Helping Out
Schools are part of Naturesbase and not just visitors and we like to share the responsibilities for running the place. So after cooked breakfast and before the main activities each morning groups help feed the pigs, feed lambs with a bottle, collect eggs from the chickens, record the weather forecast, make the lunch, empty the compost and tidy their tents/ lodges.
Survival in the Wild: Stone Age - Celtic Focus
In tribes, children learn how the Celts survived in the Aeron valley years ago. After setting the scene, we will track footprints to the woodland, build shelters next to the stream, light small fires with a spark, make herb tea, make pots from the river bank and weave dream catchers.
West Wales Adventure
On the day you arrive groups will embark on an exciting discovery journey around the farm. Using a map to follow a trail they will develop their own interpretation and sense of place discovering new sights, sounds and smells on the farm. We will make smelly potions, listen for sound maps, create Native American journey lines, and making paint from what we find.
Celtic Iron Age
We will consider what life was like in the iron age and compare a children’s life with the present day. Through a series of carousel activities children will have the opportunity to create hedgerow jewellery, smelt coins, weave hurdles and daub mud, make runes from ancient scripts and make soap with herbs.
Farmers in Training
Become a farmer for a day and learn important skills that have been passed down through the generations in this strong farming community. We will make hurdle fences, feed animals, create scarecrows, muck out, grind corn and make flour then bread for supper, churn butter and finally sow seeds before completing a taste tour of the veg patch!
Developing A Sustainable Future
As Naturesbase Camp is a sustainable centre children are immersed in a world where renewable energy, waste reduction and energy conservation are a way of life, promoting a deeper understanding of environmental issues. We will discover the sustainability trail around the site, make and cook in solar ovens, locate the best place for a wind turbine, make cob/earth bricks, build a solar oven, help construct a bug hotel and make and float a solar powered boat.
Outdoor Pizza Making
Taste the difference. Children get to compile their own Pizza for lunch or supper made from ingredients many ingredients grown on the farm. Cooked in our own wood fired earth oven – proves just how effective non electric cooking is – and how much more delicious food can taste.
Crab Fishing & Crab Parks
With lines, nets and buckets we set off to catch the crafty crabs of Aberaeron. See if we can beat the current Naturesbase Camp record of 17 crabs in half an hour. Then build theme parks for the crabs to run around or side ways in on the beach.
Raft Building on the Beach
A green design teambuilding challenge on the Aberaeron beach. Participants are split into groups that must design and construct a raft from flotsom found on the beach. Rafts will be set free into the Irish Sea with a message and a candle glowing in the breeze.
Learning & Building Together
Through a series of imaginative team challenges, children will experience a variety of problems to solve, testing leadership and group skills along the way essential skills towards active global citizenship, with a lot laughter, frustration, and fulfilment along the way!
Bugtastic & Mini Beast Olympics
We will become minibeast detectives as we explore the woodland, hedgerow, meadow and stream habitats for the diverse range of creatures that share the farm with us. This is an ideal way to discover predator / prey relationships, investigate camouflage, explore the fascinating ways many animals have adapted, and study food webs.
Art in the Landscape
From scavenging in the landscape we can create natures palette, sculptures, wet clay faces and puppets, natural tie dying, name plates collages, mobiles, leaf bowls, aboriginal art paintings, nettle paper, cob bird boxes, and masks.
Wilderness Woodland Crafts
Exploring the hidden delights of the natural world we will design beads and bracelets, carve sticks, create willow dragon flies, make hedge row pencils, learn how to make tree people and animals.
Celtic Safari
Carve a stick, gather the map and head off down an old drovers road and into the hills for a day of discovery. Children gain in confidence through being in the open country, meet a local farmer, collect clues on the way, climb a mountain, paddle in a stream, before navigating our way back to camp.
Mountain Adventure
This is an opportunity to experience the greatest area of wilderness in England and Wales. We will trek by a mountain stream, explore hidden landscapes and lakes, write creatively and have lunch and marsh mallows in the hidden bothy (mountain hut).
Rivers & Streams
Why not learn about streams by standing in one? Flowing through the farm we have an ideal stream to carry out a real fieldwork investigation on, bringing relevance and meaning to the study of river processes. Measuring, recording speed, comparing similarities and difference, and then testing the quality of the water by studying what creatures live in the water.
Forest Skills & Woodland Ways
Learning how to work and live in nature, make string, light fires, collect and cook lunch, filter water, stalk and be stalked!
Aberaeron Harbour Town
Discover the people and history of this coastal town at first hand as we follow the imaginative explorers trail, identifying local landmarks, interview residents and holiday makers in order to investigate this fascinating environment. There are opportunities for sketching, writing and offering personal reflections…..and eating honey ice creams!
Make Friends with a Welsh Speaking School
We have the opportunity to mix with a local school who teach through the medium of Welsh. The children mix into groups, create stories and perform them to the whole group before having free time to play games together and learn a few words of Welsh whilst doing it.
Day Excursions
If you would like your class to experience a day of outdoor pursuits we can arrange canoeing, coasteering, surfing and climbing. Other visits include the Centre for Alternative Technology (C.A.T.) and the hands on Dolaucothi Roman gold mines. Please ask for details and additional costs.
Evening Activities Include
Experiencing a night time safari, singing around the campfire, detecting for bats, orienteer around the site by torch light, evening theatre or just listening to stories under the stars.