Stair rods

Our last session of the school year and it was not just wet, it was torrential but not cold so we just ignored it and got on with what we were doing.  We got the secateurs out and cut back willow whips to thatch the tree house with.  Unfortunately it was too wet to take pictures of the hard work that the children were putting into finishing their construction project. As always members of the Forest School dipped in and out of the activities with the war of the Gummy bears and cola bottle continuing, and the discovery of some forest friends I had carved at the school fete in the sand pit started other games.

For the first time we got the knives out and the children prepared a stick to toast marshmallows on.  The blades are about 9cm long and very sharp so safe practice is important so working in small groups we took ourselves off to a quiet place the site and talked about how to use the knives.  We start by getting into a safe position, which is kneeling on the ground with one knee up to give support to the hand holding the piece of work and the other planted on the ground.  By being in this position we have three anchor points two feet and a knee so we have less chance of losing our balance than if we were standing or kneeling on both knees.  We remember the position by the hand that holds the knife is the busy hand and so the knee on the same side is the lazy knee and is on the ground.  Once down on the ground we check our blood bubble, which is done with the knife still in the sheath, the people make an arc around themselves to check that they can’t injure anyone else with the knife before starting work.  Once ready with the stick tucked under the armpit of the hand holding the stick and holding well away from were the cutting was going to be done it was time to remove the sheath.  We always work away from the body concentrating on what we are doing at all times.  It is amazing how knife work bring the children to a almost Zen like state even if they were running around five minutes beforehand and then they calm down and start thinking everything through.

Because of the weather we could not cook our hot dogs and the hot chocolate would have been over flowing with rainwater before we had finished making it but we did get a fire going and we did toast marshmallows standing in the rain.  Maybe one of our projects next term will be building a shelter we can cook in and with a smaller group we will be doing a lot more tool work.