Listen aim FIRE!

After the hot weather we have been having I thought it was time we got a little bit wet.  To start the session off today we played a game I got from a book called ‘I love my World’ by Chris Holland the game is called ‘The Sneaking Circle’.  You start off with a circle and in the middle is a person wearing a blindfold and armed with a water pistol and a ring of sleigh bells at their feet.  The children in the circle take it in turn to sneak toward the bells trying to not be heard by the guard.  If heard then they get squirted and return to the circle empty handed.  If you manage to get back to your place in the circle with the bells you then change places with the guard.  This is great to encourage communication without talking within the group, teamwork and thinking about how you walk. As the game goes on then it can become more rowdy so it is a good idea to have a rule where anyone rushing in and grabbing the bells is disqualified and has to return to the circle empty handed.

While sneaky circle was being played I was getting the cooking on the go, last week we had taken orders for pizza wraps and hot dogs and so we had a big cooking fire blazing away.  As always, there was help with the measuring out of the hot chocolate.  Whilst the feasting was being dealt with I started putting up the rope swing and slack line in a couple of trees just outside the newly planted wood.

After the cups were in the orange box the children split off to play, some on the aerial play equipment some in the den and others just hiding in the long grass watching the world go by.  Even a football was kicked about for a time, as always time was up all too soon.  We returned to the fire circle to discuss what we were going to get up to next term and it looks like a low to the ground tree house and making a cricket bat.  So I will be spending half term looking for a froe for splitting wood for the group to learn how to use.  We may even use it for splitting logs for our fires.    

Too Hot for Action!

The teachers were using the school hall so we met to get changed in the outdoor classroom which was really nice and we think we will meet there in future when the weather is kind.  It was great to see that some of the children had come with sun screen and were happy sharing it around with their friends.  Once everyone was ready we moved to the FS area it was clear from the start that it was just too hot to be really engaged.  The two older boys went off to finish their last A frame ladder and the rest of the group reluctantly went off in search of wood for the fire they were going to make.  Once we had sorted the wood into match size, pencil size and thumb thick and the length of a forearm it was time to have a go with the fire steel.  We moved into the fire pit area and broke out the cotton wool pads everyone opened them out to make fluffy duck bills then we passed the fire steel around so everyone could have a go at lighting their cotton wool.  Once the cotton wool was all burnt up we laid the fire and lit it to boil the kettle on. 

As always an activity is not compulsory at FS so while fire making and ladder building was going on other members of the group were playing in the den and other were being creative drawing with charcoal and making daisy chains.

The previous day while leading FS at the Courts we played the tracking game were you have two teams and one lays a trail using markers and the other time after counting goes to seek them.  Our heat drained group today just could not find the energy and in the end a small group went off to play and seem to enjoy themselves.  Two boys were still playing while having their hot chocolate one laying a trail and the other counting between sips, so it may come out another day.

The Last A frame was finished and the three were lent up against each other formed a three side climbing frame.  The next challenge for next term is a play platform (a low to the ground tree house).  The boys have done really well using tools such as a bow saw and a fix bladed knife reading instructions and learning new knots and lashings.

Next week cook out pizza and hot dogs and not forgetting the hot chocolate!

Planning what planning

 Each week I put a plan together for the session and within ten minutes its been thrown out the window as the session becomes child led.  I usually take the FS truck down to the FS site before the session but today the sports field was being used so I took the truck around the back of the hall where we meet and parked it next to the door we come out of.  As we left for the site a couple of volunteers pushed and pulled the truck and seemed to enjoy it so guess what next week I will be parking the truck outside the hall again so a new FS activity is created.  Today we divided again into two groups as the elder boys finished their first A frame ladder and got the second one cut up ready for tying together next week.  It was tested up against a tree and once we have three we will see if we can climb over the top as they become free standing.

The younger group continued with building their den with sub groups preparing the cups for hot chocolate, making buttercup chains and tree hangings.  One of the members of the younger group had isolated himself from the group and was playing with a stick away from the rest of group.  I went to ask him about the game he was playing and to make sure he was okay after he explained his game I asked him if he would like to share it with the rest of the group and so ‘Wacker Stick’ was born.  The aim of the game is to stick a long stick in the ground then standing behind a line about 2m away you throw a stick at the Wacker Stick the winner is the one who gets their stick the closest to the Wacker Stick and you get bonus points for knocking it over.

After hot chocolate we had our first game of thicket this term with a lot more leaf on bushes and trees there are many more places to hide.  The game ended with the last person being about a metre from the square and having to surrender otherwise we would still be there! The hiding place was behind the Forest School truck underneath a tarp.

The great thing about Forest School is the freedom children have to explore and invent.  On the way back to the school hall one of the boys asked if he could roll down the bank its not a long or steep grassy bank with no obstructions so I said yes go for it and in the end there was about six of them rolling down the bank having a great time.    

Climbing up

We have a mixed age group and sometimes the older ones want to do something different to the younger ones.  So the two eldest boys this week set to work on making an A frame ladder from scratch with Kate, while I helped the younger members of the FS to build a freestanding den.

The A frame ladder is made up of two long poles which are square lashed together and then you ladder lash the runs starting at the top and working down.  The clever thing about this type of lashing is that as you stand on the rungs you make the lashing tighter and so the ladder becomes more secure.  The boys measured all the wood and then cut it using two sawhorses and a Laplander saw before starting to tie it together.

The younger members of the group helped to light the two storm kettles and set up the cups for the hot chocolate once they had finished working on the den.  The moving and construction of the den had shown some good teamwork as materials were moved from the old den site and put to use on the new den.  As well as the construction of the den we had mark making, with charcoal from an old fire, the invention of a game that involved string and a tree and finally the putting up of a rope ladder.  The rope ladder was made using hazel runs with holes drilled into them and figure of eight knots to hold them in place.  There was some good effort at climbing the ladder not the easiest thing to do.

