Junior Ranger Club
The Junior Ranger Club is part of the Discovery Project run by the Howardian Hills Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty team and delivered in partnership with the Yorkshire Wildlife Trust. In 2004 the Heritage Lottery Fund awarded a grant of £24,900 to enable the project to take place. The Junior Ranger Club provides a wide range of enjoyable activities through which children from in and around the AONB can discover the special landscape, wildlife and historical characteristics of this protected area.
The project has grown and developed over the past three years - Year Four saw the launch of sessions in the May and October Half Terms.
In October 2007 a series of five half-day Junior Ranger Club sessions were held at Castle Howard Arboretum. All the sessions included opportunities to discover the Arboretum and for the children to relate what they learnt to the AONB Landscape and the wider regional and national context.
Take it or Leaf it! investigated the colours of autumn; gathering leaves, seeds, bark and berries to make a start on our giant tree collage, making bookmarks and learning about the 'skeletons' of leaves.
The Wigloo and Willowcraft session certainly left it's mark on the Arboretum as the Junior Rangers constructed their own wigloo which will remain to set root at the Arboretum for visiting children to enjoy.
Did you know that Bumblebees have smelly feet? This is just one of the many facts that the Junior Rangers learnt in the 'Smelly Feet' morning as they found out about the many roles of scent and smell in nature through games and activities. Crafty fun included making an egg-box bee to take home.
A spookily good time was had by all who joined us for the Howardian Halloween afternoon. We carved four pumpkins for the Arboretum to keep to greet it's guests in the run up to Halloween, made bat head bands and modelled our own pumpkin pot tea-light holders.
The final session focussed on a Howardian Harvest. We looked at the changing ways in which we source our food; playing food air-mile games and taste testing apples, some that had travelled many miles to reach our supermarkets and other old fashioned native varieties from local orchards. We also bobbed for apples tied to the trees and tried our hand at making corn dollies.
If this all sounds like fun please keep an eye on the AONB website where we will publish the dates for Junior Ranger Club activities in 2008 in the near future or e-mail Liz Bassindale to be added to the AONB Junior Ranger Club e-mail group to receive information and updates as soon as they become available.
News Posted: 29 October 2007
