Wee STEMs

26/09/2026

We had a fabulous time with Ranger Mac making bat boxes today 🦇

01/05/2025

A rare find! The transition process of a dandelion 🌱

19/02/2025

Have a look at this fabulous list of things to do outdoors with your wee ones. This place sounds fantastic! Have you been? 🌳

Here’s 10 ways to get wild this February mid term 👇

🕵️Tree ID walk - how many trees can you ID without their leaves on?

🦅Bird spotting - head to your local wood or green space and see how many birds you can see and hear. Why not have a go using the free Merlin Bird ID app?

🪵Bark rubbing - take some paper and crayons to the forest and create beautiful textures by doing rubbings on top of different tree barks.

🪶Nature treasure hunt - make a list of things to find: a pinecone, a feather, a smooth stone - who can find them all first?

🍃Build a Den – Gather fallen branches and leaves to create a wild hideout.

📖Storytelling in the Woods - Find a quiet spot in nature and share a story inspired by the land, or read a book about Scottish wildlife.

💦Splash in muddy puddles - Grab your wellies and take a rainy walk to leap in puddles.

🌀Make a nature mandala - Collect fallen leaves, stones, flowers, and sticks to create a beautiful circular artwork on the ground. Remember to respect nature and not pick anything - only use what has fallen.

🐾Wildlife tracking - Look for footprints, feathers, and nibbled leaves to uncover what creatures have passed by.

📍Visit our rewilding centre - if you're local to the Highlands, come and say hi - it's free! Plus we’ve got a fab cafe, play area, brilliant path network and so much more.

06/02/2025

A little experimentation with light refraction using a prism and a sphere 🌈

02/12/2024

❄️ ⛄️ It’s tiiiiiiiiiime!!!! ⛄️❄️

I can’t quite believe it’s December already! Although the snow last week definitely helped to get us in the zone for making this gorgeous festive playdough.

All you’ll need is:

❄️ 1 cup of plain flour
❄️ 1 tbsp cream of tartar
❄️ 1 tbsp oil
❄️ 1/4 cup of salt
❄️ 3/4 cup of water
❄️ Scents (cinnamon, nutmeg or orange)
❄️ Food colouring
❄️ Glitter (optional)
❄️ Glycerine (optional)

Simply mix the first 4 ingredients (flour, cream of tartar, oil & salt) until combined. Also add any scents you fancy using – sprinkle in some cinnamon or squeeze in some fresh orange juice from an orange. Nutmeg would also work well!

Add the food colouring of your choosing to the water and then SLOWLY add the water, bit by bit, mixing as you go – until you get the perfect consistency. You may not need all of the water so add sparingly.

If you want it to be quite a glossy playdough then add a drop of glycerine to make it shiny.

Finally, add any objects you wish (eg glitter, beads, stars etc).

This activity is wonderful for:

🐧 Practising number skills by counting and measuring in ingredients (eg 1 cup of flour)
🐧 Strengthening fine-motor skills by mixing, squeezing in the orange scent, making handprints in the playdough, kneading the dough
🐧 Exploring colour by adding different food dye and different glitters
🐧 Practising pincer-grip (useful for writing) when playing with the playdough, poking holes in it and moving toys in and out of it
🐧 Experimenting with changing states of materials – by adding water to solid ingredients to create different textures
🐧 Putting our engineering skills to the test by trying to build an igloo out of the playdough for a festive animal
🐧 Exploring symmetry in snowflakes ❄️

11/11/2024

🐾 Animal Tracking 🐾

Recently, there was a lot of clay on one of our walks and many many footprints had been recorded.

We used this opportunity to discuss how tracks are made and explored what animals they could have come from.

We also had a go at making our own and comparing the difference in shapes and sizes.

06/11/2024

🎂 Food STEM 🎂

Put your engineering skills to the test by creating a cake or dish that represents something in the real world!

Here is a cake representation of Callanais Standing Stones, Lewis using a Victoria sponge cake with green-dyed desiccated coconut and grey-dyed white chocolate coated bourbon biscuits. It was delicious!

What could you create?

04/11/2024

🍄‍🟫 Autumn Leaf Globes 🍂

I saw this beautiful creation a few weeks and finally got around to giving it a try ourselves!

Simply gather some nature (the more colourful the better) and:

🍂 Use a glue gun to glue a stick to the lid of a clean glass jar
🍂 Glue leaves to the twig, making a mini tree
🍂 Use a hole-punch to create nature confetti (the more holes you punch the better!)
🍂 Add the holes to the glass jar and fill it to the brim with water
🍂 Seal the jar shut and give it a shake to see the beautiful autumnal scene unfold!

30/10/2024

🦇 Halloween Playdough 🎃

It’s that time of year again! And this playdough recipe makes the silkiest glossiest playdough there is!

It’s so easy to make – so here you go – here’s all you need to get started:

🦇 1 cup of plain flour
🦇 1 tbsp cream of tartar
🦇 1 tbsp oil
🦇 1/4 cup of salt
🦇 3/4 cup of water
🦇 Gel food colouring (optional)
🦇 Glycerine (optional)

Simply mix the first 4 ingredients (flour, cream of tartar, oil & salt) until combined.

Add the gel food colouring (if using) to the water and then SLOWLY add the water, bit by bit, mixing as you go – until you get the perfect consistency.

If you want it to be quite a glossy playdough then add a drop of glycerine to make it shiny.

Finally, add any scents (eg cinnamon or nutmeg) or Halloween objects you wish (eg halloween cookie cutters or rolling pins etc).

Happy playing!

29/10/2024

👻 Spooky Leaf Art 🦉

For a quick and fun activity - gather some leaves and paint them to represent different creatures.

Here, we’ve created some ghosts, owls, cat bats & rainbow leaves 🍂

What could you create?