Wildabout Nature Club
Wildabout Nature Club for primary school children usually meets here, at the Barnet Countryside Centre, Byng Road, Barnet EN5 4NP on a Saturday afternoon between 2pm and 4pm, but there are two exceptions, as you will see below.
The cost is £1 per child.
Adults are encouraged to stay and join in. Children under the age of 8 MUST be accompanied by an adult.
Wildabout Nature Club 2013
Programme Spring/Summer Terms 2013
(Please note that two Friday holiday sessions included.)
Friday 05 April 2013
Saturday 04 May 2013
Saturday 25 May 2013
Saturday 06 July 2013
Friday 02 August 2013
Please drop-in ANYTIME between 2pm and 4pm and join us for our NEW family sessions.
Choose between indoor activities, a centre led walk around the reserve or even try the outside reserve work for children to take part in. Families can also just come along and do their own thing – sit and read through the books, have a cup of tea, walk around reserve etc.
Please contact us on the centre mobile 07816 890128 or by emailing info@fobcc.org.uk if you have any questions.
Mrs Annabel Foskett
Environmental Centre Manager
Barnet Countryside Centre/Denis Bland Nature Reserve
Please note that many of the activities we plan will be MESSY so please make sure that your children come dressed accordingly. Also they should have waterproof shoes/wellies for our walks around the reserve.
Wildabout Nature Club 2011-2012
Programme Autumn Term 2012
Saturday 22nd September – Bats at BCC, 6.15 – 7.30 pm
Unfortunately this event had to be cancelled because the weather was too cold and blowy for the bats. However, it will be rescheduled to the spring. Thanks Ollie.
Half-term Event– Friday 2nd November - Pumpkins, Bats and Jumping Jacks, 2 – 4 pm (£2 per child)
44 children and 33 adults enjoyed the Halloween craft activities making bats, ghosts, pumpkin and monster faces. The jumping jacks with their moving arms and legs were the most popular but also proved to be the biggest challenge. The children also took part in a scavenger hunt around the nature reserve and brought back autumn bits to stir into the cauldron. And the cakes were amazing! Thank you to everyone who made this happen.
Saturday 10th November – Fungus Foray on Hadley Common
A small band of Wildabout Nature children joined Pam and her Watch club and amazed us all by finding so many fungi. Well done kids and thanks Pam!
Saturday 1st December – Nocturnal Animals and Sensing our Environment, 2 – 4pm at the Barnet Countryside Centre
Our Chairman Dick Elms, who has had a special interest in badgers since childhood, is coming along to tell us all about how they live. How do animals “see” at night? We will explore how our senses help us.
Most of our activities are messy and/or outdoors so wear old clothes. Warm waterproof clothing and welly boots are always a good idea to bring along.
The Wildabout Nature Club Programme, February 2012 - July 2012
SATURDAY 04 FEBRUARY – WHAT ARE MOST ANIMALS?
Vic Taylor of My Newt Enterprises will be coming along to this session to let us know! Do not miss this intriguing animal encounter
SATURDAY 10 MARCH – TWIGGY ACTIVITIES
A Winter tree trail around the reserve followed by making plaster of paris plaques to take home.
FRIDAY 13 APRIL
No Saturday meeting this month but a Holiday Activity afternoon with Annabel. Booking is essential for this as we are very popular for these holiday events! Please book for 2-3 pm or 3-4 pm. Numbers will be limited. You will be most welcome to walk around the reserve during the afternoon to extend your visit.
SATURDAY 12 MAY
An outing to the RSPB reserve at Rye Meads, near Hoddesdon. Meet in the car park at Rye Meads at 1.30. Please let us know if you need a lift. Click on Rye Meads for more information on Rye Meads.
SATURDAY 16 JUNE – MINIBEAST MONSTERS
A bit of a minibeast hunt on the reserve followed by clay activities.
SATURDAY 07 JULY – BUTTERFLY WORLD, St Albans
Another outing. Meet in the Butterfly World car park at 1.30. Please let us know if you need a lift. We will have a conducted tour of this exciting attraction and learn and meet some butterflies. The subsidised charge for this will be £6 per adult and £3 per child. Click on Butterfly World for more information on Butterfly World.
Our Special Elm Sapling is Prospering
The Conservation Foundation is attempting to unlock the mystery of why some trees survived Dutch elm disease which wiped out over 25 millions trees in the UK.
