Caterpillars at the Keynsham Christmas Tree Festival

We turned up at St John's Church to decorate the Transition Keynsham Tree with the sparkly bits and bobs we made out of clean rubbish last week! We also used handmade decorations including knitted tinsel made by the Stitch and B*** girls and beautiful paper chains, stars and bells made from recycled materials. Thank you everyone who has made something, the result is truly inspiring... And a very cheerful lucky tree!



The Masters at work 1

Result!



The Masters at work 2

We also helped out decorate the Community 67 Tree!

Workshop: Make Recycled Christmas Tree Decorations

Thursday 28th November, 1530-1730, at Community 67, Queens Road, Keynsham

In this fun workshop we will be making nice shiny Christmas Tree decorations out of clean rubbish.

The decorations we make will be used to decorate the Transition Keynsham and the Community67 Christmas Trees at the Keynsham Christmas Tree Festival the following week (probably 5th December, tbc), and of course you can take one home!

For more information contact keynsham.caterpillars@gmail.com.

Suitable for younger children up to 8 years old or so.

Caterpillars Meeting - next Friday @1030!

Meet like minded parents and discuss sustainable parenting issues, to find out more email keynsham.caterpillars@gmail.com. Tea and cake guaranteed.

Womble in the Park - Mission Accomplished

Gearing up!

Our army of Wombles followed Orinoco around the park last Wednesday picking cans, bottles, bags and other unsavoury stuff that should have been in a bin. They had great fun using their litter pickers to pick litter of course, and subversively to shoo away teenagers from the bandstand who were no doubt after a bit of peace and quiet.
We soon moved along to the St John's Hall where we sorted our landfill site into boxes for recycling. Oh, and we had some very yummy cakes!

The Park gets cleaner and cleaner

With many thanks to Susanna, Mary, Jenny and all the Wombles who let us use their litter pickers. And of course to the children who did all the hard work - well done :)
If you would like to know more about wombling in and around Keynsham email keynsham.caterpillars@gmail.com.

No flying plastic bag escaped this lot



Orinoco's Masterclass on the 3Rs

Caterpillars Toy Share Initiative Launched: A local toy exchange enabling families to share good quality toys

This initiative is an alternative 'pester power shopping', designed to teach our children to buy less, waste less and strengthen our community by sharing. This is how it works - go to the Keynsham Caterpillars Toy Share Group on Facebook and...
 1. Post details of a toy you wish to offer for other families to share with a picture if possible. All toys on offer to be clean, in good condition and safe.
2. If interested in borrowing a toy on offer get in touch with lender
3. Borrow toy and return to lender in good condition and on time as agreed with lender
All members to abide by 3 simple rules:
1. All toys on offer are in good condition and safe
2. All borrowed toys are returned in their original condition and on time as agreed with the lender. Anyone not following this rule will be banned from the group.
3. No exchange of money or items for sale please - this goes against the community sharing spirit of the Caterpillars
Keynsham Caterpillars is not responsible for any losses or damages 

Wombling with Orinoco, 30th October, 1400-1600

We will meet Womble Orinoco, help him keep Keynsham Memorial Park clean, and he will be telling us all about Reusing, Reducing and Recycling!

 

Meet at Keynsham Memorial Park at 1400. We will do a litter pick around the park for 30-40 minutes, then will proceed to the St John's Church Hall to wash our hands, chat with Orinoco and have a snack. Litter pickers will be provided. Children of all ages welcome.

 

For more details look at the Events Page or contact keynsham.caterpillars@gmail.com.

Caterpillars at the Keynsham Food Festival

Two happy customers

Last Saturday we tagged along the Transition Keynsham stall and had lots of fun planting cress seeds in eggshells, kindly provided by Sheila!

How are your seeds doing? Do you have any photos of your cress to email us for the blog?



Veteran Caterpillar Gabriella
with her eggshell



Would you like to see a Family Yoga class run in Keynsham?

A few of us are interested but we still need more joiners to make this viable - we need enough people to split the cost of the yoga teacher and the hall hire, and make it affordable! If you are interested in attending Family Yoga classes in Keynsham regularly, please contact keynsham.caterpillars@gmail.com.

Logo Competition Winner unveiled!

Have you seen our new, shiny, fabulously colourful logo? Liam Prosser, aged 5, is the winner of the Keynsham Caterpillars Logo Competition. Four local impartial judges couldn't resist such a lovely colourful smiley caterpillar and too right, it is a lovely drawing! Designer Lucie has worked her magic to turn Liam's drawing into a leaf logo four our group. Thank you both, well done!
Many other very talented children participated in the Logo Competition and they also produced beautiful drawings, they are all proudly displayed online in the Logo Competition Gallery.

Caterpillars Parents Meeting, 27th September 0930-1130

** Please note this meeting will now take place 0930-1130 at the Keynsham Children's Centre in Rock Road **

The Children's Centre are kindly letting us have a room for this meeting, so that we don't have to be all squashed in Caterpillars HQ during the colder months when we can't be out in the garden. Thank you so much Children's Centre!!

