Wild Things is being launched on Saturday 13th April at Foyles bookshop, London

Come and join us on Saturday 13th April 2-3pm at Foyles bookshop, 107 Charingcross Road, London!  

We will be signing copies of our new book Wild Things – Over 100 Magical Outdoor adventures and having fun creating magical mythical creatures and making magic wands out of natural materials —perhaps even learning how to spot fairies and track dragons along the way. To reserve you place register on the following link  https://www.foyles.co.uk/Public/Events/Detail.aspx?eventId=3896Fiona and Jo

Teachers Gone Wild! KS2 outdoor learning training day – London Zoo

Are you a KS2 teacher?  If so, come and join us for a fun training day at London Zoo.

Going Wild have partnered up with The Discovery & Learning team at ZSL London Zoo to create an exciting outdoor learning CPD opportunity for KS2 teachers. 

Cost: £55 per teacher

Capacity: 40 participants

Includes: Entry to Zoo, training, refreshments, lunch and a copy of a Going Wild book (choose from the Stick book, Wild Weather or Wild City book)

Date: PLEASE NOTE  that we have sadly had to postpone this event in September.  We will re-schedule it, so please keep an eye out on our website for news if a new date.

Location: Discovery & Learning department, ZSL London Zoo, Outer Circle, Regents Park, London NW1 4RYF

Going Wild

This event aims to:

  • Build confidence and empower teachers to use outdoor spaces with their classes
  • Give fantastic ides for a range of outdoor science activities linked to the working scientifically strand of the KS2 national curriculum
  • Inform teachers of the cognitive, social and emotional benefits of getting their students learning outside
  • Inform teachers of ZSL London Zoo’s learning programme and how teachers can enrich classroom learning with out of classroom visits (and use these spaces better with activities onsite!)

Learn all about a range of practical ways to engage your students in outdoor environments using specific practical tasks that link to science and cross-curricular subjects.

The training will take place in a range of indoor and outdoor spaces across ZSL London Zoo where you will undertake a range of activities covering a range of topics that include, but are not limited to, exploring biodiversity (an easy-to-do bioblitz!), food chains and interdependence (food chain totem poles!), comparative and fair testing (parachutes for stickmen!) and observing change over time (ice windows!).  We will also ensure you have some time to explore the Zoo at the end of your day.

As part of your ticket, take home one of the Going Wild books of your choice (from The Stick book, Wild Weather or Wild City book) to plan activities for your students back at school!

Discover the wilds on the edge of London. Family day out, Saturday June 25th, Woodfarm, Harrow

On Saturday June 25th Harrow Nature Conservation Forum will celebrate the opening of Harrow’s latest public wild open space. Wood Farm is 24 hectares of meadow, ponds, scrub and woodland in the north of Stanmore, close to the Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital, Shree Swaminarayan Temple – Dharma Bhakti Manor and the Husseini Islamic Centre. The views over London are remarkable, and with the help of the board at the site you can pick out nearby landmarks such as Alexandra Palace and Wembley Arena, all the familiar London landmarks, and the more distant hills of Crystal Palace and Box Hill. It is the best site in Harrow for breeding warblers, while on warm days the wild flowers are busy with butterflies and bees.
The opening event on June 25th will have something for everyone. The Appreciating Animals petting zoo will be free for children and accompanying adults. Children will also enjoy storytelling by Pippa Reid and Vivien Keiles, as well as pond dipping, building bug houses, and a collection of animal skulls and snake skins to handle. For adults we’ll have guided tours of the site, telescopes to look over London, and a wide range of stalls and exhibitors.

The event, which is free to all, will begin at 12 noon and run to 5 PM. The entrance is on Wood Lane, Stanmore, post code HA7 4LG. Car parking is available at Shree Swaminarayan Temple – Dharma Bhakti Manor next door. Alternatively, take the 142 bus to the Little Common stop and Wood Farm is a ten minute walk away along Wood Lane.

