Adventures with Stick Man

After a week of illness, and far too much excitement with nativities, numerous Christmas parties and the anticipation of Christmas itself the little ladies just needed some fresh air and to let off some steam, so we made the most of the pre Christmas mild weather and went on the Forestry Commission Stick Man Trail. What better way than to go on adventure searching for one of their favourite storybook characters. If you don't own a copy of Stick Man you NEED it in your book collection, a fabulous tale about a stick who goes on a journey told in Julia Donaldson's wonderful lyrical rhyming signature style. It's a particularly great read at this time of year because Santa makes an appearance at the end - hope that doesn't spoil it for you...

So wellies, waterproofs and too many layers later we picked up an activity pack for £3 and off we went. The children loved running along the woodland paths and spotting the signs and answering the questions. 

It's a lovely way to start conversations about nature and for them to perhaps learn something new but also exciting as they spot characters from the book amongst the trees.

The activity pack also includes pages for bark rubbing, and colouring sheets and pipe cleaners to make your own stick man. You could easily do the trail without the activity pack but it certainly helped hold the children's interest. 

We finished the trail with a play in the outdoor play area and then a nice hot lunch in the cafe where the children were presented with a sticker and certificate for completing the trail which was a lovely touch, the little ladies love stickers so this went down well. When we got home Miss Boo insisted we read the story and was even more engrossed that usual.

You can find your local stick man trail here: http://www.forestry.gov.uk/stickman

A televised version Stick Man was on BBC 1 on Christmas Day which the girls particularly enjoyed having done the trail, if you haven't seen it, you can watch it on iPlayer here, perhaps a nice thing to do when you get home to warm up with a nice cup of hot chocolate :)

Me x