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.  

Emily's thrid week and the third way to make hot chocolate

Spent the day watching the weather as the MET office were predicting winds of 37 miles an hour.  So at lunch time I was filling the FS flask with hot water as I was expecting that we would be running the session indoors and we aren’t allowed to light fires in the school hall.  As I walked through Holt towards the school the wind died off with each footstep.

We had another new helper this week who is cousin to Chris Holland of “love my world” fame.  It’s great to now have three adults supporting the children when they need it.  So after around of name, animal and action the group went and got some extra chopping blocks from the front of the school.  There was some really nice cooperation amongst the group as they tried to get really big logs back to the FS site. 

Because of the wind the group worked on one of the dens that was not under a big tree, this  led to some of them exploring an old platform which we started last summer built in a small tree.  With a lot of the wood taken out of the tree and ending up in the den on the ground there was still room for a couple to sit up on what was left in the tree.

With some energy burnt off, hot chocolate drunk and biscuit munched we started on our spoons.  Concentration is still a problem for some in the group so it always seems to take along time to get started as I’m not willing to give any of them a knife until the whole group is switched on.  Once they were all ready, they worked hard and there was hardly any chatter.  I had showed the group how to use the chopping block and the crook knife.  It is good to see them using a number of different techniques to carve their spoons.  Sometimes you do need to step in as carvers forget to only cut away from them or don’t appear to be concentrating and the knife is going everywhere.  The interesting thing to observe is when the group starts pointing out to each other where they are going wrong, ‘So and  so, you aren’t sitting forward enough or hold the sheath at the bottom.

A new head on the chopping block

This week we had a new helper start so we played name animal and action so he could get to know some of the names and everyone could remember his.  After this, the group went in search of firewood.

The only snow left seemed to be a giant snowball in the middle of the sports field but we still talked about not touching snow without gloves just like the previous day.  The group was sent off to collect firewood and the giant snowball was too much of a draw for one child who decided to climb it and tandon top of it four feet off the ground.  We had a chat about the fact they were not wearing any gloves nd so should not be touching snow and whether it was safe to climb and stand on a slippery ball which could move?  It was decided that it was risky and should not be attempted again.

While Helen and Charlie had their first go at using the storm kettle, the group played.  Interestingly off the dens built yesterday, only the den of a boy who comes on both days was used.  Those who wanted to play in dens started work on their own dens if they were not playing with the boy who had built yesterday’s den.  A big hit has been a broom we made out of a stick and some twigs as it was used to sweep out one of the dens.

After snack time we went through the safe use of a fix bladed knife and the group was then given sticks to get used to removing wood with a knife.  The younger ones find it more difficult to get the angle of the blade right but this will come with practice.  The group was really well focused so I showed a few of them how they could use a chopping block and a straight arm to whittle their sticks down.  This went well as they could put more weight behind the knife and take off more wood.     

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.