Forest Floor Small World Play

As you may have guessed, we love a bit of small world play in the Collingwood household. Following on from the success of our rockpool small world, I thought we'd make another one, this time with a forest theme. Whenever you make a small world, I think it's important to already own a lot of the 'stuff' needed to make one. It's no good trying to make a small world farm spontaneously, for instance, and then realise you only have one cow and a sheep. One cow and a sheep does not a farm make. I try and collect things I might find useful as I go, as I see them and this makes things much easier when you eventually do get round to setting a small world up. This is why I chose a forest theme - having a young boy who is fascinated by insects and bugs, we already had a sizeable collection of plastic ones.

To make the 'forest', I used lots of pine cones and twigs, bark and conifer trimmings I collected from the floor of our local maze (yes, really!). I added some toilet roll tube 'logs' and a collection of stones/ rocks from the garden for creatures to hide in and under.

The animals were two sets of Animal Planet plastic animals (an insects/bugs one and a snakes, lizards and frogs one).

 

During our play, we talked about camouflage and the idea of predators and prey, habitats and species. We played hide and seek with the animals, which was really tricky considering the colour of the creatures and their 'habitat.' I'd love to hear your ideas for small world play you've tried.

A Trip to the Donna Nook National Nature Reserve

November sees the return of our annual day trip to the Donna Nook National Nature Reserve in Lincolnshire, not far from where we live. The reserve is home to one of only four large colonies of grey seals in the British Isles and because of this it attracts tourists from all over the UK. Usually these animals spend most of the year out at sea but during the months of November and December, they come up onto the sandbanks at Donna Nook to breed and to give birth to their pups. They are only around for a short while and they are a must see if you live in Lincolnshire. The viewing area is open from late October to December but the best time to see the most pups seems to be towards the end of November/beginning of December. It allows you to get close enough to the seals to be able to touch them (although you shouldn't and wouldn't want to!)

We take Tommy every Winter to see the seals at Donna Nook and this year we had our newborn in tow too. The walkways at the reserve are relatively flat, so suitable for buggies but there is quite a climb up over the sandbanks before you get there and it can get extremely busy so do bear this in mind. We opted to use a baby carrier instead and Isla was more than happy to watch the seals from there.

The reserve itself is very low key, as it should be. It consists of two little huts, one at each end, that gives visitors information about the seal colony and allows visitors to make donations or buy a small selection of gifts. Information plaques along the way are fun, children-friendly and encourage you to find out more about grey seals and the work that the nature reserve conducts. It has two car parks at either end of the walkway and is £2 to park for however long you want to be there.

We visited the reserve on a rather mild day and we spent quite a while there. It does get very cold and windy on this part of the coast, as it's very exposed to the elements and there is little shelter so if you do go, be sure to wrap up warm! If you do need warming up, there is a handy hot food and drinks van where you can get a Lincolnshire sausage in a bap or a hot chocolate. This we found to be very welcome indeed!

I would really recommend a trip to the Donna Nook Nature Reserve if you haven't been already. There aren't many places in the UK where you can observe wild animals as closely as you can do here, and rare ones at that. It's a super place to visit if you are interested in these animals or you enjoy wildlife photography. It really is a spectacle that both of my children enjoyed. It's cheap, educational and a great place to visit if you don't mind getting a little chilly in the process!