Link Up with Nature

"Link Up with Nature" is a unique community project aimed at encouraging schoolchildren to learn about their local countryside. Both schools and children's clubs can take advantage of the activities Link Up with Nature can provide.

Link Up with Nature activities are offered free of charge to Elmbridge school groups and clubs. Since the project started in 2002 25 schools, many children's clubs and over 15,000 children have benefited from activities in the outdoors.

Schools

Lessons can be arranged to cover a wide range of National Curriculum subjects. Popular subjects are science, biology and geography but the natural environment also provides the opportunity to study the whole curriculum including music, English and maths. Lessons will be tailored to meet the schools requirements and can be cross-curricula. Worksheets can be designed to reinforce lessons and to provide learning materials.

Elmbridge schools are currently booking activities for the 2009/10 academic year.

Activities include:

• Pond dipping and hunting for minibeasts in woodlands as a way of looking at adaptation, variation and food chains
• Seasonal walks around school grounds or local parks and countryside
• River surveys
• Examining soils - including looking at soil components, drainage and air content
• Tree activities - measuring height, circumference, identification of trees
• Crafts using natural materials - making natural collages, leaf prints, making tree spirits, cone animals or twig bird mobiles
• Orienteering
• Mapping school grounds, parks and countryside sites
• Learning about the traditional uses of plants and trees
• Making musical instruments using natural materials
• Practical conservation tasks

Clubs

There are lots of fun nature activities that can be held indoors and out. Many of the activities Link Up with Nature can offer are seasonal but consider:

• Bat walks
• Scavenger hunts
• Wildlife games
• Orienteering
• Natural sculptures and decorations
• Navigation skills
• Camp building
• Practical conservation tasks

Why Link Up with Nature?

An outdoor classroom has many advantages. The practical element to learning outside benefits many young people. The type of activities involved in learning outside means that young people have to work together to achieve tasks and are physically active and involving young people in their local countryside areas to promotes a feeling of ownership and encourages young people to appreciate the countryside.

Booking

If you would like more information about Link Up with Nature, or you would like to make a booking, please call 01372 474575 or email the |CountrysideTeam