24 May 2015

Wild fun for kids during the June school holidays!

Exciting nature activities specially for kids are lined up for the coming school holidays! Lots of fun ways to discover and enjoy Singapore's biodiversity! And the highlight is Ubin Day with a weekend of family fun at Pulau Ubin, Singapore's last kampung.
Uncle Andrew pointing out critters during an Ubin Day walk!
Photo by Tze Kwan Fung.
Special events include an intertidal walk at Changi, night walk at Pasir Ris boardwalk. Also walks at Chek Jawa boardwalk, Labrador forest, Ubin kampung, along the Southern Ridges, Sungei Buloh's new Extension, Lower Peirce Reservoir. Learn about monkeys, birds, Join nature art workshop, nature camps. Volunteer to save horseshoe crabs, clean up the mangroves. And lots more!

FREE events

Ubin Day on 13-14 Jun (Sat, Sun)!
Ubin Day is Ubin Open House! Packed with kampung fun for all. Especially for kids and the family. From the outdoors and adventure to heritage and nature. Walks, cycles, kayaking, stargazing, butterfly watching, and other outdoor and water activities. More on the Ubin Day website and facebook page.

6 Jun (Sat): Fun walk along the Southern Ridges
Take your family on a leisurely stroll through the Southern Ridges, a soothing sanctuary of greenery that is steeped in history and home to some of nature's greatest gifts of flora and fauna. Registration required.

7 Jun (Sun): Horseshoe Crab Rescue and Research
Horseshoe crabs (HSC) are in decline globally due to the loss of habitat, poaching and overfishing. They also get trapped in abandoned fishing nets and need our help to set them free. With such concerns, NSS aims to continually monitor our local HSC population to ensure that they stay around for many generations to come. Registration required.

13 Jun (Sat): I heART Nature Workshop for kids
This interactive free parent-child bonding session includes interesting art and craft activities and a short nature appreciation walk. For children ages 5 to 7. Child must be accompanied by 1 parent. Maximum 10 children. At Dairy Farm Nature Park, Wallace Education Centre. Registration required.

13 Jun (Sat): A walk with your neighbours - the macaques of MacRitchie
The long-tailed macaques are the most conspicuous animals at Macritchie Reservoir Park. Although commonly seen, they are very misunderstood. Few seeing them realise anything about the social world these monkeys live in. They have kin networks, power struggles, friends, foes, and an otherwise complex social network. In many ways, they provide a mirror of our own sociality. If you would like to learn more about your community and the interesting world of your neighbouring macaques at Macritchie, please join our free walk, led by experts from the Jane Goodall Institute Singapore. Suitable for adults and children above 8 years.

13 Jun (Sat): Birdwatching at the Southern Ridges
Join us for this free birdwatching tour at the Southern Ridges, where up to 43 species of birds have been spotted so far. Volunteer guides from STMicroelectronics will take you through the Forest Walk and the Singing Forest in search of these beautiful birds. Do bring along a pair of binoculars or a camera with a zoom function for a better experience. Registration required.

21 Jun (Sun): Coastal Clean-up at Mandai Mudflats
Join us to clean up the Mandai Mudflats to benefit the wildlife that thrives here. Designated an Important Bird and Biodiversity Area, this stretch of coastline is a key habitat for horseshoe crabs and an important feeding site for wading birds. Registration required.

MORE events

3 Jun (Wed): Rural Nature & Kampong Culture Walk on Pulau Ubin
Join this walk for kids by Cicada Tree Eco Place! The island of Pulau Ubin has the last of Singapore’s bygone village ‘kampong’ culture. We start our walk into the rural countryside, bypassing bountiful kitchen gardens and fruit orchards. We peek over fences to look at wooden kampong houses and their outdoor toilets. Our route will go through a herb, spice, veg plot and also coffee and jasmine plantations. $13 per participant. Free for participants’ kids aged 6 yrs and below. Cost excludes the bumboat ride to Pulau Ubin at $2.50 per person one way. Registration required.


5 Jun (Fri): Mangrove Forest Walk at Sungei Buloh Wetland Reserve for kids
This is a walk for kids by Cicada Tree Eco Place. Sungei Buloh Wetland Reserve’s new main entrance and visitor centre was recently opened in December last year.  The amazing Mangrove forest is the main ecosystem in this reserve, home to cute mudskippers, monitor lizards and tree-climbing crabs. $13 per participant. Participants' kids/siblings aged 6 yrs and below come along free. Registration required.

