All you really need is nature and you for hours of fun but…
If you sometimes take these simple things with you then you can do the activities listed below:
- A collecting bag
- String (brown or green garden string not plastic string in case any bits get left)
- Scissors
- Masking tape
If you have made things out and about please make sure you either take them with you (don't try to take a den with you on the bus!) or that they can return to nature without any bits of card, string, or tape left to harm wildlife.
A collecting bag:
You could make your own by folding a piece of card or thick paper in half and then stapling or taping down two sides leaving top side free for stashing your finds!
Nature is full of treasure to find
Some of these activities involve collecting nature
But before you collect anything remember:
Several of the places we suggest to explore are nature reserves. They provide habitat for special, and sometimes rare or endangered animals and plants living in them. Please respect their homes.
- For making things only collect nature which has already fallen to the ground.
- Wild food foraging is wonderful (eg.blackberries, nettles, hazelnuts) but make sure you know what it is. See ‘Food For Free’ by Richard Mabey (page 61).
- Watch out where dogs have been!
- Some berries are poisonous. If you aren't with an expert or 100% sure what a berry is then don't pick it.
- None of these activities involve picking up mushrooms or toadstools. Have a good look, but don't pick. Go on a guided walk with an expert
Activities
Conkers
An old favourite! Conker championships have been played in this country for centuries. All you need is a piece of string and something sharp to make a hole. An adult can make the holes in the conkers and you can thread your string though and away you go. You take it in turns hitting each other’s conkers. The aim usually is to have the strongest conker that doesn't get smashed. Can you think of your own versions?
Blackberry picking
Yum yum yum! Our hedgerows are full of wonderous treats to eat but you are right to be cautious when seeking out 'wild food'. However blackberries can be easily recognised by everyone and make an autumn walk into a feast. Take a bag or box with you for crumble!
'Nature Me' Stick
If you wrap a piece of masking tape sticky side out around the top of your wellies (or the cuffs of your coat) you can cover it with fallen leaves, interesting twigs…In the summer you can give yourself claws with long dry grass! You can also use double sided tape on card. Try taking a pre-cut card mask with you (or collect nature to stick on your mask when you get home).
Turn yourself into a creature of the woods!
Nettle Nosh
Another wild food that you are safe with - as long as you use gloves! You can collect nettles (best away from edges of roads/dog walking paths). The fresh tops leaves are best. Puth them in a pan, just cover with water and simmer until soft. These can now be used in soup, omlettes or as they are with butter and seasoning!
Camouflage
With a bit of cloth you can be completely camouflaged. Calico or cotton are cheap to buy or an old white t-shirt would do! You could cut out a tabard. Rub grass and mud all over it for a really good disguise. Make a disguising crown from card or cloth. Put a strip of double-sided tape round on the outside and add leaves.
Nature notebook
Staple bits of scrap paper together and take this and a pencil with you. Each time you are out record what you see or hear or discover.
What shapes can you spy in the trees?
Some woodlands are dark and have ancient twisty branches. Have a look through the trees. What shapes can you see? Are there dragons lurking? Are there snakes or giant beetles? When the sun shines can you see woodland fairies? Lying under any tree you can do this - in your own garden or a park or an orchard.
Rainbow Chips
Cut up some coloured card (or collect paint colour sample cards and cut those up). On a small piece of card stick two lines of double sided sticky tape. Peel off one of the sticky tapes and stick 3 or four of your coloured pieces onto it. Your challenge whilst out and about is to find things in nature which match these colours.
Texture challenge
Find something prickly, something soft, something bendy, something hard, something furry… Why not take an empty egg box with you you could have a separate compartment for each texture.
Have fun with other challenges
Find something...
- That reminds you of holidays
- That looks like a creature
- That is heavy
Leaf art
Especially great in Autumn when millions of colours swirl to the ground. Can you make a butterfly from autumn leaves? Or a snake? Can you make a colourful path that leads your friends into the woods?
Earth banners
Cut a square of calico or cotton cloth. Use nature as your paints. Rowan berries, black berries and elder berries give reds and purples. Different muds for a palette of browns. Rub the cloth on the grass for green. Dandelions and buttercups can be rubbed on for yellows. But don’t pick rare wildflowers. If you have collected these things to make your banner at home you could put them in a real paint pallet and mix with water.
Haven't got a paintbrush?
Fingers are great!
Or to make a brush: collect a stick, collect some bristles (grass, smaller twigs) and bind them together with masking tape.
If you want to get fancy use strips of masking tape to mask off areas to stay white whilst you cover the rest of the cloth in nature paints.
Mobiles/hanging things
Collect nature's treasures and you can make all sorts of things with just a ball of string and some scissors to cut it!
A mobile:
Tie treasures at different lengths of string to a strong stick. You could hang this from the branches of a tree in your garden. If you find a bendy stick make a circle to hang things in. Or make a frame by lashing fours sticks together and
hang your finds inside.
