Swearing and Sweating!

To start with, the ‘swearing’ is actually ‘swelling’ of one of our Year One Forest Schoolers who had a nasty reaction to something in the tall grass and after ten minutes of sneezing and eyes running he looked like he had done a round in the ring with someone much bigger than him.  He was rushed up to the school to wash his face and the Head took him home where he told his Mum that he had come home because he had started swearing (swelling) at Forest School.

After this excitement we got back to being too hot in the sun, so we all headed under the tarp shelter in the cool.  We started work on the floor of the tree house with the group taking it in turns to cut lengths of wood to go across the frame and then raft lashing them into place.  We are about halfway across now and next week we will put the rest of the floor down and start putting safety rails around.

We will be organising an appeal for the poor children of Holt who feel deprived because they don’t have a beach to hand!  It would appear that a group at Forest School only want to play in the sand pit and only coaxing them out with hot chocolate works.

We had our first game of thicket hide and seek this term this week and how much better is it now plants are growing up.  One girl managed to get within a couple of feet of the square by crawling through the long grass but the last man standing managed to run from one side of the site to the other within the 10 second moving time to hide in the willow den.

Next week more work on the tree house and a giant poster ready for the school fete.

Bribery and Corruption at Forest School

A welcome back to Helen who came back for a session today and a big thank you to her for going and buying new waterproof trousers which kept the rain away for the session.

Today we got straight down to knot work with most being able to remember how to tie a clove hitch.  We moved on to square lashing with good effort in some quarters but not so good trying in others.  Everyone went off to find two sticks to tie together while I got the fire going.  Then, under the shelter we started practicing the lashing.  Soon the kettle was boiled and we stopped for hot chocolate and biscuits.  In the fire bag were also some fun size bags of sweets, so once the cups were packed away the bribery began.  For everyone who undid their square lashing and retied it there would be a bag of sweets - to say efforts were doubled would be an understatement.  Interestingly the resulting wooden crosses became props in later games played by a group of the children.

With the square lashing mastered we took it to the tree house so we could put in the supporting beams for the floor.  We are using a tree as our anchoring support for the tree house and then two tripods which we attach two beams from the tree to and then a beam across the two tripods.  The beams are held in place using the square lashing so giving us a sound base for the floor.

We divided off into different groups to play tag and play in the sand and I showed one of the new boys how to use the bow saw so he could cut one of the beams for the floor.

Next week we will start cutting wood for the floor and will be returning to knots, as the floor will need to be fixed down.  Luckily the knot we will be using is a raft lashing which is a variation of the square lashing.  We will also be playing our first game of thicket this term and of course will be back at the FS beach (sand pit). 

Unemployed Forest School Leader!

Over half term I put in a sand/ mud pit in the FS site and whittled some digging sticks.  During circle time we unveiled the new digging pit after which the adults did a lot of observation (standing around) of play and feeling somewhat left out.  It was great to see children of mixed age groups playing and working together building a landscape for their story to unfold in.  At one time there was a group of eight working out the story that was developing in their new world. Characters were invented as well as appearing from TV, film and even books, and the group was made up of boys all telling a story and mark making. 

The FS site is growing up and grass that was once a mown playing field is now a jungle just right to play hide and seek and chase through.  It is interesting to see how the children become more and more protective of the site.  I over heard one boy telling off another for running through the hedge as it might damage the plants with the reply of ‘oh yeah’.

After snack time we started work on the tree house we started by reminding the old hands and taught the new hands the clove hitch, an important knot when starting and finishing lashings.  Once everyone had had a go at the clove hitch I demonstrated how to tie a tipi lashing which we are using for two of the supports for the tree house.  Prior to starting the tipi lashing the wood was cut to length by a couple of volunteers using the bow saw and the sawhorse.  Next week we will look at square lashing the support beams in readiness to raft lash the floor on at a later date.