5 Jun (Fri): Full day Nature Keeper Camp for kids
Designed to stimulate the interest of the young and inculcate in them an appreciation of our forests, the Nature Keeper Programme Workshop will be carried out at the Bukit Timah and Central Catchment Nature Reserves. Beyond the workshops, the programme also aims to nurture young volunteers in active protection and conservation of our natural heritage. Suitable for children 7 - 11 years old (Primary 1 to 5). $25 per child. Registration required.

6 Jun (Sat): Night Critter Walk at Labrador Nature Reserve
We go on an exploratory night walk into this Nature Reserve which is on top of a cliff by the sea. Our focus on this walk will be land-based, to find and observe tent-making spiders, katydids and other critters active at night such as the nightjar and palm civet. We will also look for the moults of cicadas from a mass emergence that recently happened here. $13 per participant. Free for participants’ kids aged 6 yrs and below. Registration required.


6 Jun (Sat): Nature Exploration Walk specially for kids at Pasir Ris Park Mangrove Boardwalk
This Cicada Tree Eco Place walk is only for parents and their kids aged 4 to 6 years to come out and explore Nature together. The wild mangrove forest here is easily and comfortably accessible and very suitable for small kids, with lots of things for them to look at. Our exploration will be on the extensive boardwalks to look for bugs, crabs, reptiles, birds and other critters. $13 per parent/guardian. Free for a maximum of 2 accompanying kid participants and/or their siblings aged 3 yrs and below. Third kid age 4-6yrs at $13 per kid. Registration required.

6 Jun (Sat): Young Naturalist Camp at Sungei Buloh

This one day camp encompasses a series of fun-filled and educational indoor and outdoor learning of the wetlands and nature conservation issues through worksheets, nature walks and hands-on activities. Limited to 40 children between the age of 7 to 12 years old. Registration fee of $5 for the camp will go into SBWR education fund. Registration required.

7 Jun (Sun): NSS Kids’ Fun with Inter-tidal Marine Life @ Changi
Only during low tides does the inter-tidal habitat off Changi Beach become exposed, revealing its precious denizens including sea stars, sea urchins, shellfish and even seahorse if we are super lucky. Join veteran tide chaser Marcus Ng as he leads us in search of these beauties. For children 4 to 12 years old. $5 per child, Non-Member: $10 per child. Parents and caregivers are encouraged to join in at no charge. Registration required.


7 Jun (Sun): Rainforest Water Walk at Lower Peirce Reservoir for kids
This walk for kids is by Cicada Tree Eco Place. We visit Lower Peirce Reservoir to walk its canopied forest trails, along its reservoir banks and forest stream. The Lower and Upper Peirce reservoirs are actually the headwater site of the Kalang River. $13 per participant. Participants' kids/siblings aged 6 yrs and below come along free. Registration require.

9 Jun (Tue): Chek Jawa Nature Exploration for kids
This walk for kids is by Cicada Tree Eco Place. The natural ecosystems that we walk through here include coastal forest, mangrove and attapchee forests, seagrass lagoon, rocky seashore and secondary forests. Ubin and CJ is a nature-lover and birdwatchers' premier venue, still home to a diversity of wildlife including wild pig, mousedeer, junglefowl and hornbills. $13 per participant. Free for participants’ kids aged 6 yrs and below. Cost excludes the bumboat ride to Pulau Ubin at $2.50 per person one way & mini bus ride to chek jawa at $4 return trip per person. Registration required.

20 Jun (Sat): Nite Critter Watch at Pasir Ris Mangrove Boardwalk for kids
This walk for kids is by Cicada Tree Eco Place. This location is very good for a night critter walk and that’s why we keep going back there. As dusk falls, we look out for emerging bats and observe their acrobatic feeding flight. $13 per pax (adult or kid). Free for kids aged 6 yrs and below accompanying adult participants. Registration required.

Go wild on your own!

You can also explore on your own! Check out the many DIY Trail Guideson the NParks website. More about our wild places on wildsingapore. A tip to avoid the crowds on school holiday weekends, come early. That's when wildlife is more active anyway. And leave before it gets too hot.

MORE school holiday activities on the wildsingapore happenings blog.

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