Monday, 8 August 2016

Crafts and Curiosities at Wells Carnival


Ellie Howell, Cley Marketing Intern

On Monday 1st August Community Education Officer Rachael and I went to Wells Carnival for an afternoon of marine inspired creativity and learning. 



While the stalls were not due to open when we finished setting up, there were lots of children eager to explore and to create. 

With ties to the Wildlife Trusts’ Living Seas vision, we wanted to discover what in particular makes the seas valuable to the families that came along. We also wanted to get them thinking about what helps and what harms our marine environment. 
 
We spent the afternoon creating wildlife pictures with natural materials found on the beach. We decorated crabs, fish and starfish with sea lettuce, crab claws, horn-wrack and other things that wash up on the shore. The children also enjoyed making jellyfish from the plastic materials we’d scavenged on the beach. 

Grandmother Angie Richards who travelled from Romford to spend time with her grandchildren said the activities were ‘fab for teaching and educating children on sea life and the environment.’ Her grandchild Ruby said she’d like to make fifty more for her bedroom!

There was also a display of marine objects for inquisitive minds to discover with items such as belemnites over 900 million years old. It was also a chance for the families reacquaint themselves with objects of childhood memory – mermaid’s purses (or egg cases as they are more scientifically known), razor shells, whelk eggs, cuttlebones and horse mussels.

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