Final Challenge

To complete the challenges, think back over the holidays the places you’ve been, the animals and plants you’ve seen.

CHALLENGE 7: Make a painting about your experience of nature over the holidays. It could be a favourite view, a place you went to or animals/plants that you saw. Upload your painting to share.

Trees and Leaves

We are surrounded by trees, you’ll find them in your garden, street, fields, parks and woodlands. But do you know their names? Can you identify them from their leaves?

Download a kit here and see how many trees you can find.

11%20Common%20trees%20id%20sheet-simple%20names[27082008] – Tree ID sheet

Why not have a go at making a bark boat.

What you need

 

• A large piece of bark (that has already fallen on the ground)
• A twig or toothpick
• A large leaf
• Blu-Tack
• A friend to race with

Step by Step Help

• Step 1 Find a nice piece of bark – the flatter the better! Test it in a bucket of water or even your bath – you need to make sure that it floats.
• Step 2 Head back to the garden to find a small, straight twig. You can also use a toothpick if you want.
• Step 3 Lastly, you need to find a big leaf. Please remember that trees and plants need their leaves, so always gather your nature bits from things that have already fallen on the ground.
• Step 4 Carefully thread your twig or toothpick through your leaf so that it looks like a mast and sail.
• Step 5 Place a small amount of Blu-Tack in the middle of your piece of bark. To attach your twig mast to the bark, push one end of the twig or toothpick into the Blu-Tack.
• Step 6 Send your bark boat on its first voyage! You may need to move the Blu-Tack and the mast around on your bark until you get the right balance

CHALLENGE 6: Write a piece of poet-tree and post it as a comment.

http://www.naturedetectives.org.uk/play/games/concretepoetry.htm

Creepy Crawlies and Mighty Mini Beasts

Insects can be found anywhere, why not have a look just in your own garden. They can be seen around flowers, under stones and logs, in soil. Use the identification kits to see what you can find. Don’t forget to put the habitat back as it was once you’ve had a look.

Common%20invertebrates%20id%20sheet%202010[21052010] – Mini beast ID sheet

Bubble bug – free online game for kids

Super Bugs game – free to play.

 CHALLENGE 5: Using the identification kit make a model of one of the insects, you could use natural materials, pipe cleaners, wood, clay or junk modelling materials. Post a comment to let us know which insects you’ve seen and upload a photograph of your model to share.

Amazing Birds

There are some amazing birds in Britain, but often don’t really notice them. Why not visit Pennington Flash, Rivington or your local park/woodland to see which you can spot. Take binoculars if you have them to see the colours and detail.

You can download an identification kit here:

BIRD%20ID%20SHEET%20revised%20Feb[23022009] – Bird ID sheet

Bird Colouring Sheet[10072009]  _ Colouring sheet

BIRDS%20AROUND%20US%20WORDSEARCH%5B07082008%5D  – Wordsearch

MBBPACKPAGES11to12[23062009] More Bird ID

 

CHALLENGE 4: using the identification kit make a drawing of one of the birds, you can use any materials you like. Post a comment to let us know which birds you’ve seen and upload a photograph of your drawing to share.

Websites to help

http://www.easy-drawings-and-sketches.com/draw-a-bird.html

http://www.drawingnow.com/how-to-draw-a-bird.html

http://www.dragoart.com/tuts/7451/1/1/how-to-draw-a-flying-bird.htm

http://learn-how-to-draw-now.com/Bird-Step-1.html

http://www.dragoart.com/tuts/1374/1/1/how-to-draw-a-heron-bird.htm

http://www.wikihow.com/Draw-a-Bird

Wild Flower Search

Wild flower search

All over Britain there are many wild flowers growing in fields, woodlands, parks and even wasteland.

Download an identification sheet here:

 MBBPACKPAGES31to32[23062009]  – Wildflower ID sheet

CHALLENGE 3: This week’s challenge is to take the most interesting photograph of wild flowers. Post a comment about how you got on with the hunt and upload your photograph to share.

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Scavenger hunt

Scavenger hunt

This week we are sending you on a scavenger hunt. Why not take a family trip to local woodlands or a park and see how many of our scavenger list you can find. Post a comment to tell us how you got on and what you scored.

• 1 point – Pine cone
• 2 points – Dandelion
• 3 points – Funny shaped rock or stone
• 5 points – Purple flower
• 8 points – Something a bird would eat
• 10 points – Feather
• 15 points – Photo or drawing of you hiding behind a tree
• 18 points – Y-shaped twig or stick
• 20 points – Four-leaf clover (good luck!)
• 25 points – BONUS: Something blue from nature

Land artists use only things found in nature to create pictures and sculptures. Here are some examples.

CHALLENGE 2: Try your own land art while you are out and about or just in your back garden. Take a photo and upload to show what you created.

Butterfly Hunt

Butterfly hunt

Here is our first challenge. There are 58 species of butterfly in Britain, however, many butterflies are becoming rare, why not see how many you can find in the next week. Download guides to identifying butterflies and see which ones you can find. Add a comment to let us know how you get on.

Butterfly%20ID%20Sheet%2017%20species[28072009] – butterfly ID sheet

Butterfly%20ID%20Sheet%2019%20Species[10092010] butterfly ID sheet 2

 Butterflies can be found in your garden and street, but why not try one of the following local places which attract butterflies:

http://www.woodlandtrust.org.uk/en/visit-woods/pages/search-result.aspx

Try out some butterfly activities here:

Bug blaster game – free nature game, play online.

kite_instructions              kite_paintedlady         kite_peacock                       kite_redadmiral

mobile_flutterby                mobile_largeoutlines    mobile_smalloutlines

CHALLENGE 1: Using the identification sheets design your own piece of art work about British butterflies. Here are some ideas to get you thinking and designing.

           Upload a scan or photograph of your final piece of art work.