My challenge for you today is to find out the colour of winter. Last season in March and July I posted videos on collecting the colours of spring and summer. If you have watched the videos you may have already collected the colours of spring and summer. If not, here are the colours I found.
Now see if you can make your own colour pallet for winter. What you will need: A piece of card Double sided tape
How to do it: Make sure you get permission to pick plants or flowers in your garden. Go around a pick a small piece of all the different coloured flowers you find and stick them to the double-sided tape. Once you have filled the card then compare it to the spring and summer pallet.
What has changed between spring and summer and winter? You could also take photos of the different colours.
Or you can complete the colour hunt worksheet. What you will need: Colour hunt worksheet Coloured pencils scissors Take coloured pencils and the worksheet out with you. Walk around you garden and find some colours. Try and find the same colour pencil. Then colour one of the squares that colour. Continue around your garden colouring one square for every plant that colour.
Next cut out all the coloured squares. Arrange them so that all the same colours are next to each other and make a spectrum, so the colours seem to blend from one to another.
Look at the range of colours you have collected. What can you say about the range of colours in winter compared to spring or summer? Is there a most frequent colour, a mode colour? Why do you think there is less of a variety?
You could also create a bar graph with the data from your colour worksheet. Count how many colours there were in the different seasons and then draw a bar graph to compare them. You could even colour the bars in the same colours of your spectrum. Or you could arrange your spectrum into the bars on your chart.
A bar graph of colours from each season
I would love to see your colour charts for winter and compare them to mine and other children’s so please tweet any photos #Naturedays @DawnNaturedays or post on the Nature Days Facebook page.
As schools have restarted home learning, Nature Days have restarted the support for teachers.
If you are a teacher, or you have children learning at home please subscribe to the Nature Days Youtube channel, search #Naturedays on you tube.
Here you will have access to fun and educational outdoor learning challenges which children can do in their gardens or local green space.
No complicated equipment is needed and all the videos are suitable for all primary aged children and include full instructions as well as some questions and impart some knowledge.
Nature Days will be posting daily challenges while schools are closed for most students.
If you want to share the wonder of Gower with others why not give the gift of a Nature Days experience.
Nature Days provides vouchers for a range of exciting outdoor experiences.
Experiences include;
Coastal foraging foray; – Explore the rock pools and sandy shore at low tide to find tasty seaweeds and shellfish. Learn how to forage sustainably and the advantages of finding your own food. We will cook any find on the beach and finished with a coastal foraged feast.
Rock pooling exploration; Discover the variety of animals and plants found in the rock pools of Gower. How they are adapted to survive. Where they hide and their life cycles.
River guided walk and dipping; Walking the whole length of a beautiful river on Gower. Learn about the landscape and spend some peaceful time beside the trickling stream. Discover the animals living in the river by dipping in the river. Meditation and mindfulness opportunities along a beautiful stretch of water. Finish in a stunning beach.
Nature reserve guided walk: Explore one of the many Nature Reserves or Gower AONB. Discover the variety of rare and amazing plants and animals. Learn how they are managed and protected. Opportunity to play a part in helping maintain these wonderful fragile places.
Guided Mountain walk: Join a qualified, experienced mountain guide around an appropriate route through the mountains of the Brecon Beacons. With opportunities to explore less well trodden areas and see secret spots. Dips in cold tarns or under waterfalls. Explore the plants of the mountains and the natural history and geology of the area.
Learn to navigate: Take a walk around Gower with an expert navigator who will pass on skills in map work, compass work and reading the landscape to select interesting walking routes.
Mindfulness in the woods: Take a break surrounded by the calming power of woodlands. Experience forest bathing and take time to connect with the natural world. Take part in a range of exercises which will allow you to connect with the natural world, reset and relax.
Bushcraft and survival for all: Sessions will teach you and your family a range of bushcraft and survival skills. Choose from a range of skills; – fire lighting, foraging, shelter building, natural cordage, cooking outdoors, tree identification, woodworking, pioneering, natural navigation, tracking.
