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Alex Douglas-Kane shares her experiences and understanding of Discover Nature Awareness


Friday 9 April 2010

Games to Play - Concentric Rings

In nature nothing can move without affecting everything else and in the web of life all things are connected just like in a spider's web. When something gets caught in its web, the whole web vibrates. The spider is so aware of its surroundings that it can detect the smallest of disturbances to its web as an insect becomes trapped.

These disturbances send are sent out like concentric rings, much like
dropping a stone into the centre of a still pond. At first there is the splash, then after the initial shock wave after wave spreads out until it fills the entire pond and upon reaching the edge, it starts back again to its source.

So what I would like to do it offer you some activities you can do with children or anyone else for that matter, in exploring the concentric rings of nature.

  • First find a pond or something similar, ask your group to face away from the pond. Once they are no longer looking cast a stone into the pond. Now ask them to turn around and get them to tell you where you dropped your stone by investigating the configuration of the rings in the pond.
  • Another good activity to do is this. With a friend go out and sit alone in the woods for a while. Find a spot to sit down and wait until the forest calms down and the natural symphony is well established. Then, at a pre-determined time, have your friend or friends enter the forest. Now listen, watch, and experience the concentric rings that are sent out by the natural world in response to your friend's presence. The insects, birds and other wildlife will alert you to their presence.
  • Next. Seek out a hedgerow with a track running alongside it or a means of easy access along its length. Once again with your friends sit for a while and allow the natural world to settle down. At time which you pre-determined, have your friend or friends move along the length of the track. Now observe how the wildlife moves like a wave from the hedgerow in response to your friends movements.
  • Last but not least. Now sit in a favourite spot in the woods and once you have become calm and settled begin to move slowly through the woods and just beware of how the wildlife response less to your presence, than if you had gone through the woods chatting and generally making a noise and being unaware of your surrounds.

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