Next week we are making puppets and a theatre!
After walking up to the forest school area through the sheep field; we climbed the willow trees. Some of us found feathers from geese, peacocks and Rheas. We used 'snips' to cut whips from the willow and made our way back to the base. We gathered our yarns that had been drying on the beech tree from yesterdays natural dye session and started making dream catchers using the feathers we had found and some that were in the craft bag. After a while we had lunch, played in the Den and a few of us made a magic show in the forest school tent! Everybody will have a good nights sleep tonight with no bad dreams!
Next week we are making puppets and a theatre!
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Well - today was natural dye day! We walked up and collected feathers along the way, played Frisbee, collected dead wood from under the willows, built a waffle fire, filled the metal bucket with nettles and some water and put it on to boil! Then, we collected very thin sticks which were whittled to ensure our marshmallows could slide on easily and toasted them. We poured the green nettle mixture into a bowl, made a bucket of tea and decanted it into a second bowl for brown, followed by some boiled turmeric to make yellow. Every one found themselves a good 'stirring stick' and wrapped yarn around it ready to 'get dying'! Once the yarns were different colours they were hung to dry. Students then snipped some long whips to create the circumference of a dream catcher. One dream catcher was successfully made with the others to be continued......
Today there was a growling monster in the den! Today students continued their forest school creature theme they'd started yesterday with medallions and moved onto using clay, sticks, leaves, wool and other items they could find along the way. They started the session with a tree climb and then used the snips to cut small whips and foliage. The group designed their creatures by drawing pictures of their plans and then grabbed a board and started making! The 'Storm Kettle' was lit to make delicious hot chocolate and students fed the fire using small sticks. After this, the group discussed their creatures and the habitats they might live in and what they would eat. Then they set to making a home for their creatures. The session was completed with a song and a walk back down to the gate past the sheep, goats and alpacas. Well done everyone you made wonderful creatures and can continue to add to their habitats as the week goes by.. Today the group walked up to the forest school area to see the tent that had been erected over the weekend. This was donated by a local 'levels' artist until our yurt is fixed so that we have an indoor space to do clay, wool and woodwork if necessary - Many thanks to you! On the walk the group spotted a variety of meadow flowers and grasses including clover and buttercups. They all played a game and then settled down to create some designs for a forest school necklace / medallion. The group discussed their favourite animals and based their designs on this. They talked about which animals were native to the UK and where other animals lived. Some of the group chose insects and others chose mammals. We lit a fire and toasted marshmallows and followed this with a tasty hot chocolate using water from the 'storm / Kelly Kettle'. The group took turns to bow saw a medallion piece of wood and used a hand drill to make the hole for wool or twine. They drew their designs onto their wood and voilà - a forest school necklace / medallion. Gary the goat joined us for some of the session, eating leaves and being comical. We took a lovely walk up past the animals and then got ready to make a fire. Everybody practiced with their strikers and lit their cotton wool with success! Snips, Lopper and the Bow saw were used to prepare the wood for our final fire of the week. The time went so quickly! We are looking forward to making lots of crafty things next week and having more fires! Yummy yummy in our tummy's! Today everybody took a walk up to he forest school area. On the way they collected various feathers, stones, sticks and hay to tie onto the collection wigwam. The younger students talked and learnt about how the alpacas eat hay in the winter and that it is dried grass. After, they played Frisbee followed by some games in the den. Wood collection began and students used loppers and snips and created piles of wood ready to make a waffle fire for cooking on. After moving a rather large log, they learnt how to safely cut wood using a bow saw. Students reminded each other of how to behave safely around the fire and then built the fire themselves. They wrapped potatoes in foil and put them onto the fire. Baked beans and tinned spaghetti were also added. Students continued to add wood to the fire and helped to keep each other safe. Once the food was cooked everyone was keen to eat - enjoying a warm lunch was very much appreciated. When it was time, everybody packed up and we put out our fire using water. A brilliant morning - well done forest schoolers! Well done to everybody from todays group - you were amazing!! You walked past the alpacas and the sheep after being greeted by 'Gary the goat', stopped off to watch the baby ducklings and then continued on to the forest school area looking out for hazards along the way! You played eye spy and Frisbee and went into The Den. You collected all sorts of wood from the wood pile and organised it into piles of thin, thicker and thick. You climbed some trees and cut some willow whips to make sticks for marshmallow using loppers You created a fire circle - in which nobody could enter and decided to use a danger word 'HAZARD' to keep each other safe The forest school leader lit the fire today and then you all toasted marshmallows and had lunch, then it was time to go home. How time flies at forest school! Tomorrow you will be lighting the fire and cooking more food like: potatoes, beans and cakes! Today we had some rain showers.. we played a game, put up a very good shelter and then everybody decided they loved it and didn't want to leave! While the rain came down, all the forest schoolers took part in creating a story. Everybody had a turn and enjoyed it so much that they continued for the entirety of the session! Once the rain had almost stopped we pulled up our hoods and ventured out to a beautiful willow area, where the group used snips and loppers to cut lengths make crowns for kings, queens and marshmallow fairies. When it was home time Garry the Goat came over to received his crown made by a member of the group, he said goodbye to everyone and had a little nibble on some the nature crowns :p It was looking rather murky out there this morning, but we didn't let that stop us. The forest schoolers came prepared with water proofs and made a rain shelter whilst being blown around by the wind. They made tent pegs from sticks and branches to prop up the shelter from inside. After having a well deserved snack, everybody settled down to concentrate on making a sword. They collected sticks as long as their arms and cut shorter sticks wider than their palms, using loppers and saws. They used potato peelers and knives to whittle and remove bark and used twine to tie their sticks together to make a sword that was just the right size! The group used 'dead wood' found on the ground. The group talked about having a sword fight and how to 'play safe' then had an amazing game of 'Robin Hood' in the forest school area. After lunch it was time to wander back to parents. Well done everyone - you were amazing! Some very fun bow and arrow makers came today and some bows that mysteriously transformed themselves into washing lines for hedgehogs! We collected feathers, set up a camp, used loppers to cut willow and Beech, used potato peeler's and knives to whittle and peel the bark from the bow wood, used twine and tied knots and hey presto - a beautiful bow! We then collected straight branches to make our arrows, used peeler's and knives to create patterns in the arrow wood, shaped and added feathers that we had collected earlier - Wow a good job done and new skills learnt about being safe with tools, different types of wood, trees and leaves, measuring lengths, knot tying and sharing. |
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