For more details see the web page at http://www.harrowncf.org/SCP_home.html

Going Wild – Keynote speakers – The Margret Collis Lecture at the Association of Science Education conference in Birmingham

Last Saturday we delivered a lecture to an enthusiastic group of science teachers at the ASE conference.  Thank you everyone for listening, you were a great audience and it was a wonderful opportunity for us to try and show how science can so easily be taught outdoors.  We hope some of our ideas and simple activities have inspired you, and made it a little easier to take your class out, every day, whatever the weather, even if you just have a small outdoor space around your school.

It was fun!

PS We particularly loved your idea for the stick to catch any runaway wild children!

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Our Dragon won an award!

“Quite Magical, but difficult to find” said chairman of The Oxford Preservation Trust as he handed us our certificate at the awards ceremony last night.  “Ahhh” we wanted to say, “how many dragons have you seen?  Dragons are never easy to find!”

If you are brave and want to try and find our dragon, here is a clue as to where she was last seen.

Clue: Start at the entrance of Magdalen wood, Oxford (Woodfarm entrance by the shops) and head into the deepest part of the wood.  She is hiding in there somewhere!

Here is a picture of the “team” proudly showing off our certificate.

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From left Jane Gallagher OPA (Oxford Play Association) who came up with the idea of playful woodlands, Jo Schofield and Fiona Danks (Going Wild) and Stuart Turner (Land Artist and Dragon Creator)

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Here are a few pictures of the last lucky children to get a ride on her back!

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Beach art and games in the city

DSC02388 DSC02398DSC02374We had lots of fun in the sand today on the south bank of the Thames near London’s Royal Festival Hall.  Thanks to Muddy Puddles for inviting us to join them for beach art and games in the city.

Thank you to all the families who came along despite the rain.  We were so impressed by their creativity and imaginations – they made wonderful animals and aliens, huge funny feet, ball runs wrapped around trees and even a volcano. There are lots more fun ideas for beaches everywhere in the Beach Book.

We are still running our Funny Feet competition with up to 50 copies of The Beach Book to be given away.  Try making gruffalo feet, monster feet,alien feet, dragon feet, animal feet or fancy shoes for giants and tweet photos to @quartoplays with #funnyfeet for a chance to win a Beach Book

Go Wild this Christmas! Make a twig or outdoor advent calendar

No need to buy loads of glitter and plastic “stuff”, go outside and find natural things to decorate your home and garden.  It’s easy, it’s beautiful and it’s free!  Take a look at our top ideas throughout December.

Write the date on some evergreen leaves, hang them on some twigs, add a few natural decorations and if you really must have chocolate hang those on too!

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Here is an outside advent calendar!

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Happy Birthday White Mark

The National Trust gave the White Mark at Watlington a birthday present as they gathered members of the local community together to give it a face lift.  Going Wild joined in on the fun.white mark birthday celebration 14

Families had fun bashing, crushing and compacting chalk on the White Mark so it will shine out for another few hundred years.

 

 

 

 

 

Going Wild were there making creatures and making mosaic pictures from chalk and generally having a good time.  Whose idea was it to make a face so the mark looked like a giant sticking his tongue out?  Marshmallows were toasted over a washing machine drum?! We ate birthday cake and the rare white mark ratty rat made an appearance along with other weird and wonderful creatures.   Once the sun sank below the horizon, fairy lights and night lights lit up the white mark which was quite a magical sight.white mark birthday celebration 7

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Going Wild at London’s Natural History Museum

 

 

Going Wild joined in the Natural History Museum’s Bat Festival on the 6th July, with lots of families coming along to make bats and all sorts of other creatures including birds, monsters, giraffes, ladybirds and, of course, dinosaurs!  Thank you to the Natural History Museum Wildlife Garden for inviting us to be part of their event.

Look at my dinosaur!

 

 

As part of the Chelsea Fringe we will be at the Carnegie Library this Saturday 7th June, come and have some fun with sticks!

Don’t worry if you missed us at the Natural History Museum in London last week.  We will be at the Carnegie Library, 188 Herne Hill Road, London SE24 0AG at 2pm this Saturday, so you have another chance.

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Come and meet us, get a copy of our newest book The Wild City Book signed and have a go at sticky storytelling!