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Contact Details:

Gatton Park Education
Reigate
Surrey
RH2 0TD

Tel: 01737 649066
Fax: 01737 649067

Email:
education@
gatton-park.org.uk

Download a PDF map
to find Gatton Park

 

Key Stage 1 Activities
Key Stage 2 Activities


KEY STAGE 2 ACTIVITIES

Please telephone to confirm availability and then complete this downloadable booking form and health and safety notice

Download booking form and health & safety notice

Sensational Seeds


Through investigation, games and activities in the park, discover the wonderful adaptations of seeds, how they are dispersed and how they grow.

Sensational seeds can include these activities:

• Investigating and drawing seeds in the lab, using magnifiers and microscopes
• Seed Olympics - games to learn about the different ways seeds are dispersed
• Seed fate germination game - looking at why not all seeds germinate
• Seed tig - what does a seed need to grow

Sensational Seeds can be a full day session, combined with investigating flowers and flowering parts and learning about photosynthesis (spring/summer term only) - or it can be a half day session combined with another topic.

 

 


Poetry in the Park

Gain inspiration from the beautiful grounds of Gatton Park for some creative writing and language work. This can be a full day programme or can be combined with another topic that you would like to study at the Park.


Walk around the Park "collecting" words, phrases and sentences using different techniques and inspiration from the natural world. Activities will depend on the age groups of children but could include:

  • Worm charming – after finding some worms each child selects one descriptive word which we then perform as a poem, chanted to a rhythm
  • Jabberwocks – Nonsense words about natural objects that build an atmosphere that reflects the object.
  • Blindfold testing – Using blindfolds children are led to trees and must touch its bark and feel its trunk, to both describe it and to be able to find it again
All of these words are then used for the children to write their own poems.
In the afternoon the children follow their own written instructions to find lines of poetry hidden around the Park. They bring them back to base to try to rearrange them into the original poem (or create a new one!)


 

Pond Explorer
Often combined with the woodland explorer, but also available as a full day, Pond Explorer helps your class discover the wildlife in the pond.

The Pond Explorer can include these activities:

• Pond-dipping at one of Gatton’s ponds
• Investigating and sketching the animals of the pond in the lab using magnifiers and microscopes – particularly looking at adaptations.
• Food chain games
•"Build your own minibeast" – using natural materials build an animal with adaptations for life in the pond.
Pond Explorer is very popular with Year 4 pupils studying habitats but is educational and enjoyable for pupils of all ages

 

 

Shipwrecked

Our updated and improved Team Work Challenge

Bring along your class to get to know each other and work together on team building activities.

Your class have been shipwrecked! In teams they follow a map or a set of riddles around the beautiful grounds of Gatton Park to find new challenges to compete in.

Challenges include:
" Build and raise a ship mast
" Walk the plank - use planks to cross the 'sea' to reach a desert island
" The water challenge - collecting water for the team to survive

All of the activities require children to work together and develop both mental and physical skills.

Prizes for the winners and certificates for all of the children that take part.


 

Woodland Explorer

Spend time exploring the natural woodland habitats of Gatton Park. Observe and record the animals that live there within the different layers of the woodland.

Find out how they fit into food chains or how they are adapted to survive life in the woodland ecosystem.

The emphasis of this activity is to experience the woodland and to use suitable equipment to sample and observe the animal life present such as pooters, beating trays and sweep nets.


This can be a full session with time spent in the lab looking more closely at the animals that you have found, or alternatively studying the trees themselves using language, maths and art. As a half-day session it can be combined with the pond explorer to compare and contrast two different habitats or with another of our programmes.

 

 

Map and Compass

Use the beautiful grounds of Gatton park as a location for practical Geography skills.

Morning

Can you follow the trail of grid reference clues to find your way around the park and complete the geography challenges at each point?

  • Learn how to use four and six figure grid references
  • Use a compass for finding North and setting a map
  • Learn some simple OS map symbols
  • Use a field sketch to look at land use
  • Map the location of features in the Japanese Garden

Afternoon

Fun activities to build on the skills we've learnt in the morning. Choose two of the following options.

1. Orienteering: Using a map to find orienteering controls around the park, collecting letters to make a word.

2. Photo shoot: Using a map and photographs of an area, find the exact spot where the photographs were taken.

3. Compass trail (ideal for yrs 5 & 6): Using a compass, find the clues to collect the letters and reveal the mystery word.

 

 


Art in the Park!


Enjoy a full or half day of activities to use art skills in an outdoor setting.

Take a walk through the beautiful grounds and open countryside of Gatton Park to get your artistic imagination flowing and use a variety of materials to create artworks.

Start by looking closely at trees and the shapes that their trunks and branches make. Then sketch the trees using a variety of different media. These sketches are then translated into paper mosaics back in the classroom.

In the afternoon use Matisse as an inspiration to discover the patterns and shapes of plants and flowers in the Rock and Water garden. Or walk to the Japanese Garden and sketch the features, such as the stone lanterns, tea house or bridge.

Alternatively we can create a day based around an artist you are studying with your class. Arrange a free pre-visit with the Education Officer to discuss the options.

 

The Gatton Maths Challenge

The Gatton Maths Challenge is a trail around Gatton Park made up of seven separate mathematical tasks. All tasks relate to the surrounding environment and aim to give maths a 'real-life' feel.

The children find their way between the 'challenges' using a map and instructions which encourage them to think about and practice directions, co-ordinate and compass work. On completion of each 'challenge', the children are awarded a number. After completing all the challenges they will have collected all the numbers needed to break the secret code.
Suitable for a half-day session, the trail is ideally combined with an additional activity, possibly science, history or geography based. Although designed as a complete activity, individual tasks within the trail can be incorporated into other programmes.

The accompanying trail pack contains master copies of adult helpers' and children's recording sheets. These will be sent to you prior to your visit so that appropriate sheets can be photocopied. Alternatively we can do this for you, but there will be a small charge to cover costs.

 

In order to view the downloadable booking form and H&S policy your machine will need Adobe reader, if you need to download this please
go to the Adobe site

 

 

  

 

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