This week's theme is Tracks & Trails, we’ll be creating and following our own ones, thinking about maps and navigation, and looking at the trails that animals leave in our gardens… I’ve got a mixture of indoor and outdoor activities, some arts and crafts, some challenges and some running around games.
Listen to...
A Day in a Forested Wetland, Kevin Kurtz & Itsy Bitsy Spider’s Heroic Climb, David Novak
Weave… a spider’s web, by gathering 3 sticks from your garden (or 3 lolly sticks) and making them into the shape of a star. Cut a piece of string that is as tall as you, and then tie the sticks together tightly in the middle. Then begin to weave the string around the different sticks to make a spiral shape, until you’ve woven a spider’s web
Track… the snails in your garden, by looking for their sparkly trails and following them until you spot the snail!
Glue… a snail trail picture. Place a piece of coloured card on a tray (with sides), and make patterns on the it with PVA or pritt-stick. Tip sand, flour, rice or lentils onto the gluey card and let it dry, and then lift it up to let all the non-stuck bits fall off, leaving a snail trail along the card
Create… a Japanese Zen Garden, by filling your tray with sand, or lentils or flour, and using a fork or a pencil to create shapes. Here are some pictures for inspiration, and some of my attempts!
Make… an indoor track for your toy animals, cars and dinosaurs to explore, using masking tape along the floorboards. Add trees, ramps, roundabouts to create a miniature world that can be peeled away again
Decorate… a Nature Treasure Chest to keep all of the pine cones, conkers, leaves and pebbles you find in. Take a shoe box and paint it to make it look like wood. While it’s drying, cut up tissue paper and twist it to create vines. Scrunch up tissue paper to make leaves. Or create any other natural decoration you would like! Glue them onto the chest once the paint is dry. Create a buckle for the chest with an old belt, or paint one on. Line the inside with fabric if you have any spare. Varnish it to make it water-tight, or just start collecting things to fill it up!
Hide… your treasure chest, or some other pirate treasure, somewhere in your house or garden! Draw a treasure map of your house or garden and use a damp teabag to age it. Take it in turns to mark an ‘X’ on the map, hide your treasure chest in the corresponding place, and let the others find where you’ve hidden the treasure using your map! You can also hide your treasure chest, and play ‘warmer’ / ‘colder’ to guide people to the treasure, saying ‘colder’ when they’re getting further away, and ‘warmer’ when they get close!
Gather… natural objects from your garden or on a walk, and create a 3-D map of your garden or the park using the objects. Twigs could stand in for tree trunks, leaves could make the sky or the ground… Here's one we made, depicting our Forest School!
Leave… arrow trails made from twigs around the house or the garden for other people to follow
Draw… a compass onto the ground with chalk, or onto a big piece of paper, and learn which direction is North, East, South and West. Play a game of hopping 3 steps to the North… or jumping 5 times to the East… or touching the nearest wall to the South…
Play… Capture the Flag, by creating flags (with a stick and some fabric or ribbon, or drawing a picture of a flag). Each team chooses a base to stick their flag in. Split into two teams. Your job is to sneak across to the other team’s base, capture their flag, and escape back to your base to plant it there!
Cook… snail shaped pancakes…. A ladle-ful of pancake mix makes the shell, and then using a spoon you can create its head, maybe even some tentacles!
Germinate... lentils and chickpeas on your windowsill. Take a handful of them and place them in a sieve. Rinse them, and place them on some damp kitchen roll in a jam jar. Place them on a windowsill. Every morning, put them back in the sieve and rinse them, and replace the kitchen roll. You'll start to see them put out roots and shoots - and by day 3 you can eat them! Eat them raw or cook them, or wait until they get bigger and plant them in a seed tray full of soil.
I hope you have fun this week exploring tracks & trails, do comment with pictures and feedback and let me know how it all goes!