The Green and Purple Groups have been exploring the story ‘Stick Man.’  The interest the children showed prompted us to find ways to extend their experience further.  We discovered ‘The Stick Man Trail’ within Polbeth and West Calder Community garden.

When we visited, we met a larger than life Stick Man at the entrance to a wonderful trail through woodland.  The children were able to use laminated sheets which showed us a map, interesting information and a word search.  We had to identify the characters from the Stick Man story on the sheet, look for letters throughout the trail to put beside them which made up a word at the end.  The children found a pond with frog spawn, a den made of huge sticks and a bird hide amongst other interesting things along the route. They enjoyed identifying things they recognised on the information boards which were placed throughout the wood and showed us things we could find in the countryside such as birds, trees and insects.  We also followed signs to a wonderful Fairy Garden.  There must be a lot of fairies who live there as the children found many tiny doors, a post office and even a telephone box.  The last thing we found on our journey was The Dark Wood which had another amazing den and a giant spider.

Even though the weather wasn’t very good, the children explored everything they could find and had a wonderful time.