A free Green Space Education Pack is now available to help teachers and outdoor education staff make the most of their local green spaces.

The Education pack is a resource intended to help teachers, youth workers and others who use local open green space as part of the outdoor classroom to help develop activities and projects with children and young people in their local area.

The pack contains suggestions for outdoor activities that cover many areas of the school curriculum, from using maps to observing and listening to the sights and sounds of nature and recording them in creative ways, to identifying plants and trees and learning about habitats and the wildlife that they support.

The inspirational activity sheets and resources are aimed mainly at key stages 1 to 3 but can also be used for youth work; the pack is divided into themed sections which include Green Space Mapping, Landscape, Wildlife and Habitats, Geology, Understanding the Past and Health and Well-being. It also contains practical guidance on Risk Assessment and initial site checks as well as appropriate web links and additional activities.

Researched and written by Annie Masson, Education Officer with Friends of the Lake District, the pack will be a valuable addition to current education resources and offers a creative approach to engaging children and young people in outdoor classroom work and discovering their local environment.

Download the education pack here.

To request a hard copy from Friends of the Lake District or for further information contact project officer Roe Baker at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .

Project officer Roe Baker said: "The Green Space Education Pack is an inspirational, vibrant, informative, fun and easy to use toolkit which allows teachers to download curriculum linked worksheets and guides covering a wide range of outdoor activities. These are tried and tested and will help teachers deliver safe, creative sessions on local green spaces - ideally within walking distance of the school grounds."

It has been developed as part of the Our Green Space a project which aims to celebrate and enhance the heritage, cultural, environmental and community benefits of open green spaces in Cumbria.

The Our Green Space project is supporting and enabling communities in Cumbria to restore, protect, better manage and use the green spaces where they live. The three year Cumbria-wide project is managed by Friends of the Lake District in partnership with Action with Communities in Cumbria (ACT). The project began in January 2008, and has now been extended until December 2011, and is supported by the Heritage Lottery Fund's ‘Your Heritage' grant scheme.

To find out more about the project go to www.ourgreenspace.org.uk