Cuttings taken from mature parent trees found growing in the British countryside – which appear to have resisted Dutch elm disease for over 60 years – have been skilfully micro propagated. The resulting saplings are being distributed to hundreds of schools, community groups, local authorities and private landowners who have signed up to take part in the ‘Great British Elm Experiment’. Participants in the experiment are being asked to log their tree’s progress over the long term, perhaps the next fifteen years.
The Wildabout Nature Club was asked to help and we planted one just outside the meadow some months ago. Latest reports are that it's thriving. Well done kids!!
Waitrose Community Matters Supports Wildabout Nature Club
Wildabout Nature Club was one of the good causes being supported earlier in 2011 by Waitrose Community Matters.
We think that this has raised about £480, so that's amazing!
Waitrose Community Matters were kind enough to support FoBCC last year, enabling FoBCC to buy materials for school visits. Now they are helping us!
Previous meetings:
Annabel led the session. The activity table was prepared with hand-sized balls of workable clay and dishes of attractive natural materials. Enlarged photographs of insects and appropriate books were displayed. After an introduction, the children set about making their own creepy crawlies. They were very imaginative in their use of materials. Their creations were left to dry.
Children, parents and leaders then went outside to repair the mini-beast hotel. En route we looked for insects in the herb planters. A very observant girl found a Rosemary Beetle , which she knew from her own rosemary bush at home.
Gloves were given out. The adults re-stacked the wooden pallets whilst the children gathered suitable materials pine cones, pine needles, bark moss, etc to feed into the spaces, providing a wonderful sanctuary for invertebrates to move into. The children then went to the loggery and looked for mini-beasts. They were reminded to replace any creatures where they found them.
Back in the classroom the children collected their models and took them home.
A walk round the nature reserve followed by making plaster plaques of twigs picked up on the way.
Fifteen children and their parents came to this event and had lots of fun using old food boxes lined with clay and plaster of Paris to make impressions of twigs that the members had obtained en route. No report from our correspondents yet, so if you came along and want to contribute, please email us.
Our correspondents, Alex (6) and Dylan (3) report:
"We went to the nature reserve to see Vic and his animals on Saturday. Vic told us some great stories about his animals and how they won gold medals at the Animal Olympics in Beijing. They were coooool. He had a tree frog that he called Mr Jelly Belly. It felt funny. Vic told us about the different kinds of tree frogs and that some of them are very poisonous. Mr Jelly Belly was camouflaged, not brightly coloured, so he was safe to hold.
There were other really cool animals, a big cockroach and a millipede. We held them and they tickled our hands. They were both really clever at recycling and helping make soil from old food and plants.
The two stick insects were fun. We really liked seeing where one of their antennae had fallen off and a leg was growing back in its place - it was weird.
Our most favourite animals were the blue-tongued Skink and the snake. They were both really big and had brilliant colours. They both stuck their tongues out at us. We thought they were being cheeky but Vic said that was how they smell things. They felt really nice - not slimey at all.
We had a brilliant time and we'd love to see the animals again. We really liked Vic's stories about them.
"Our correspondent, Wildabout Nature Club member Noah Gittins, reports:
"Instead of this session being at the nature reserve, it was at Shenley Park. This time, we were picking apples and juicing them with Liz, our leader. First, obviously, we picked the apples and put them in boxes, then a man drove them to a juicing room. Next, we put them into an apple grinder - all the children got a turn! After that we pressed the apple shreds and we all got a try of that fresh apple juice!!"
Here's a report from one of the Wildabout Nature Club members, Noah Gittins:
"I went to the Wildabout Nature Club and there were lots of activities like rock sculpturing, making acorn necklaces, nature framing and more. My favourite bit was making a wood elf out of different-coloured leaves from the nature garden."
Ten children enjoyed this afternoon, comparing colours occurring in nature with man-made colours. To this end they tried to find hidden lengths of wool of different colours - the camouflage game - and then matched colours on a palette with colours they found on the nature reserve. After this they painted a 3D butterfly scene to take home.
Vic Taylor of My Newt Enterprises returned with a wonderful session and enthralled 14 children.
How do they cope? How do they feed? How can we help? Classroom activities (including making bird cake) and a walk around the reserve if possible! Dress for mess and warmth!
