Stubbington Day 4

As the children woke this morning, there was huge anticipation as to whether the mammal hotels would have attracted some overnight guests! Fortunately, the hotels had plenty of guests including long tailed field mice, yellow necked mice and voles! The children loved greeting their guests and learning about their adaptations before they were released back into the wild!

It was also another day for the Earthquake and Eggsteme challenge activities for those children who were yet to have a go. The leadership and team work skills shown in both activities was fantastic. Particularly so in the Earthquake activity, the children had to battle against the elements and some very difficult obstacles whilst carrying a huge array of objects. On this occasion, a few children didn't quite clear the Lava Leap and they had some very wet feet at the end!

Once the children had finished some more team games, they set about their final practise for The S Factor competition later tonight! Again great anticipation awaits this event!

Last night, the children who visited the hide were lucky enough to see many foxes and 4 badgers! Hopefully, the luck will continue tonight for last group of children when they visit the hide.

Tomorrow morning the children will be packing to come home and then play a final game where they become sneaky foxes who are chased by some farmers (also known as the teachers). Who will win the game? Perhaps the amount of stamps (given by the farmers) on the children's bodies will reveal the answer when they return home!!

Stubbington Day 3

Yet another fabulous day! Today one of the groups tested their teamwork skills in the Earthquake zone! As earthquake survivors, this involved having to carry a number of tricky objects across an extremely challenging assault course. This even included an infamous rope swing across water! Yes some children did get wet!!

Elsewhere, the children were involved in designing, making and testing contraptions to protect eggs as they were flung across a field and finding evidence of animals in the conservation area (footprints, food, fur, homes and droppings!) There certainly was a lot of evidence of badgers, foxes and deer!

Small, cosy mammal hotels have been left out over night to see if any mice or voles live in the area as well. Hopefully, we will have had some visitors overnight that we can carefully examine before releasing them back into the wild tomorrow.

Many games were also played that involved teamwork including having to draw a route through a maze blindfolded. Shortly, the teachers and Stubbington staff will be dressing up as pirates in a game where the children have to find the pirates around the grounds and through questioning,

work out who stole the treasure chest! Aargh!!

Last night the first group to visited the hide were very fortunate to be greeted by a fox and two badgers!! Fingers crossed, the group visiting tonight will be as lucky!

Stubbington Day 2

Another activity packed day! This morning saw the children participating in some orienteering activities and Earth Walks - this involved the children having to navigate a woodland area whilst looking into a mirror which only reflected what was above them; collecting different coloured natural objects to create an 'artist's pallet' and some gruesome cocktails!

In the afternoon, the children were engaged in some fabulous pond dipping where they caught many different types of creatures including frogs, dragonfly nymphs, water boatmen and even fish! They also had their survival limits tested to the limit as they had to create shelters that would protect them from adverse weather and predators. Once the children had built their shelters and they were inside, obviously, it was important to test how rain proof they were with buckets of water!!

The fun packed day continued with children's 'free time', problem solving activities, S Factor singing practise, sketching animals and an outdoor team puzzle game to finish the evening.

The first group of children will be going out to the hide this evening at 8pm to hopefully see some foxes and badgers in their natural habitat. Fingers crossed!

Stubbington Day 1

We arrived at Stubbington around 10am and the children have really enjoyed a sunshine filled first day! Firstly, the children were given a tour of Stubbington before unpacking their clothes. The first room inspection is tomorrow morning, which room will be the tidiest I wonder?

After a substantial lunch, we all set off on a long walk along the beach at Stubbington. The weather was beautiful and the children were rosy cheeked as they enjoyed strolling along the coastline. The children were amazed at the amount of different types of shells they found during a 'shell hunt' on the beach.

When we returned to the centre, the children loved their taste of independence during their free time. After that

they completed some team challenges and practised for the infamous S Factor singing practise. Finally, they have just enjoyed a wildlife talk.

On to showers and then a settled first night!!

1 Week to go!

One week to go!

The countdown has begun!

The excitement is building and, for some, bag packing has already begun!

It's great if you can make packing part of the adventure.  Where possible, please help your child to pack their own bag.  In that way they are less likely to worry that they have forgotten something.

Please ensure you do not pack any food (unless as part of a pre-arrange special diet plan) and as Stubbington is nut free, ensure any toiletries (including shampoo / conditioner) do not contain any nut products - especially almond oil.