Fire and water

Before our sessions this week I went into the Forest School and started putting in a roof into the climbing tree, as the Friday crew want to put in a floor in. The roof will also help with the remembering of not going too high when climbing. The Thursday group worked on moving the den building pile, ready for a surprise construction for the end of term next week. They worked really hard and turned the pile into a new den amidst the younger trese on the site.

After snack time we divided up, some went off to play and the rest went into the shelter to learn how to use the fire steels. We sat around the fire pit and took it in turn to open up a cotton wool pad and place it in the fire surround. After a quick demo we past the fire steel around and everyone managed to set their cotton wool on fire.

From fire to water Friday was very wet so the tarps came out and a few of the children went about building shelters. Working on measuring and cutting wood for the floor in the climbing tree we looked around for a makeshift saw horse. The climbing tree turned out to be a perfect saw horse and using a Laplander saw we cut the wood and then put it up in the tree. The boys experimented with Japanese square lashing, raft lashing and normal square lashing.

One of the projects we are going to have a go at next term is building a clay oven near the shelter. There is an old clay oven in the playing field which the group has started taking down so we can reuse the materials. The combination of rain and clay meant there were one or two children went home with a slight red hue.

Who needs a parachute?!

The two after-school sessions I run at Holt have two very different groups.  Thursdays group like doing things, so got stuck into building our bug hotel.   In the Friday gang, only a few got involved in finishing the bug hotel they much prefer to play games and only look to the adults when things go wrong.

This Thursday we were a few members down due to birthday parties etc so the adults almost outnumbered the children.  With it drizzling, we spent quite a long time in the shelter just talking and swapping stories and watching the smoke coming from the storm kettle.  Once outside it was time for cutting up pallets to make our multi storey bug hotel.  The group took the wheel barrow off and filled it with leaves, dead grass, bits of old bamboo cane and anything else they could fill the rooms with.

The Friday crew found a new use for the platform in the tree, we had made a new ‘A’ frame ladder to make get up into it easier and they started jumping out.  The drop is about five feet, so not too far and they were getting really good at landing and rolling by the end of the session.  Some of the smaller members needed a little help but then started producing some interesting acrobatics on the way down to the ground whilst holding on to Charlie’s hands.  It is nice to see play always evolving in our little space.  One of the boys who had come a cropper with a stick earlier and had sat out for a while got back in to the swing of things by pruning back an over grown hedge with the loppers and then using the raisings to build up the dead hedge around our shelter.

Our strawberry patch has been dug over and had compost mixed in so is ready for the plants in the last week before the Easter break.  We have to also build a new wood store as we took our present one down to use the walls to stuff the bug hotel before Easter.  Next week firesteels and tree houses but not altogether!

I'm stuck in a hole!



big spade big hole



checking the depth





'I'm really stuck in the hole help'.  Great teamwork getting
feet and wellies out of the hole.



With holes dug the group hoisted the uprights in place
We then added the cross piece





The two groups are making wood cookies to decorate the new archway.

Exsploring natural finds to mark make with.







This is going to be our strawbridge patch the Friday group started this turning over the turf.

















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.