Tree earrings:
Trees need jewellery too! Especially in the winter time if they don't have leaves, flowers or seeds. Chose your finds carefully and thread or tie them onto string.
Take them home to decorate your garden!
Shower curtain challenge
Tie a piece of string between two trees. Use your finds from the texture challenges - page 46 (or set each other new challenges) and hang them down in lines from the string. Eg. If you have to find 'prickly things' hang all the prickly things on one line.
Seed socks
Take a spare pair of old socks with you into the park or grassland. Put them over your shoes. Your feet are now like animal feet picking up and carrying seeds! Have a good look at the different shapes and sizes of the seeds. What have they come from? How would they normally get carried? Give your socks a good shake out!
Mini beast hunting
In the undergrowth, around trees, on river banks in parklands live many many millions of tiny creatures. What can you find today? Take a plastic drinking cup, a plastic spoon and you can carefully pick up the bugs and put them in the pot to have a look. Always put the creatures back where you found them.
If you want to look even closer bug pots with magnifying lenses can be bought from Herefordshire Nature Trust or places like Early Learning Centre.
Leaf badges
Thread the stalk of one leaf through another leaf and so on till you have made yourself a dangling leaf badge - the trees will welcome you into the woods now.
Tree bingo
Why not look in a book before you go out - or on a rainy day and draw the shapes of 6 different leaves. Copy this out for each member of your family and take it with you, The first person to spot all 6 leaves shouts leaf bingo!
Mud faces
Herefordshire mud is mostly clay!! Perfect! Take a lump in your hands, Squidge it and squash it onto a nearby tree. Add leaves, twigs, grasses, berries for eyes, ears…..Does it have a long beard? Pointy hair? A crooked mouth?
Go on a listening walk
Don't talk just listen... Is that possible?! If not stand still for a minute and play elephant ears. Put your hands over your ears. After counting to 10 take your hands away but keep them behind your ears like an elephant and be completely quiet for another count of 10 or longer. What can you hear? Your elephant ears will funnel the noises and make them louder.
Den Building
Surely the most fun anyone can ever have outdoors. The woodlands we have listed in this guide are perfect places for making shelters. Use your imaginations.
Create palaces, dormice nests, secret caves…
Use the shapes that are there in nature already. The space between two trees, the twisted branch of a huge fallen log. Always use branches & twigs that have already fallen. On a dry day you might find some soft grass of pine needles to make the floor cosy!
Grown ups join in but don't take over!
Bracken is tempting to use but be careful it can cut your hands if you try to pull it out. Don’t use between July and September because of the spores.
Cloud gazing
Out on open grassland? In a park? Take time to lie on your back and look up. What shapes can you see in the sky? What stories do they tell?
Tracking and trailing
Can you lay a trail? Divide your group into two. The first group set off and lay arrows for the others with sticks/stones/seeds – whatever is available on the ground. Wait at the end and see if the others can find you. Or head back to them to help them round if its really tricky!!
Invent your own symbols - but make sure you agree them before you set off!
Make a mapstick
Whilst you wander on your journey...collect some treasure and a longish strong stick…
- When you come back lay out your treasures and the long stick
- Use string to tie things onto your stick in the order you found them
- You could use different colour wool to be the sky or the sun
- Leave one end clear and you can stick your stick in the ground It is an upright map showing the Places you explored
Digital camera
If you have a digital camera why don't you all have a go at taking what you see in a particular spot. Or one person could use the camera and the others close their eyes. When you look at the pictures later see if you can each guess what or where the others pictures were?
Bat & Moth game
If there are quite a few of you (7 or more) you can experience the twilight world of bats!
Especially good played where bats might live –
in woods, near old barns, along old hedgerows.
Form a circle. One person is the bat and enters the middle of the circle and is blindfolded (an old scarf will do). Two to five others also go into the circle. They are moths. The bat tries to catch all the moths staying within the circle. The bat calls out 'bat' and the moths then call back 'moth'. This mimics nature as the bat sends out his 'sonar signal' to see where his flying food is!
Secrets of shallow streams
Look gently under rocks for insect larvae. Take time to have a picnic or a drink break beside a stream or river - that way you might get chance to see the dragonflies, kingfishers and other special wildlife that lives along Herefordshire's waterways. (Unless your picnic is a very noisy one!)
Meet a Tree
Perfect in an orchard or a clearing! In pairs, one person is blindfolded and is led by the other to a particular tree. (They don't need to go far). Ask the blindfolded person to feel the tree. (Don't let them get poked by any low pointy branches).
What is the bark like?
Can they put their arms around it?
Can you feel anything growing in it?
Then the blindfolded person is led back by a slightly different route to where you started. Remove the blindfold and see if the person can find their particular tree!
Make a nest
Giant or tiny. This is great in the spring time when all the birds around you are making nests. Gather twigs, leaves, wool, feathers anything you can find and make a nest on the ground.
