Story Explorers at Calderstones Park

Here at The Reader HQ in Calderstones we've been combining the beauty of the park with the benefits of Shared Reading on our Story Explorers adventures for families.

With news last week that Liverpool City Council and Mersey Forest have secured £3.4m to develop green spaces in the city as part of URBAN GreenUp, we thought we'd celebrate our own project with Mersey Forest!

Story Explorers at Calderstones Park

Spending time outdoors is a fantastic way for both adults and children to stay active, but it's also a great way to exercise your imagination. Getting out into the fresh air can be great fun for all ages and a fantastic way to reconnect with both nature and each other, and like Shared Reading, can have a huge impact on your mental health and happiness.

So considering the beautiful surroundings we have here at our HQ in Calderstones Park, we wondered if we could combine the joy of being outdoors in the fresh air with the self-confidence and self-esteem boosting benefits of reading stories together. We teamed up with The Big Lottery and The Mersey Forest on their Nature4Health campaign and came up with a fun, creative family experience called Story Explorers with the last of our 12 weekly sessions on Sunday 18 December.

With lively, upbeat and completely creative sessions out and about in the park, each week Story Explorers enjoyed an exciting mix of stories, games and activities with our Storysharers leading the adventure as the group embarked on story missions of all varieties.

Over the 12 weeks the Story Explorers created their own broomsticks for Halloween, explored interactive trails around the beautiful Calderstones Park and examined each and every animal they met in Jon Klassen's I Want My Hat Back in search of the Bear's missing hat. They even went on to unleash their own millinery skills, creating their very own hats before heading out into the park for an exciting Great Big Hat Hunt, rounding off an exciting morning with lovely fresh fruit.

Get involved and be part of the story...

Visit The Storybarn at Calderstones Park to embark on a story adventure with our Storysharers! You can also follow us on Twitter and Facebook for all the latest updates on our next adventure!