So why book a residential school trip in Winter ?
Several of the activities we offer all year round work much better during the winter months. Therefore it is a really is a good idea to make use of the winter months to carry out successful studies and activities when the resources are at their very best.
Go Animal Tracking!
The best time to go animal tracking is between November and March. During the winter months animals leave clearer tracks in the damp soil they also travel further to find food – good news for us – as it means they leave a lot more tracks! Animals are easier spot in the winter, as are their feeding remains, due to the lack of leaves in their habitats.
So what might you find? Coastal and inland bird species leave many fascinating tracks, and whilst a few British mammals hibernate, most species in fact become more active in the winter as their food becomes more scarce. Badgers, foxes, stoats, weasels, grey squirrels, rabbits, voles, and wood mice are popular finds on our tracking walks. Animals such as hedgehogs which do hibernate, will sometimes wake up on a warmer day and will forage for food.
We can assist your class with the correct materials and techniques for making plaster-casts of animal tracks out in the field. These can be left to set and taken back to the classroom as a superb 3D reference for scientific and creative activities. Clipboards, paper and measuring equipment are also essential, so children can make drawings and scientific notes on location. You may want to take some small plastic pots with you to put feeding remains such as owl pellets, or remains from feeding rodents, to investigate when you’re back in the classroom. The staff at Rippledown will be happy to assist you in identifying species and explaining your finds as well as organising all the bits and pieces you’ll need for a successful field study trip. We also advocate the use of phone cameras to make quick records of your finds on location and there can be a data projector available to display your digital record in the classroom. Download this useful tracking primer from the BBC website to wet your appetite.
Go Mammal Trapping
We have all the equipment and expertise available to humanely trap mammals for your pupils to experience and study. Mammal trapping is best carried out in winter when the animals aren’t breeding and are naturally out and about in-search of food. Check out our you-tube video where we humanely trap a field vole as a taster. Your pupils will be fascinated. A great hands-on lesson that we thoroughly recommend doing this as part of an animal tracking day.
Exploring the winter landscape through Science
Scientific activities include identifying tree skeletons and learning about deciduous and evergreen trees, tracking the winter light as we move further away from the suns rays, and exploring how changes in temperature affects the animal population. Building a hibernation box for hedgehogs can be done on location or in the classroom. Come and see hibernation boxes in action and place yours in the right environments to provide warm, safe shelter for hedgehogs or other species to hibernate over winter. You never know – by the end of your stay they could be inhabited! You could also look at investigating other natural phenomena such as frost, snow and freezing conditions and how these change the landscape we live in.
Exploring the winter landscape through Art
For creative outdoor activities the winter landscape is the perfect place for nature art. Go out and find bare branches in subtle and vivid colours which can be woven together or used to build structures. Dried seed husks and pods provide fascinating forms to decorate or draw from, and autumn and evergreen leaves add colour and shape to your pupils designs. Nature art can be done on location or out in the open as part of their environment. Alternatively materials can be gathered on more general walks whilst studying the winter landscape, and brought back to our warm classroom for any number of creative activities.
For more inspiration take a look at the work of Andy Goldsworthy, a renown nature artist who works with natural materials in the outdoor environment.
Fire and light
A winters afternoon and evening wouldn’t be complete without a roaring fire. Our covered outdoor classroom is fully equipped with a purpose built camp fire area where pupils can learn bushcrafts skills on how fires are lit and maintained safely as well as learning about the importance of fire in our history as a species. This can be coupled with creative lantern making to magically light both the hall and the grounds. End your day with a spooky story and a sing-song around the fire – storyteller provided!
Booking our Schools Special Offer
There are still tonnes of activities we haven’t covered such as Roman signalling, pinhole camera making, shelter building and a wealth of other bushcrafts skills to engage your pupils with the winter landscape. Keep checking back at our blog for other educational ideas for winter and throughout the seasons. Read more about how these activities integrate with Key Stage 2 and the School Curriculum in our next blog post.
We sincerely hope you’ll book a stay with us – just get in touch and we’ll be more than happy to put together a bespoke, curriculum focused programme of winter activities that the weather really can’t spoil, and one that ticks the boxes for LOtC and ECM.
Should you book to do any of these activities and the weather is completely inhospitable we’ll have materials ready and waiting for outdoor learning lessons in our covered outdoor classroom or in the warm rooms in the old Victorian Rectory. Oh and we forgot to mention the price – only £69.00 per child for a 2 night, 3 day, fully catered stay at Rippledown between November and February!
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