Next week we will continue with ladders and swings for the first half of the session and finish with our first game of thicket this term.

A cheery Welcome

After another day of rain it just stopped in time for forest school but with a very soggy site wellies and waterproofs were the order of the day.  Last week we cut some wood cookies and I took them home to drill holes in so that they could be threaded onto string this week.  The question was what to do with the cookies once they and been threaded onto string? The answer was the entrance arch which has been looking a little unhappy after being bashed about by winter winds since the autumn when it was put up.  The group used their wood cookies and found objects such as pinecones, leaves, blossom and clay that they found around the field to decorate the arch.  They were getting quite creative with how they were using the materials and it will be interesting to see what survives the weather and what does not.  As most of the group were enjoying this activity we let them carry on longer than planned so a rushed drink and biscuit (although it’s back to hot chocolate next week as we tried a cold drink today and the fire was missed!) followed by building a rope swing.

We are aiming to build a rope ladder so today we built a one rung, rope ladder or a swing.  We looped a rope over a branch and then made a seat from a log, which we tied to the rope with clove hitches.  As always it is interesting to see how the group use the stuff they make.  Instead of sitting on the log they all stood on the log. 

All through the session we had asked that the big puddles be avoided so that no one got wet and then cold so with five minutes to go it was everyone in pool!  With the rule of not splashing or kicking the water everyone still enjoyed getting utterly filthy.

It will be interesting to see if work carries on, on our new cheery welcoming archway and finally we will be building a rope ladder and hot chocolate will be back on the menu along with a chocolate covered biscuit (Kate’s request no more plain Hobnobs!).

Better prepared than not.

We welcomed back one member to FS this week who came to the first term but then went missing and also had two new members joining us so circle time was full of rules and name learning.  There was a new rule for everyone this week, which is to get everyone paying attention during circle time; anyone can start making three circles with their hands and then finishing by clapping them together as people notice they join in too.  The idea is to give everyone time to refocus before the clap so we are all listening again to whoever is talking.

After last weeks soaking we got the shelter up in the corner of the FS site as soon as we had finished circle time.  We have moved location of the shelter so we don’t end up in a hollow, paddling about again but this did mean dismantling a den.  The parts of the den went to join the big den so it now is massive.  It turned out to be a lovely sunny afternoon with no sign of the forecast heavy showers, which was great.  Due to the forecast I brought the storm kettles out and we had hot chocolate with birthday cake thanks to one of the lads from Sycamore who even though he could not stay this afternoon because he had a suit fitting he dropped the cakes off so will have to wait until next week for to hear us sing happy birthday to him.

We don’t do a lot of tool work because of ratios but one tool we do use are saws and today was a chance to get them out.  Last week we decided to have a go at making wood cookie badges.  To start this off we put up the sawhorses and went over how to use the bow saws safely.  Everyone took it in turns to cut a wood cookie while the rest of their group helped hold the wood in the sawhorse for them.

We had some good self-directed play and some not so good self-directed play today.  The good play involved a found plastic bowl and the collection of a salad (not eaten of course) made up of different herbs and weeds fund in the FS as with all good ideas after a while a number of the children were collecting different things in bowls.  The not so good play involved jumping on each other, which breaks one of the FS charter rules of no physical contact with each other, a rule written by the children.

We finished the day by collecting more material for the den from around the playing field.  I have brought the wood cookies home to drill holes in and next week the children will decorate them and we are going to try making a rope ladder as well.

A birthday in the rain

We started a new term hoping for spring like weather and we almost had it, for ten minutes! I’ve run three FS session this week and have been watching the weather forecasts intently and until today I’ve escaped a soaking.  After a slow start and having to convince everyone although the sky was blue it would be a good idea to take a coat out as showers were forecast we made it to the FS site.  Until now the shelter tarp has always lived at the bottom of the big red bag but it seem like today was going to be the day we needed it so armed with rope, tarp, mallets and tent pegs we went of in search of two trees to erect the shelter between.  Once we strung the rope between the trees the children unfolded the tarp and flung it over the rope.  Pulling the four corners tight they banged in tent pegs and tied off the guy ropes.  With the addition of a ground sheet we were ready for what ever the heavens had for us.

Now we have been running FS for a while and we have a core group of children who come I wanted to see what rules they thought we should have at FS.  With a large piece of fabric the kids wrote out their own Forest School Charter using fabric crayons so we will be able to hang it in the FS site.  We have so great new rules now; you must be kind, you’re not allowed to stomp, don’t touch mushrooms, don’t be naughty and have fun to list a few.

At the end of last term as we sat around the fire in tee shirts thinking that summer was here and decided to stop having hot chocolate in favour of squash although with the change in weather I had brought the old faithful with me today.  Instead of building a fire we used a Kelly kettle that works by having a bowl in which the fire is lit, then over it the kettle sits.  The kettle has a double wall so the flames go up the middle and heats a jacket of water around the column.  It can be safely used by the children who feed the fire by placing sticks on the top of the kettle and letting them fall into the fire keeping their hands away from the fire.  A number of the children had a go at this as they helped prepare the hot chocolate.  Just as the kettle boiled the clouds opened so we rushed into the shelter for snack time.  As the rain drummed on the tarp and water started puddling on the outer edges of the ground sheet we sang happy birthday to one of the boys at the top of our voices so we that we could be heard.  He declared this to be the best birthday ever whilst eating his second biscuit (wet days = 2 biscuits (Kate’s rule)).

As the rain eased off some of the group went of to work on dens and others remained to play in the shelter until it was time for home.  Next week wood cookie badge making and in the following weeks climbing frames ready for the assault course at the end of term.