A school has brought the ocean to land-locked Nottinghamshire in a bid to help children learn about how we can protect our planet. Boots and Brambles Forest School is taking part in the 30 Days Wild challenge where they need to do something wild every day in June.
The school is based in Tollerton and holds weekly Forest School and Outdoor Playgroup sessions as well as holiday clubs, school sessions and outdoor parties to connect children with the outdoors. Fran Groombridge, from the school, said: "Here at Boots & Brambles Forest School we are passionate about nature and the outdoors.
"We love encouraging little ones (and their adults!) to play, create, explore and enjoy the natural world." They took part in World Ocean Day earlier this month and brought the seaside to Nottinghamshire.
Read more: Get involved with 30 Days Wild this June - the UK's biggest nature challenge
Fran said: "We believe it's never too early to teach little ones about looking after our planet, even in landlocked Nottinghamshire. So, we had lots of creative activities available as we couldn’t nip to the beach, but that didn’t stop us as we did loads of activities."
The forest school took part in an ocean creature ID session where children fished for ocean creatures out of the sea and used cards to identify them. They also had a polluted sea where children had a go at removing the pollution and trying to clean up the ocean animals.
Fran added: "We used litter pickers to clean up our site and had a go at sorting the rubbish out into rubbish that could be recycled. We made our own boats out of natural material and tested them out and we also used sticks from the woods to make our own fishing rods
"We enjoyed playing with our pirate-themed play and ocean-themed sensory toys and we also used recycled bottle tops to make our own pieces of art.”
Nottinghamshire Wildlife Trust encourages these outdoor educational sessions to embrace the natural world from an early age, building a respect for nature and wildlife and learning why it is so important. After all, it’s not just wildlife, we are part of it too as human beings and need to look after it.
But they are also great examples for any family to do at home as well as part of their wild actions during 30 Days Wild throughout June.
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