If you are a local parent keen to discuss greener ways to bring up our children join us! We will discuss eco friendly parenting issues and future Caterpillars initiatives and events. Or simply join us to meet like-minded parents, everybody is welcome. Tea will be available, perhaps cake. Please email Monica keynsham.caterpillars@gmail.com for details of location. Well behaved children very welcome.

Eco Friendly Parties for All

I have a couple of birthdays in the family this month, and this time of the year always makes me think of whether we sometimes go a bit over the top with children's parties. Have a look at the Eco Friendly Parties for All page for some tips on throwing a brilliant eco friendly party! Don't forget, we can all make it, it's easier than you think!

End of Season Party, Friday 30th August 1500-1700

We did it! A first season of Caterpillars events topped up with the fabulous fairy light pretend campfire and lots of Nature Detectives and den building fun! Keep updated with details of future events by submitting your email address on the box on the right.

If you would like to become an active member of Keynsham Caterpillars email Monica on keynsham.caterpillars@gmail.com.

Tree hugging out and about!

Close to hugging one of the largest trees we found!

We haven't really hugged any trees today but the Little Tree Huggers event has been a lot of fun. We have learned about tree trunk rings, about different kinds of leaves and about the fruits and nuts that are already coming out! We have also heard some lovely tree stories told by Laura from Community 67 who is kindly supporting Caterpillars events.

If you would like to get involved in similar events email keynsham.caterpillars@gmail.com.







We learned about tree rings



We picked some samples
for further analysis



A very happy gang



Tree stories at picnic time



A very exciting pear tree - full of fruit!



Recycled cards workshop - result!

 

And the result has been a lot of beautiful cards handcrafted by the children in today's workshop at Community 67. Let's keep it up, we need to see more handcrafted cards circulating on birthdays! You will find a list of things you can collect throughout the year to build up a folder full of handy stuff to make your own cards in the Recycled Crafts page.
We will run a similar event, Recycled Crafts, on 27th August, details in the Events page.


We cut out and glued scraps

We listened to stories

And we produced first class cards!




Nature Detectives success!

A few of us attended the Nature Detectives morning last Tuesday and what fun it was! We explored the woods, found ladybirds and grasshoppers, played with sticks and learned one or two yucky facts about aphids. If you'd like to attend a similar event we are running Little Tree Huggers on 9th August, more details on the Events page.

Caterpillars on Twitter

Follow what's going on in Twitter @kcaterpillars.

Caterpillars Exhibition is now on

The drawings are now on display at Community @ 67, Queens Road, Keynsham, and you are very welcome to go and have a look.

Please note that the centre is not open all day but Clare will be kindly leaving the shutters up during the day for everybody to admire the artworks which are by the way very good!

 

I will be gathering 2 or 3 impartial judges in the next few days and will announce the winner in due course, probably in the next couple of weeks (I am away from the 14th so it will be before then).

 

I will then scan the pictures and add them to the Gallery in the website, and add the winning one on the website and on future leaflets as the logo!

 

A big thank you to all the children who have created such wonderful caterpillars!

 

Family Events for the Summer Holidays

I have managed to put together this brilliant list of events thanks to some wonderful people out there who kindly support what we are doing!

Let's get the Toy Library and Party Share started

Stuff to borrow already available - by joining the Caterpillar Group we can make this list grow! To become a member for either initiative you will need to sign a 'contract' to agree that everything borrowed will be returned in its original condition and within the agreed timescales. The contract will be kept in the Keynsham Caterpillars HQ. You will also need to offer something for whichever initiative you join - we take but we also give! 

These initiatives are community owned and run, and are based on a strong element of trust and responsibility. That's all you need to do - Let's get these exciting things moving :)

Email keynsham.caterpillars@gmail.com if you would like to know more!

The Keynsham Caterpillar Group - what are we trying to achieve?

The main objectives of the group are to bring like minded families together and to take action to promote a more eco friendly, sustainable approach to parenting by:

• Promoting a positive approach to eco-friendly parenting by sharing experiences and setting up local initiatives within the community
• Teaching our children about the natural environment and how we can minimise our impact on it by organising events and activities
• Taking positive action against the commercialisation of childhood by setting up exchange and share initiatives
• Reducing waste by promoting moderation for traditionally wasteful events such as Christmas and birthdays

We can only achieve this with the help of active, positive parents and the participation of keen little eco-warriors. If you are interested in helping get this exciting group moving please email Monica on keynsham.caterpillars@gmail.com. 

 

You don’t have to commit to the group on a full time basis – we’re all busy people! – but if you can help out with a brilliant idea, or set up an event, or provide support in any way you can you’re very welcome!

 

Once we get enough people interested we can get together and start organising fabulous activities and initiatives!