#10fortrees Kids activities
We know that it can be difficult to keep the kids occupied so we have put together a few nature-based activities to keep the little ones amused. We’d love you to share your artwork and stories by sending to info@forceswiveschallenge.org or message us on FWC Facebook. Hope you enjoy them!
build a bug hotel
Credit: Marc Pether-Longman
Why not build a bug hotel and see what kind of cool critters you can attract to your garden? The best time to build these is at the beginning of Autumn, to give creepy-crawlies a place to hunker down over the colder months. That being said, why not start now and get the hotel well established so that it gains a good reputation with the local residents?
You will need:
Wooden pallets are essential – perhaps asking at builder’s yards, garden centres and maybe even supermarkets for free pallets.
As for the rest, you can get pretty creative! Old holy jumper that you were going to throw out? Could be super cosy for some of your guests. Worn shoes that have seen better days? Why not chuck those in too! Here is a list of other things you might like to use.
Plastic bottles
Broken bricks and tiles
Stone chippings
Broken plant pots
Corrugated cardboard
Drainpipes
Logs and twigs
Rotting wood
Spare rolls of turf
Dry leaves
Bark
Hollow plant stems
Straw and hay
Bamboo canes
How to build your insect home:
1 - Look for a level patch in a cool, shady and damp area of your garden – next to a hedge or under a tree will work well. It is important to make sure the base will be stable as it is likely the structure will become reasonably heavy.
2 - Layer old pallets on top of each other, one, two, four stories…as high as you would like your hotel to be. Place any larger pallets at the bottom to create a sturdier base. Check the pallets don’t wobble; secure each to the one below (with string, wire or pull ties) if you need to.
3 - This is where the fun begins! Fill in all the gaps with your additional materials. There are no rules and you can be creative here but different materials will attract different bugs. For example:
Dead wood makes a great home for wood-boring beetles, such as the majestic stag beetle, and their larvae. It also supports fungi, which can break down the natural material. Centipedes and woodlice can burrow under the bark.
Hollow stems, canes, and holes drilled into blocks of wood are all ideal spots for solitary bees to lay their eggs. These bees help pollinate flowers (so helping your plants produce vegetables) in the garden. Because solitary bees like sunny spots, place these on the sunniest side of the insect home.
Stone and tiles provide lovely cool, moist conditions for frogs and newts. They might be best lower down, on the shadiest side of the insect home.
Hay and straw give insects a good place to burrow and hibernate.
Dry leaves provide homes for insects, just like leaf litter on the forest floor. Ladybirds hibernate here over winter – and they’re great for eating aphids in the garden.
Corrugated cardboard rolled up inside a lemonade bottle will attract lacewings, which are really good at eating pests.
2. BUILD A BIRD FEEDER
Credit: Tony Alter
Always wanted a bird feeder in your garden but never got around to buying one? Well you can build your own and recycle – two eco-friendly activities for the price of one!
You will need:
A plastic bottle with a lid. Make sure it is clean and dry
2 x sticks, pieces of dowl, pencils or wooden spoons
String or twine
Bird Seed
1 x Drawing pin
Sharp pair of scissors
How to build your bird feeder:
1 - Using the drawing pin, make two holes at the bottom of the bottle on opposite sides. Widen these using the scissors until their diameter is just narrower than the sticks/pencils you will be using.
2 - Push your first stick through the holes so that there is a little bit poking out each side – these will be used as perches by the birds.
3 - Do the same half-way up the bottle for your second piece of dowl/pencil/stick, however, this time, use the opposite sides of the bottle from the one you used before so that the sticks form a cross in the middle of the bottle.
4 - About 4cm above each perch, use the drawing pin to make a hole and again, widen these with the scissors before cutting a small hole around 7-8mm in diameter so the birds can access the seed. If you are using particularly small bird seed, alter the size of these holes accordingly. Make a few drainage holes in the bottom of your bottle using the drawing pin and again, widen them slightly with your scissors – these should be relatively small holes.
5 - Towards the top of the bottle, make a couple of holes opposite each other to thread the string through and make a loop so that you can hang your bottle from a tree branch, hook, or hedge bough.
6 - Fill the bottle from the top with your bird seed before screwing on the bottle cap. N.B. we would recommend filling the bottle with the birdseed out doors so that any spillage can be hoovered up by the birds.
3. tree leaf rubbings
Create your own nature-inspired art, whilst also learning some ID skills. Stop and notice the difference between trees and their leaves, bark and structure. Do they have big leaves or small ones? Do they grow tall straight up to the sky or do they grow wide and spread their branches out?
You will need:
Paper
Crayons
Leaves
How to do your leaf rubbing:
1 - Collect leaves of various shapes and sizes, see if you can find 10 different types of leaf!
2 - Place a leaf with its bottom side facing up (the rough side rather than the smooth).
3 - Put a sheet of paper, preferably thin or lightweight, over the leaf.
4 - Rub the side of a crayon or an oil pastel gently on the area over the leaf. As you do this, you'll see the coloured areas start to take the shape of the leaf. Make sure you rub over the entire leaf!
5 - Remove the leaf from under the paper. This completes the basic steps for making a leaf rubbing.
6 - You can use more than one leaf per page, maybe even overlap some of them to create a stunning picture.
7 - Here leaves from some of the most common trees in the UK, do you recognise any of them?
4. Pressed flowers placemats/coasters
You will need:
Flowers and leaves
Sticky-back plastic, like the plastic you would use to cover school exercise books
Cardboard
Scissors
Any additional decoration, eg: ribbon, bio-degradable glitter etc.
How to make your coaster:
1 - On your next walk, look for some leaves and pretty wild-flowers. Remember to only pick one or two flowers from each patch to make sure that some are always left behind.
2 - Remove the flower blossoms and leaves from their stems and arrange them on the cardboard. Make sure you are happy with how they look as once you put the sticky-back plastic on them, you won’t be able to re-arrange.
3 - For each coaster/place mat that you are making, cut two pieces of sticky-backed plastic of identical size. It is a good idea to cut them slightly larger than the size of the cardboard you are using by about 0.5cm all the way around.
4 - Peel off the backing from one of the pieces of sticky-backed plastic and lay it on the table, sticky side facing up.
5 - Arrange your flowers onto the plastic – making sure to press down firmly. If you want to add extra decoration, now is your time do to so…get creative! Make sure everything is lying as flat as possible and then place your cardboard on top. Press the edges down firmly.
6 - Peel the back off the second piece of sticky-backed plastic and lay it sticky side down on top of the cardboard. Make sure you do this slowly so that there are no bubbles between the plastic and the cardboard.
5. let it grow - wildflower patch of grass in the garden
The beauty of this is that you don’t have to do anything! Find a patch of grass in your garden that is tucked away, maybe next to the fence line or next to a veg patch and let it grow! Don’t mow it, don’t cut it back, just leave it and see what springs up! Letting your grass grow to encourage bees and pollinating insects to visit your garden which in turn will help pollinate your plants and perhaps even keep pesky aphids away from vegetable patches!