Tag: nature activities

50 things to do for 30 Days Wild

Several years ago, the Wildlife Trusts launched 30 Days Wild, where in the month of June, you’re encouraged to explore and enjoy all the wildness and wonderfulness of nature. You can read more about it and order your free pack on their website. It’s something we like to dabble in, we’re a nature loving bunch and we are lucky enough to live in an area close to a river, woodlands, meadows and small patches of nature reserves. But even if you’re slap-bang in the middle of a busy city, there are always places where nature thrives.

50 things to do for 30 Days Wild

If you’re tempted to take part in 30 Days Wild, I’ve got 50 lovely ideas for exploring nature which will hopefully inspire you.

50 things to do for 30 Days Wild

  1. Plant wildflower seeds
  2. Do a beach clean
  3. Go rock-pooling 
  4. Do a bat walk 
  5. Make a bee house
  6. Do a nature scavenger hunt
  7. Camp in the garden
  8. Put out food for the birds and see what they attract
  9. Go cloud watching
  10. Play Pooh sticks
  11. Make clay faces on trees 
  12. Paint bird boxes and put them on trees
  13. Leave a patch of lawn unmowed and count the insects it attracts
  14. Plant some seeds and watch them grow 
  15. Do some leaf rubbing
  16. Make a daisy chain
  17. Do a litter pick in your local area
  18. Press some flowers and turn them into crafts 
  19. Make a flower crown
  20. Make a bug hotel 
  21. Go star gazing 
  22. Visit your local pond or river, what birds, insects or animals can you see?
  23. Learn to identify ten different kinds of tree
  24. Go pond dipping
  25. Feed the ducks (but feed them duck food)
  26. Learn how to rescue a bee 
  27. Plant sunflowers and watch them grow!
  28. Build a den
  29. Go crabbing 
  30. Go on a seaside scavenger hunt
  31. Make grass whistles
  32. Watch a spider spin a web
  33. Walk barefoot on the grass
  34. Listen to the nature sounds, what birds can you hear?
  35. Scatter seed bombs
  36. Find a dandelion clock and make a wish
  37. Recycle as much as you can 
  38. Climb a tree
  39. Go for a nature walk and identify some wild flowers 
  40. Count the birds visiting your garden for an hour
  41. Watch a sunset
  42. Or a sunrise
  43. Find out the collective nouns for groups of animals or birds
  44. Keep your eyes peeled for a murmuration of starlings
  45. Do some bark rubbings
  46. Toast marshmallows over a campfire
  47. Go foraging with a grown up who knows what to look for 
  48. Do some leaf crafts 
  49. Paint some rocks 
  50. Think about how you can attract more birds and insects to your garden, what can you plant or do to encourage them?

50 things to do for 30 Days Wild

Have you got any ideas to add to the list? Comment below what you’re doing for 30 Days Wild this year.

50 things to do for 30 Days Wild

FREE Printables: Learning about Bees

As spring turns into summer my garden is buzzing with insects. Like many people we are particularly keen to give our local bees a helping hand and a bit of love. Gone are the days where we pull up dandelions with abandon. Now we’ve got a scruffy, weedy, wild flower patch at the bottom of the garden; complete with a bug hotel, bird box and hedgehog home. It might take a year or two for them to be populated, but we are doing our bit.

How to create a wildlife garden with your kids

We are always on the look out for bees buzzing about the place and we have been learning a little bit about them too. Did you know that there are over 20,000 species of bee in the world and around 270 species of bee in the UK; but only one of these is a honeybee. People can be frightened of bees because they sting, but usually only if they’re being attacked or feel threatened. The are 600 species of stingless bees in the world. They’re all worth looking after and encouraging, so what can you do to encourage bees into your garden?

  • Grow plants with nectar and pollen
  • Create bee hotels and bee friendly habitats
  • Don’t been too keen to weed
  • Grow some wildflowers
  • Leave a patch of your garden unattended and let it run wild
  • Stop using pesticides and weed killers

You don’t have to have a big garden to make the world a bit more bee friendly, a window box or a couple of pots of flowering plants by your front door can all help. If we all learn a bit more about our bee friends, together we can help to support them and create an environment where they can thrive.

learning about bees

The free to download sheets include pictures to colour in and a few facts about –
  • Bees
  • Beehives
  • Honey

It’s enough to keep the kids occupied for a while and a good place to start if you’re going to start learning about bees with them.

Download your FREE learning about bees worksheets here

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FREE Printables: Learning about Bees

Book Review: Hello Nature by Nina Chakrabarti

We’ve been learning a lot about nature recently, going on nature trails and exploring our local environment. Alongside that we’ve been doing some reading about nature and the natural world. To complement that, we’ve spent some time doing some o the nature activities in a really interesting book called Hello Nature by Nina Chakrabarti.

Hello Nature is a wonderfully illustrated 160 page nature scrapbook. It’s full of interesting facts and activities to help you explore and learn more about nature. The book encourages you to “draw, colour, make and grow” all over its pages.

Book Review: Hello Nature by Nina Chakrabarti

Colour in butterflies, leaves, frogs, pebbles and much more; discover more about what different kinds of snowflakes there are; learn about how leaves are formed; make your own leaf prints and twig sculptures; and make bird feeders and grass whistles. Hello Nature is packed with simple nature activities for children.

Hello Nature is aimed at children aged 7-11 years, but it’s so beautiful it would make a great present for anyone interested in drawing or painting nature.

You don’t have to live in the countryside to make the most of this book. You can use it to explore your back garden or local park. Take it with you to the beach and find out more about the shells you find and the creatures you may find in a rockpool.

Book Review: Hello Nature by Nina Chakrabarti

The book is split into four seasonal sections; with crafts, activities and things to draw, paint and colour in each section. It’s a wonderful nature scrapbook you can dip in and out of throughout the year, noting the changing of the seasons and the nature around you. It is the kind of book which you can pull out at half terms and school holidays and spend a few afternoons working on. It’s a lovely project to do throughout the year and something special to look back on at a later date.

The illustrations by Nina Chakrabarti are beautifully detailed and the words are insightful, encouraging the reader to explore what the see, feel and experience. How does bark feel? How does the forest smell? It encourages you to be more aware of the natural world and experience it will all of your senses. Something I very much approve of.

Book Review: Hello Nature by Nina Chakrabarti

Hello Nature has arrived at just the right time for us. We are going camping in the woods later this month; so we will take this and use it to help identify trees, leaves, insects and do some lovely nature based activities.

Hello Nature by Nina Chakrabarti costs £12.99. It’s published by Laurence King and is available from a wide range of bookshops including Amazon.

For details of more children’s books published by Laurence King, visit their website.

Disclosure: We were sent a copy of Hello Nature for review purposes. All images and opinions are our own.