Hello and happy half term!
We hope you’re all looking forward to the first proper school holiday of the year: a time for resting the brain, recharging, and having lots of fun to keep that all important get-up-and-go on track. Of course Saltholme is always keen to provide plenty of fun for young and old all year round, but at half term we feel it’s important to make sure our schedule is jam-packed with activities to keep you entertained all week long. What’s great is, amongst all the fun and frivolity of these activities, there is always plenty of room for solitude and peace on the reserve: so anyone can come along and enjoy Saltholme in their own way.
Our mad hatters tea party structure is really starting to take shape now, with a few new additions having been installed recently. So, if you fancy yourself an explorer of wonderland come along and have a look at the hatter, the hare and the caterpillar as they overlook the main pond where many of our beautiful species of birds can be spotted.
The march hare foregrounds the tea party installation.
You are probably aware that it is currently welly season here at Saltholme, and if you weren’t aware of that – where have you been?! Well, dear newcomer, welly season is a joyous time of year here at the reserve where we encourage as much sploshing, squelching and splashing as humanly possible from all of our visitors. Bring along a pair of old wellies or borrow some from reception (if we haven’t run out – donations are always welcome!) and get stuck in with the festivities. There are a wide variety of welly season events and for half term we’re really ramping up our welly silliness.
There is, of course, the old favourite: our welly wanging competition. It goes like this: you pick up a welly wanging kit from the classroom that consists of a small welly and a marker flag. You go out to the welly wanging ARENA...okay, it’s not so much an arena as it is a patch of grass but let’s be sporting about this. So, you head out to the ARENA where you bravely compete to throw your welly further than any welly has ever been thrown. You mark your spot with a flag and see how you shape up against the competition...will you emerge as the next big sporting hero? Probably not, but you’ll have a lot of fun.
Next up is the bling your boots craft activity. Did you know that Matisse first started his artistic career by blinging his wellington boots? No? That’s because he didn’t, but if he had we think he would have been even better. Bring along a pair of wellies that you think need a good spruce up and go wild decorating them in every way you desire: leaves, drawings, glitter, mini bells, bows, ribbons – whatever you fancy! And if you don’t have your own crafty materials we have a good supply waiting for you. We’ll also be making welly mobiles out of old wellies – and if you have any more ideas just come along and make something brilliant.
Welly Feeders: one of the fantastic craft ideas for welly season.
We have a brand new welly trail to help you explore the reserve in your wonderful rubber shoes, providing information about the reserve and about wellies themselves along the way. Whilst you’re on the trail you can also take a dip in our brilliant welly splash which, we are pleased to announce, is no longer frozen solid! We did consider calling it the welly slip-and-slide for a while but frankly it looked a little too treacherous even for our adventurous spirit.
We hope to see you during this half term, we’ll be here working hard for you and for nature!
Enjoy!
Andrew