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How support from Children in Need is contributing to Let nature feed your senses

Thanks to support from Children in Need, we have developed sensory-rich learning and play materials and activities on the themes of food, farming and nature for children with a range of disabilities. They are being used during visits to working farms so that the children taking part can participate fully and get the most from their visit.

Making the Discovery Bags

Materials include worksheets, puzzles and word games. Activities include making and growing things and the use of Discovery Bags. Discovery Bags contain items that encourage children to interact with nature. Written items are available in a range of formats suitable for children with different sensory, intellectual and linguistic ability.

Guidance and resources are also provided for the farmers hosting the visits. This includes practical advice on facilities as well as ways to ensure an engaging and memorable visit.

We are building on the work we have done to date with the Discovery Bags to develop new materials and activities with children, adults, teachers and carers, which we tested with special needs schools in Cornwall such as Doubletrees special school in St Austell. As a result we have refined the items to ensure suitability for differing levels of disability and varying ages of children.

Exploring with the Discovery Bags

The final versions have been used on farm visits involving at least 500 children and 100 staff/family/carers over the course of the project. Funding from Children in Need has given Sensory Trust a great opportunity to take what we have learnt over the past years, develop it further and make it available to disabled children with varying abilities, across England.

We have been helped enormously by a team of volunteers from St Austell and surrounding area. This committed group has been coming regularly to help make the activities and assemble the Discovery Bags. Volunteer Cornwall and the Eden Project have been most helpful in spreading the word amongst their volunteers for assistance.

The dedicated volunteer team

Big Lottery Fund

Links

Introduction to Let Nature Feed Your Senses

Getting out more - feedback from the first visits

Discovery Bags - bags designed to make visits engaging and sensory-rich for all groups.

Aims and evaluation - detail from the project plan

Conference 2010 - report and links

Benefits of contact with nature for everyone? - article outlining barriers that prevent some groups accessing the benefits

Children and the natural world - article arguing that children are not over-stimulated by computer games and television as is often claimed in the media.

For more information visit our Let Nature Feed Your Senses web site

Let Nature Feed Your Senses

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