Learn about trees and animals; Meet with an expert who can help you improve your plant and animal identification. Discover the biology of the trees and how they interact with the animals and non-living environment.
Nature walks; Let an expert turn your walk into a nature walk. Open your eyes to the nature around you. Discover the hidden world of plants and animals. Always wondered what you are missing? Let the expert show you.
All experiences are either be half or a whole day. Suitable for the whole family. Lead by an expert environmental biologist and outdoor learning expert with over 20 years experience of teaching and leading outdoors. Each experience will be adapted depending on the family and is suitable for adults and children.
Cost Half day £50 pp Full day £100pp family deals available.
Nature days are now available without leaving your school.
Due to Covid rules restricting movement Nature Days has developed virtual field trips to be undertaken either online on in your school grounds.
Outreach sessions available:
GCSE and A level introduction to field work methods. This includes: a virtual introduction to methodologies in any location. Activities are then introduced, undertaken in school grounds or student’s gardens. A live online session – targeted questioning and challenges for the students which makes each workshop bespoke. NEA planning using the new Wjec enquiry question generator tool, which Nature days co-wrote. This will allow students and teachers to ensure their NEA enquiry questions are suitable, achievable within any restrictions which are in place. Further support is available for data collection and all aspect so for the enquiry process.
Hyper local field trips for primary school students. Nature days provides bespoke field trips using your own school grounds, or local green space. Topics covered are:
What you will need: A pile of different leaves Paper Pen
How to do it: Take your leaves and divide then into two piles based on a characteristic. Next look at one of those piles at a time and see if you can divide the pile again using a different characteristic. You may look at the shape of the leaves or the texture or any marking such as veins or edges. Once you have made more sub set continue to try to sort each pile into smaller and smaller set by different characteristics. When you have finished you should have one leaf in each pile at the end of the key. Take your pen and paper and draw arrows to the sub sets and write the characteristic you have used to sort the leaf by. Continue with all your sub sets until all the branches of you key have been labelled.
Now you have your own dichotomous key for the leaves in your garden. You could then look up the names of the plants using a published dichotomous key online or in a book and add the names of the leaves to the bottom. Take a photo of your key and keep it as a tool to identify leaves in other locations. You could even share it with someone else in your house to see if they can use it to identify a leaf they picked in your garden.
I would love to see your dichotomous keys so please tweet your photos #Naturedays or @DawnNaturedays or on the Nature Days Facebook page.
Our first “real” outdoor event for a while! This will be a socially distanced photo treasure hunt along with a video about Oxwich to accompany it. Watch the video on the Nature Days you Tube channel.
How to do it: Print the Treasure map and photo clues below. Try to go to all the locations identified on the map where the photos have been taken. When you are at the location take a selfie of yourself and anyone you are with to prove you have found it.
Upload your photos to Twitter @GowerSociety @DawnNaturedays #OurGower #Naturedays
I will send certificates to all those who upload photos.
You might want to enter The Gower Society photo competition with your photos or others you have. Details here, with the chance to win £25 Amazon voucher.
Tips and hints:
Drive or walk to Oxwich Nature Reserve, there is a car parking charge. Look at the map and orientate where you are.
You can access the reserve via the footpath at the entrance to the car park for the beach or at the very front on the east end of the car park, past the toilets.
You can go to each location in any order you like.
Take care to stick to paths, but if you do get lost you can just head for the sea and walk back along the beach.
Dogs are welcome on the reserve but please clean up after them, and take care as there are adders on the dunes.
If you are worried about adders then sing your way around, or bring a stick to tap the ground as you go. Snakes don’t like people so if they hear you coming they will get out of the way.
Why not make your walk even more meaningful by bringing a rubbish bag and doing a litter pick as you go.
Please ensure you stick to social distancing guidelines and government guidance.
Have fun and I look forward to seeing your entries.
