Alison Lloyd at Miller's Dale nature reserve end of May 2011

In preparation for their shadow puppet workshops with Jennie Pedley I took children from two White Peak Schools on a journey to and around Miller's Dale.  The activity for the day was the walk, we looked around us as we walked and looked at the map to see where we had travelled to and how far we had come, and how much up and down we had done.  We looked at the features on the map; including walls, water and streams, woods, contour lines and buildings.

Things that we looked for as we walked through the fields along the foot paths and tracks.  

Shadows
Flowers
Stones and walls
Lime kilns
Shapes
Plants
Buildings and other man made structures
disused railway line and viaduct
colours
leaves and trees

We walked up to 8.75 kilometres to a height of 304 m to look out over Miller's Dale and beyond.  We sat in a meadow to eat our lunch, watched the fish (probably trout) swimming in the river as we picked our way along the valley path.  We walked swiftly though the newly opened tunnel listening to our echoes and looking at our silhouettes.  Some of these experiences were brand new ones for one or two of the children.  One child described the day as "Awesome"