Summer is drawing to a close and the Downs are full of tasty treats for wildlife with juicy berries appearing on the elder, hawthorn and brambles. You may even find fox poo so full of berries that it’s almost purple! Looking among the grasses you’ll see harebells popping up like little purple bells or fairy hats.  August is a great time of year to see bumblebees, butterflies and dragonflies and if you come out at dusk you might also see our resident bats flittering past hunting for insects. Download this month’s activity sheet to find out how to make a bat finger puppet!

• A4 black felt sheet
• some small pink felt scraps
• sewing kit
• glue
• scissors
• googly eyes
• an adult helper

1. Cut out the front and back templates from the download and pin them to some black felt. Cut round them carefully to give you the front and back of your bat. Next cut a heart shape and two triangles for ears from your pink felt (you may need your adult to help you with this as it’s a bit tricky!).

2. Starting with the front piece of felt, sew on the heart shaped face.

3. Sew the pink triangles on to make the inside of the ears.

4. Add a little T shape for the nose and mouth.

5. Sew the back piece onto your bat with black thread.

6. Finally glue on your googly eyes and let them dry before trying out your bat puppet!