More slave labour



Another day another wagonful of wood chip marking out the whittling area





Putting up the saw horses begining to feel like home




we need just one more log!




I see no ships




Armed and almost dangerous

It was bitter at forest school today so we moved more wood chip just to keep warm while Helen got the hot chocolate on the way.  She had a sneaky bag of wood shavings with her just to make sure the fire went after being supplied with damp newspaper last term, some people are so untusting!
It's great the way no two groups are the same, yesterday's crew were very laid back and mellow today's were charging around building dens and using different features of the forest school site.  Since we have moved the wet weather shelter the sand/ mud pit has been rediscovered and an old play platform was being used for chilling out on again.
I was handed a Y shaped piece of wood and asked, Do you have any string I want to make a slingshot?  String isn't going to work you need elastic, which I don't have any of but lets have a look in the sparks bag.  After a quick rumage we found some mini rubber bands that we put on either side of the Y and then a piece of string between them slingshot done, well, done after another three were made.  It's amazing how many Y pieces of wood you can find on the floor.
It's great when the children take over and start leading. I said it would be nice to get some seeds and plant up the site with some woodland plants at which one of the boys pipes up and says he wants to grow strawberries and he has the perfect place.  So we marked out the area with some logs and next week he is going to dig it over ready for planting in a couple of weeks once the ground has warmed up a little.



Spring cleaning

A new start to the term and a chance to have a bit of a revamp of the Forest School area at Holt Primary.  The group has lost some old faces and gained some new ones, sad to say good bye but nice to have some new characters to get to know.  We also have a new sign at the entrance one of the areas on the list for revamping, as our archway is looking a little sad and the path is more mud than wood chip.



The group moving wood chip to put a floor in the shelter we started last term





Just need to dig out the storm kettle pit and peg down the surround oh and finish the walls and stop the rain pooling on the top but apart from that we are almost finished



Our new whittling area logs fresh from the woods yesterday we still need to  drill holes in them for pegs to fit into and add straps for sheaths to attach to before we are finished













So lots going on it will interesting to see how the area changes with the new faces and their ideas on how things should look

Process not Product

I've been away this week down in Devon playing in the woods with other FS leaders.  Part of our C.P.T. in advanced tool use and a phrase that kept coming up was ' Process not Product' which fits neatly into what we have been doing this term with our spoon making.  Yes we wanted a finished spoon that we could drink our soup with but also we were learning about using a knife, how wood cuts, how to be safe, and concentrating.  What happens when you're not thinking about being safe or concentrating is you get cut or you put other in danger or even worst you muck up your work and have a new problem to solve.  This Thursday we dished out two lots of plasters to members of the group one of the boys went home with a wound dressing because he was not giving the knife he was using enough respect and so ended up cutting his knuckle because he was bouncing the blade up and down his work I told him to stop just as the knife landed on his hand.  The great news was the concentrating that was going into the spoons of two of the boys who went home with plasters last week maybe we all needed to cut ourselves before we learn to take more care.

 

I hope you can see from the photos that the group really did enjoy the fruits of their labour 

Practice makes prefect

The snow of a few weeks ago had weakened the ridge pole on our wet weather shelter so whilst the group collected the firewood I started untying lines to remove the tarps.  I hope to be back on Sunday to start rebuilding the shelter.   Helen had an audience while she lit the storm kettle until I asked for help removing the tent pegs and the boys started working on the best way to get them up.  Most of the group were busying themselves with their dens and our youngest members were finding different sticks to dig with, the best being a hooked branch which could be used as a pick axe.

After snack time I refreshed everyone about the different techniques we had learnt using the fix bladed knives.  Compared to yesterday’s plaster count of three scratches today we just had the one injury, unfortunately it was to a boy who had just got over sticking a pencil in his eye while drinking his hot chocolate (had the pencil in same hand as cup).  This group has a number of less experienced knife users than the Thursday group and they are still getting comfortable with the tool.  Everyone had a go with the crook knives and we had the making of some bowls appearing by the end of the session.