Making Summer Memories at Go Wild

Getting close to nature during holiday club

A few spots of stormy weather didn’t dampen the spirits of our intrepid explorers at this year’s Go Wild summer holiday club.

As part of their John Muir Discovery Award the children learnt about Scottish-American naturalist John Muir, who was known as the ‘father of the national parks’ and was famous for tying himself to the top of a tree to experience a storm.

We didn’t go that far, instead making sure the weather didn’t hold us back from having lots of fun and making amazing memories.

One parent said: “Last week was – as with the year before – my child’s favourite summer week! The positivity of the staff, the affirmative environmental message behind the activities and the fun binding it all together is a winning formula year on year. Highlights surely had to be the shelter building, pond dipping, John Muir orienteering and cooking s’mores at the end of each day along with fireside singing! Good company and fresh air come as standard. Well done Carymoor team for such a well thought out and beautifully run week – we will be back for more in 2020!”

During Go Wild week we:

• Learnt about John Muir and orienteered around the site
• Unpacked a moth trap and sat with moths vibrating on our fingers, then learnt to identify some day flying moths with names like the ‘chimney sweeper’
• Went to the observational bee hive and made bees wax wraps
• Experimented making flying seeds 
• Played ‘Big Bear’, the ‘Mouse Detective’ and ‘Gutter Ball’
• Built shelters
• Collected plant samples and identified them and their uses
• Played ‘Zombies’
• Made twisty bread and added our favourite things
• Learnt about track traps and how they work
• Visited the landfill and met the landfill site manager
• Hay raked
• Made jam doughnuts
• Went pond dipping
• Took part in a plastic recycling workshop with ‘loop innovations’
• Ventured into the woods to play
• Became ‘Master Chefs’ in the mud kitchen
• Made dream catchers
• Observed honey being extracted…and tasted it!

Would your child like to experience activities like these on our nature reserve? Keep an eye on the events page on our website (we'll upload some new events soon), like us on Facebook or Twitter, or sign up to our community newsletter to receive updates on upcoming family days, Go Wild holiday clubs and other events.