Green Explorers

Green Explorers is back in the garden at The Museum of English Rural Life on Sunday 29 November, from 10:00 to 12:00. It's an outdoor nature and bushcraft session for children aged five and over, and it runs monthly on the last Sunday of the month during term time, so this is one of those things you can keep coming back to rather than a one-off.

Charlotte, a local environmental education teacher and Level 3 Forest Leader, leads each session. They're themed around the museum's collections and the changing seasons, and everything happens outdoors in the museum garden. The activities range from shelter building and using woodcraft tools to spotting local birds, animals and insects, and making same-day snacks from natural materials. It's a hands-on morning that gets kids working with their hands and looking at the wildlife right on their doorstep.

There's a bit of a wider story behind it, too. Green Explorers grew out of Museums Partnership Reading's 'Our Green Stories' campaign, an environment-themed initiative that looks at climate change and sustainability through the museum's collections. It also builds on the museum's existing under-5s group, Friday Fledglings, which meets in the garden every Friday of the school term. Each session follows a similar pattern: it starts with shelter building before moving into activities that draw on the rural history galleries and the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals. The aim is to help children and adults build confidence and a positive relationship with the natural world.

The session is free, supported by Arts Council England, but you'll need to book in advance. Bookings open two weeks before each session, so if you're planning to go, keep an eye on the calendar. It runs from 10:00 to 12:00 on Sunday 29 November at The MERL garden, Redlands Road, Reading, RG1 5EX.