

Here is some inspiration to get you thinking about gymnastics.

The poem is called Gymnastics by Michael Rosen and can be found in his book 

Quick, Let's Get Out Of Here.

In Forest School we do a gymnastics based activity with Year 3 called Theseus and the Minotaur linked to their Greek project. 

In small groups the children make a gymnastic type obstacle to either go over, under or to balance upon. We also focus on Health and Safety to ensure these are safe to use. Each obstacle is then added together to make a labryinth for the children to escape the Minotaur. 

Here are some example pictures of the work they completed earlier in the year.

So your challenge is simple. Can you make a gymnastics course either indoors or outdoors?

You could use things like popup tunnels or large cardboard boxes if you have them. Why not balance on a brick? Put down two sticks to represent the banks of a stream and see if you can jump across. I'm sure you have lots of ideas and we'd love to see your photos.

Remember to stay safe and get things checked out by an adult.

By the way Gnorman has gone missing again. Can you find him in the pictures above. He appears four times. Remember to click on the photo to see a larger image.

Have fun.