Thursday 24 January 2013

You need to be switched on when using cutting tools!

Most of the snow has now gone and there was a little ‘snice’ as they call wet frozen snow that is almost ice in Sweden , laying in places around the forest school.  We had a quick chat about throwing snow as not everyone had gloves and as we were going to be outside for over an hour and nobody wants cold hands for that long.  One or two of the group were a little distracted when they went off to collect sticks so missed out on the start of den building as they were still of looking for their first sticks when everyone had finished.  We end up with two dens on opposite sides of the forest school.  The two den crews worked really well in their groups helping each other move branches and logs into position.  It is always great to see the imagination that goes into creating these structures, one group put in logs to make seating, while the other group used charred wood that became a pretend fire.
After hot chocolate the group sat down to watch a demonstration on using a crook knife.  We started by making a spoon blank using an axe and mallet to split the wood down to a stop cut.  This gives us a spoon shape.  Unfortunately the group were finding it had to concentrate and so I started to pack up the kit as they did not seem to be in the right frame of mind.  After protests the group settled down to watch how to use the crook knife to form the inside of the bowl of the spoon.  I decided that the group would not use the knives this week because they were not focused and so the group went back to playing.  Three games were being played and two dens being worked on and a new game of jail break in was developing in the living willow den.  We had to wait a little while for everyone to quieten down at the archway.  Hopefully we will start work on our spoon next week.

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