With half-term coming up, here are some ideas for fun activities for all the family based on our Sharing Repton project. We used these activities to engage families visiting historic landscapes but they can all be done in your local park, street or even back garden. So they are ideal if you are having to stay at home this half-term because of current Covid-19 restrictions.
Half-term tree activities
At Wicksteed Park children and their parents (pictured) enjoyed measuring trees to work out how old they are. Just download our tree measuring worksheet, which has really clear instructions. You can then use it to map the age of the trees in your park or garden. If you have safe access to a pond, lake or stream, you could make and sail a paper boat too.
The Tree ID sheet shows children how to identify trees from the their leaf shapes. Why not set them the challenge of identifying all the trees in your street or park? We developed this for the open day we held at Catton Park.
Model a garden building
Creating a model of garden buildings in lego or plasticine encourages children to look at the often quirky buildings found in parks and historic landscapes. If there isn’t anything suitable locally, look for photos online to give them inspiration. Buildings such as pavilions, boat houses or grottoes can be in any style that appeals to their imagination from Harry Potter gothic to space age. We did this with a group of school children at Warley Woods.
Sharing Repton activities
See all the materials produced from the Sharing Repton project, which include activities to introduce different audiences to historic landscapes. There is also lots of helpful information about organising visits and events (when that is possible again). You can watch a video and read more about Sharing Repton here.
