Environmental charity City of Trees is hoping to inspire children to get out and about in Greater Manchester’s great outdoors with free family activity ideas available to download ahead of the school summer holidays.

Over 35 online resources are available ranging from activities for older kids such as building a bat box to bee origami.

The activity ideas are organised into six sections; DIY, For Schools, Arts & Craft, Seasonal, Outdoors, and Spotter Sheets. As well as designed to be fun they are also a useful educational resource helping children to learn about the natural world.

City of Trees is Greater Manchester’s leading environmental charity aiming to plant millions of trees across the city region and bring woodland back into use for the community.

As well as planting trees, the charity wants to inspire a love of nature, especially in the younger generation.

The resources include both indoor and outdoor activities that everyone can get involved in whether that is in their local green space, woodland or garden.

The resources have been launched to coincide with the start of the school holidays to help give families some go-to ideas.

Katie Jones from City of Trees comments; “Keeping the kids entertained can be tough for many parents so we wanted to create some simple resources to help families get imaginative using the natural world as inspiration”.

She adds; “Most of the activities can be done anywhere – whether it’s in a garden, local green space, woodland or even using the trees on a street. And with a range of resources, whether it’s just a bit of crafty fun on a rainy afternoon or making a home for wildlife – there really is something for everyone”.

City of Trees are also running a competition where families can win one of three copies of Diary of a Young Naturalist where 15-year-old author Dara McAnulty’s chronicles a year of his life. The vivid, evocative and moving diary entries are all about his connection to wildlife and the natural world.

To enter the competition families just need to share their going ‘wild in the woods’ snaps over the summer holidays, tag @cityoftreesmcr on facebook, Instagram or twitter and use the hashtag #GoWildForFamilies.

The resources are all available to download free at – www.cityoftrees.org.uk/gowildfamilies

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