Week five or week Freezing!

The Forest School site sits in a Frost pocket so this afternoon the ground was rock hard and still white so we kept moving about as much as possible to keep warm.  The activities planned last week were shelved for another week and we played more active games, so instead of sitting around the fire pit we played sticky elbows to form a circle.  Sticky elbows is played by making a circle by touching the elbows of the people on either side of you, then touching knees and finally toes.  You end up with a circle of strange looking human ducks.  Once we had a nice circle to get warmed up we did some cross-brain training where you tap the knee with the opposite hand and then introduce elbows and knees and finally hands and heels its safe to say the kids are much better at this then the grown ups especially when you mix the actions up and start going fast.

Once warmed up, stick collecting came followed by a game of hide and seek.  We then started to weave hoops out of willow to play quoits.  The game was soon being adapted so that the stick we were throwing the hoops over had a defender who had an improvised bat to knock the hoops away with. 

After hot chocolate and biscuits served by the new catering team, some of the group, helped to tie down the tarp roof on our wood store so completing the project.  Next week we will start planning for next term with the kid’s ideas.

I have been asked about keeping warm on days like today and the best advice is layers.  So think base, mid and outer layers. Base layer long johns or tights and long sleeved tee shirt followed by jogging bottoms (avoid jeans they hold no heat and can cause chaffing when wet) and a fleece.  On the outside, waterproof trousers and a coat as well as a hat and gloves but avoid scarves as they can get in the way but a jersey buff will keep the neck warm.  On your feet wellies, with a couple of pairs of socks.