Monday 13 January 2014

#CountryKids Stick Man Trail at Whinlatter #weloveforests

Country Kids from Coombe Mill Family Farm Holidays Cornwall
Like many families we love the Stick Man story by Julia Donaldson and Alex Scheffler so when I heard that the Forestry Commission was setting up Stick Man trails I really wanted to try them out. We were sent a goody bag including the book and information on the trails but we hadn't been able to go until this weekend due to lack of time and bad weather. So on Saturday I got the children into warm clothing and we made the hour drive up to Whinlatter as it was a beautiful day.

Stick Man trail

There is an activity leaflet with the trail and it is so well signposted the children could lead the way:

Stick Man trail

Some parts of the route were visible from further away and the children raced away to try and be first to get there:

Stick Man trail Whinlatter

At each part there was a different activity for them to do:

Stick Man trail Whinlatter

This was checking tree buds:

Stick Man trail Whinlatter tree buds

Next up was tree whispering:

Stick Man trail Whinlatter tree whispering

Stick Man trail Whinlatter tree whispering

There were also hand on activities such as building stick towers:
 

Stick Man trail Whinlatter stick towers

My daughter read and followed the instructions:

Stick Man trail Whinlatter stick tower

Little brother just piled them high:

Stick Man trail Whinlatter stick tower

Then he helped his sister by finding sticks. This one he reckoned made him Thorin Oakenshield:

Stick Man trail Whinlatter Thorin Oakenshield

They spent quite a lot of time to make a tower this high:

Stick Man trail Whinlatter stick tower

Further along the trail there was a den building challenge:

Stick Man trail Whinlatter den building

This turned out to be a 3 person job:

Stick Man trail Whinlatter den building

After a lot of hard work this was our finished den:

Stick Man trail Whinlatter den building

Along the path the children had to write down various uses for wood such as medicines. The next activity was more relaxing as it was twig pictures:

Stick man trail Whinlatter twig pictures

Don't think our picture was too exciting!

Stick man trail Whinlatter twig pictures

One of my favourite bits was the poetry section, though the children weren't interested:

Stick man trail Whinlatter tree poem

As they could see the Wild Play area and were keen to have a go on their favourite section:

Stick man trail Whinlatter Wild Play

Back in the centre they could find materials for making their very own Stick Man:

Stick Man trail Whinlatter stick man

Stick Man trail Whinlatter stick man

It looked like plenty of people had had a go:

Stick Man trail Whinlatter stick men

We probably spent about and 1.5-2 hours out on the trail and all had a fun time. It was a good way to get them to explore and learn more about wood and nature. The trail is only open until January 31st if you are interested in going along!

5 comments:

  1. We know the baton is in safe hands with you!!

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  2. it still has to cross border into Scotland

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  3. Just popping by via the linky to say thank you for helping to be part of this and making me feel proud to have done my part :)

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  4. its been an incredible experience think we all deserve a pat on the back!

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