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Get kids active this summer
Added: (Thu Jul 14 2005)
14 July 2005
Word Count <646>
Get kids outside and active this summer
With a little forward planning summer is a fabulous time for children to get outside and active and start exploring their outdoor space. For the summer holidays Learning through Landscapes (LTL), the national charity that targets the development of outdoor spaces, recommends some simple but challenging activities that will delight children of all ages.
”During our National School Grounds Week children really enjoyed getting outside, active and dirty with a host of activity themes to try out,” said Graham Parsons, development officer with Learning through Landscapes. “These activities are also great for trying out during the summer and will not cost a fortune for parents or carers. We encourage everyone, especially children, to have a go with these activities, get active and get outside this summer.”
Three activities which are ideal for those lazy, hazy summer days include:-
Activity 1 Rainbow Collection
Checklist
v Coloured card or paint charts
v Small bags
v Chalk or large sheets of paper and pens
How to do it….
1. Give each child a colour palette made up from different colours of card. Alternatively, use paint charts from a DIY store.
2. Ask the children to go in search of any materials they can find outside that roughly match each colour and collect them in their bag. Emphasise they are not allowed to take any living items, such as leaves still on trees, plants, etc. and remind them to use gloves if collecting any items of litter.
3. Ask the children to sort their items according to colour. Using tally marks chalked on tarmac or written on paper, collate the number of items of each colour.
4. Discuss which colours are the most common and why they think this is. This is a good activity to try at different times of the year and compare the difference (if any) in seasonal colour and the possible reasons for this.
Activity 2: Make a Wildlife Hotel
How wildlife friendly is your outside space? What is your Wealth of Wildlife (WOW) factor? It is very easy to make hotels for minibeasts to measure the biodiversity of your garden.
Checklist
v Potatoes and other vegetables / fruit
v Magnifying glasses, collecting trays, and recording materials
How to do it….
1. Hollow out half a potato with a teaspoon making a hole at each end.
2. Lay the potato flat on the ground so that the entrance is level with the surface.
3. Experiment by leaving the hotel in different places to see how the wildlife diversity differs in different habitats and at different times of day.
4. Use different fruits and vegetables as hotels – how does this affect the creatures captured?
5. Older children could be encouraged to examine the creatures further using microscopes or magnifying glasses. Can they classify them into different types of organisms (e.g. by looking at numbers of legs, presence/absence of wings, presence/absence of pollen on body).
6. Draw/paint the creatures and then return them to where they were found.
Activity 3 Muddy Masterpieces
Checklist
v Tubs or buckets
v Mud or soil
v Heavy paper or card
v Poster paints
v Brushes
How to do it….
1. Mix up some tubs of mud with water, getting to a consistency similar to poster paint. Decide whether you should do this or whether your children could make their own small pot of ‘paint’.
2. Using a heavier paper or card as the background paint mud pictures. You could take some inspiration from cave painting or aboriginal paintings.
3. You could combine the mud with traditional poster paints to get different colours. In terms of colour you could use ‘earth’ colours and talk about how people first made their marks. What materials were available to them?
Why not…
paint a brighter colour onto your paper? Leave to dry. Paint over this paint with your mud. Scrape into the mud to show the bright paint beneath.
ENDS
For further information please contact:
Helen Forrest on 01786 466553, mobile 07879 814883
Notes for editors
Learning Through Landscapes give advice and support to schools on use, design, management and maintenance. Good school grounds not only provide the opportunity for exercise and creative play, but also add a new dimension to learning by offering direct contact with the natural world and practical hands-on experience. The charity gives guidance on how best to develop grounds to give the best chance of success and, crucially, on how to sustain them.