The summer holidays are normally a time for slowing down for many of our Green Team staff as programmes take a pause, but this summer it’s been a busy time as we enjoy getting back to sharing our love of nature with lots of young people.
Nature Play
Nature play has been continued during July on a Monday and Friday morning. Many parents and pre-school children have enjoyed exploring the grounds of Saughton hall, swinging in hammocks and parachute play. We have discovered lots of raspberries in the grounds and can’t wait for the brambles to ripen. Water and mudplay has definitely been a favourite during the warm, sunny weather.
CEC and Stepping Stones North Edinburgh Partnerships
We also worked in partnership with Stepping stones North Edinburgh and City of Edinburgh Council Discover programme. We delivered two sessions with Stepping stones North Edinburgh at Gypsy Brae as part of their summer holiday activity programme for 7-11 year olds. The children learnt how to build shelters using ropes and tarps and also enjoyed swinging in hammocks , the mudkitchen and how to light a fire safely. Staff and the children enjoyed the satisfaction of making a spark using the fire strikers and loved toasting marshmallows.
The Discover programme invited families to a “picnic in the park” in the four localities in Edinburgh. Up to 8 families were invited to attend a child led play session in a local park with a woodland, and enjoyed exploring, playing in the mudkitchen, swinging in hammocks, making various structures using ropes and storytelling in the outdoors. Feedback from families was great and many discovered a new local greenspace to revisit in the future.
“It was fantastic, thank you so much, kids loved it.”
“Thank you for a great time”
“Really, completely was nice day, thanks for all things”
Green Shoots
We also have a small Green Shoots transition group running from the 10-12th August with 8 young people from schools across the city.
Holiday Weeks
With young people and their parents spending more time at home this summer rather than travelling abroad we decided to run 3 holiday activity weeks this year – the most we have ever offered. We could easily have run more with all the weeks booking up really quickly and all with waiting lists.
