Really Wild Adventures - fun outdoor activities for families

Taking a closer look at a frog with the magnifying pots

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Local environmental charity Groundwork has launched Really Wild Adventures, a new programme of outdoor fun for families with young children in the area.

Really Wild Adventures will support children from two to eight-years-old to connect with local nature sites, and give parents ideas to help them get creative and active outdoors.

The sessions were launched on Friday 4 August, with wildlife detectives encouraging children to explore the natural surroundings of Boarshaw Clough Amphitheatre in Middleton. Families were set a range of creative tasks including a nature scavenger hunt which encouraged children to look for, listen and touch natural items to tick them off a scavenger list and an acorn hunt where children could get imaginative though hiding and then finding food, just like squirrels do.

Minibeast bingo was especially popular and saw families getting into the competitive spirit, racing to find bugs to cross off their cards.

Magnifying pots were provided to help children take a closer look at the insects and Groundwork staff provided facts about the creepy crawlies.

Animal homes saw children constructing nests out of natural materials.

Katie Davis, volunteer graduate marketing assistant on the VPA Programme, said: "As a graduate volunteer for Groundwork I felt that it was a rewarding experience to help out at the activity day and to see how excited families were to get involved. Encouraging a healthy lifestyle and active play outside is extremely important, something which these activities achieve."

Gemma Harris, education and communities coordinator at Groundwork, said: "The Really Wild Adventure activities have been going really well, the children have eagerly given everything a try. They really enjoyed taking part in the bug bingo, searching for creepy crawlies."