Jul 6, 2017 - We have six summer activities to get your girls outdoors connected to the natural world. The days are long
Summer RSPB Growing Up Wild activities Summer has finally arrived! We have six summer activities to get your girls outdoors connected to the natural world. The days are longer so there is no excuse not to get outdoors! The evenings are longer and warmer, leaves are all on the trees and everything is bursting with life. Spot and learn the names of some wild flowers or just lie back on the grass and watch the fascinating flying mini beasts buzz over your heads. Get your RSPB Growing Up Wild Paw Print! The RSPB and Girlguiding LaSER are working together to get hundreds of girls and their leaders outdoors exploring, having fun and learning about the natural world. In order to encourage units outside we’ve created a special Growing Up Wild RSPB Paw Print! In order to get this Paw Print the RSPB have put six seasonal activities together of which you will need to complete three activities outdoors and complete the evaluation form to receive your badges. Complete the requirements and receive an RSPB Growing Up Wild Paw Print. You and your unit MUST complete the activities first then follow the link to the evaluation form and instructions for ordering your badge. What you need to do: Ask your unit to choose 3 activities from the list below
Click on the chosen link to download the unique RSPB PDF’s to print off and use
Complete the activities – remember to be outdoors!
Spend a minimum of 30 minutes doing each activity
Paw Prints cost 80p each Follow the link to complete a Google form evaluation and directions for ordering the badges
https://goo.gl/forms/xvXbqZQFq0ASS74Y2
Badges will be administered through the Girlguiding LaSER Regional Office
Badges will be sent out once the completed evaluation form and payment has been received
Please note girls and leaders will be able to earn the same RSPB Growing Up Wild Paw Print if they attend an RSPB/Girlguiding LaSER event at an RSPB reserve, unless a unique bade for the event is otherwise promoted. Please contact the Girlguiding LaSER office if you would like a PDF any of the other seasonal activities and we can send this to you as a PDF.
[email protected]
Activities 1. Hug a tree! Great for: Brownies and Guides
Suggested ideas
Anywhere there are trees
Blindfold
Leaders to be vigilant supervising this activity to prevent girls from walking into trees or tripping over
Go out for a short walk or to a chosen site, spot the flowers along the way Record either by taking a photo or drawing the flowers you cannot identify, girls can create their own local flower spot sheet for others to use Many of our wild flowers grow along the roadsides and railway tracks, take the spot sheet with you on a train, bus or car journey for some ‘quick spotting’!
Anywhere outdoors, Leaders garden, park, around your unit meeting place,
Spot sheet, pencil, camera, phone or sketchbook
Not to pick wild flowers, unless they are very abundant or in a garden you have permission to pick the flowers
Flying mini beasts are busy drinking nectar and pollinating the flowers try to spot as many as you can Go out for a short walk or do this activity when you are out for the day Sit in one spot for 10 minutes, observe what flies past does anything land on them? Try to spot as many different types of Bumble bees as you can Make a sweep net http://www.rspb.org.uk/Images/sw eep_net_tcm9-405022.pdf
Outdoors where there are plants or flowers
Spot sheet pencil Equipment for the sweep net
Bumble bees and wasps will only sting if they are disturbed or irritated, do not go too near, stay calm and move away if they fly too close Take a good insect identification book out with you
Use the spot sheet to identify trees and shrubs in your local area Encourage the girls to get up close to the trees and leaves, look closely at the different shaped leaves and different bark Take out magnify glasses to look closely Sit under a tree for 5-10 minute, write a story, song or poem about the tree, what it has seen, experienced, felt Find the trees which the leaves belong to then sit and draw the
Outdoor green space with trees or shrubs
Spot sheet, pencil, paper, magnify glasses
Remember not to pull on branches of trees
Before you start this activity, sit or stand outside in a circle Ask the girls to close their eyes Ask the girls to listen out to any noises, each time they hear a different noise with their fists out, count each noise on each finger After 1-3 minutes ask the girls to open their eyes. What did they hear? What natural sounds did they hear?
2. Flowers
Great for: Rainbows, Brownies and Guides
Great for: Rainbows and Brownies
Great for: Brownies and Guides
Remember
This is all about sensing nature in different ways.
4. Trees, Leaves and seeds
Equipment
3. Summer bug hunt
Where can I do this?
tree, discuss at the end things they like or dislike about their tree or shrub
5. Colours in nature
Great for: Rainbows and Brownies
6. Pond dipping Great for: Rainbows and Brownies
7. Make a mini pond Great for: Rainbows, Brownies & Guides
Use the sheet to spot as many of the colours around your meeting place or go for a walk Compare the colours found in different habitats. How many colours at the beach and in the park? In the town/city and near a river? Up a hill or in long grass? Encourage the girls to look high and low Try to focus on colours which appear in nature Make your own colour chart with found natural objects
Anywhere outdoors
Make a day of it and visit an RSPB reserve which offers pond dipping You can also pond dip in shallow streams Sit by the water for 5 minutes before you start to observe if there is any wildlife and watch its behaviour, have a short chat about what the Girls saw
Keep a group ‘mini pond log’ to record who makes your pond home Use the pond dipping sheet above to identify any creatures Use a tea strainer as a mini pond dipping net- add a stick to make it longer Put findings into a pot with water to observe with a magnify glass
Outdoors where you have permission
To only pick natural objects from the ground, avoid picking anything unless it is very abundantleave some for the insects and other creatures
Pond dipping net, jam jar with string, tub or tray to observe the pond mini beasts, use the guide below to make a net http://www.r spb.org.uk/Im ages/pond_dip ping_net_tcm 9-403536.pdf Equipment on the sheet, tea strainer, plastic tubs, white tray, magnify glass
Make sure you have permission to pond dip. Find a safe place which isn’t too deep, Girls to use the nets one at a time, do not reach far out into the water
To keep the mini pond clean of pond weed and topped up with water when the weather is dry
Activities for any season: 1. Mini beast hunt Great for: Rainbows and Brownies
2. Colours in nature
3. Build a bug
Use small pots to collect mini beasts, use paint brushes or teaspoons to carefully collect the mini beasts
Look closely at mini beasts with no legs, 5, 8 and more
Use the spot sheet to spot and tick off natural colours Go on a scavenger hunt to collect different coloured natural objects
Try this out in different seasons Follow the instructions, they can
Anywhere outdoors. In leaf litter or in soil around plants, on plants and trees, around outside of buildings
Spot sheet, pots, paint brushes to put bugs in pots, magnify glasses
Be really careful when collecting mini beasts Always put mini beasts back where you found them
Anywhere outdoors
Spot sheets, pencil,
Only pick up objects from the ground do not pick any plants, leaves or flowers
Follow the link
Keep checking over the
small space
hotel Great for: all sections
3. Hug a tree
Great for: Brownies and Guides
build a mini bug hotel individually or make a big one altogether
Mini ones to take home for a balcony, garden, big space
This is all about sensing nature in different ways.
Before you start this activity, sit or stand outside in a circle Ask the girls to close their eyes Ask the girls to listen out to any noises, each time they hear a different noise with their fists out, count each noise on each finger After 1-3 minutes ask the girls to open their eyes. What did they hear? What natural sounds did they hear?
outside your unit meeting place, ask at a local park/commu nity garden or a Leaders garden Anywhere there are trees
to building a bug hotel, use plastic bottles, toilet rolls or tetra pack cartons hung up, stuffed with the same filling. Blindfold
weeks and months to see who has moved in!
Leaders to be vigilant supervising this activity to prevent girls from walking into trees or tripping over
