Your challenge: help the staff of Bark and Beetle's Woodland Emporium :O)
Welcome customers!
Welcome to Bark and Beetle's Woodland Emporium in our hollow ancient oak tree. It's the best one-stop-shop in the animal world.
Come inside and browse our nooks and crannies full of.... Oh no! We've sold out of lots of items, can you help us find some more?
Which department will you help first? Toys and jokes, shoes, food or clothing?
tell us
Get prepared
You'll need a bag to collect stock for our departments. Make and decorate a collecting bag :O)
collecting bag
Ground floor - toy and joke department
Our toy department is almost empty! Please can you collect these items to put on our shelves?
Silly string
Goosegrass (also known as 'cleavers') is covered in lots of tiny hooks so it sticks to clothing when you throw it at someone!
Great for throwing at your friends and seeing how long it takes before they notice :O)
did you find goosegrass?
Fake blood capsules
Blackberry juice looks a lot like blood - put a couple of blackberries in your mouth then bite down and let the juice run down your chin!
(The juice can stain, wear old clothes to try this :O)
Itching powder
The miniscule hairs inside hips from the dog rose make brilliant itching powder!
Darts
The heads from wall barley make great darts to throw at your friends :O)
what other grasses make good darts?
Invisible ink pens
Dandelion sap makes great invisible ink.
You can baffle your friends with a blank piece of paper - then watch their faces as the sap dries and the writing appears!
invisible ink pens
Grass whistle
Try making a whistling sound by blowing through grass.
- Find a thin, flat blade of grass
- Hold the blade of grass lengthways between your two thumbs that are pressed together
- Gently stretch your thumbs to pull the grass taut
- Purse your lips and blow between your thumbs
What a sound!
If at first you don't make a whistling sound keep practicing, you'll get the hang of it :O)
Catapult
Catapults are brilliant for firing goosegrass silly string and wall barley darts :O)
- Find a forked twig or very small branch that has fallen from a tree
- Make one cut through an elastic band
- Tie one end of the elastic band to one 'arm' of the twig, and the other end to the other 'arm'
- See how many pieces of goosegrass and wall barley darts land on your friends!
Can you find any other natural items that would make brilliant toys or games? What can you find?
tell us
First floor - perfume department
Nature is full of different scents, some nice and some really pongy ones!
Collect lots of different leaves, petals and bark and see if you can recreate the smell of the woods.
Just put the bits and pieces into a clean, empty yoghurt pot and mash them up with a stick :O)
Now design a perfume bottle that will look fantastic on Bark and Beetle's shelves.
design a perfume bottle
Please don't put any of your woodland perfume onto your skin as it could make you very sore or itchy!
send us your design
Second floor - clothing department
Our clothing department caters for all animals (and some humans) with a passion for fashion :O)
Help us by designing a nature-themed shirt that we can hang on the clothes rails.
shirt template
The latest fashion is for an animal to wear to colours and patterns of another animal.
What would a fox look like in the colours of a ladybird? What would a deer look like dressed as a badger?
Draw a picture and show us, you could be our next fashion designer!
show us
Tree top - footwear department
If you were an animal or minibeast what sort of footwear would you choose?
Design a shoe to fit these feet!
design a shoe
We'd love to see your designs on our shelves :O)
email us your design
Create your own department store
Create your own store by collecting twigs, branches, leaves and logs from the woodland floor.
Use these items to create sales counters, shelves, cash registers, clothes rails, changing rooms etc.
What will you call your store?
tell us
We'd love to see your store :O)
send us a photo or drawing
Thanks for helping
Thanks so much for all your help, we now have full shelves and the customers are happy!
Here's a fun activity to do when you're out in a real supermarket. Tick off these nature-themed items as you find them :O)
supermarket bingo
Email your stories and photos to get them published on the website:
naturedetectives@woodlandtrust.org.uk
Helped Bark and Beetle's
Woodland Emporium?
Stick this ripe blackberries sticker
onto your CLUB
challenge poster :O)