Birch Forest Schools

The joys of the woods on a Sunny day were ours. Having moved the fire circle to confound the pesky pixies, we decided to reseed the area we had been using over Winter.

Reseeding the old fire circle area always feels very special and is an activity that people remember and comment upon. We used grass seed and a collection of wildflower seeds that Lisa had harvested the previous year. Fingers crossed.

The theme for the day was Spring cleaning in the woods so sawing logs and splitting them to replace the incongruous bug hotel made out of pallets was high on the list. At the river, Justin and Clare manned the dipping and throughout the session children ebbed and flowed between tools and nets.

Even with volunteers in place and Open water policies to draw on, one or two children did get a little… moist around the edges. This led to an outbreak of running around the woods in bare feet, squishing mud between toes and losing of water filled wellies.

Pancakes all round at snack time and a lovely, “let’s not go home yet” kind of session

The run of good weather persisted for the Marsden Family Bushcraft day, which was fortunate as we were doing fire lighting. Always a thankless task in the wet especially if one is heaving and sweating over a bow drill.

After a meandering discussion (with many side tracking interruptions) about fire, what it is and how we can make it, we set to.

As I explained to the group at the start. Bushcraft is really about messing around with sticks and making tea. In short order, everyone had used their sticks and made tea, coffee or hot chocolate.

Other fire lighting methods were experimented with. Electric and solar being very popular. Perseverance paid off in the end as one dad achieved a friction ember and brought it to fruition.

I usually approach a fire session in which I am demonstrating bow drill with some trepidation as it is usually a while since I have practiced. But, that session was fun and made me realise just how well we had been taught at the Woodcraft School by Messer’s John Ryder and Nick ward.

The great thing about a party in the woods is that people who might not normally get to take part in Babes in the Wood get to come along. L. Was very excited at having her 4^th birthday party in the woods and had been quite specific as to on what was to be involved.

Children hunted in the woods for their fairy helper, designated by their names like back stage passes to the woods and hung them with their wood cookies around their necks.

We had the story of how the bee became, then made little bees with carrier bag wings (homage to carrier bag fairy pole) an activity seen on Lily Horsemans Kindling website.

We came equipped to make hapa zome butterflies but after everyone cooked their pita pizzas and mini fruit crumbles there was just enough time to sing happy birthday and cut a most stunning cake.

Happy birthday Lily Grace.

What better way to spend ones birthday that by visiting Salford Meadows. Greater Manchester Ecology Unit were having a wildlife day and we went along, pitched the tent and worked with local families making a variety of stick and string things.

We set up the willow bird feeder making outside of the tent to prevent whippy-stick-in-eye syndrome and this was manned to great effect by GMEU and Red Rose staff.

Though the day was a little cool for the time of year the event was well attended with over 50 people turning up.

How exciting to find that the woodland fairies had chosen to wash the log seats in the river. Being magical and easily distracted, sometimes they forget to finish the job once started. Luckily J. Was on hand to help me retrieve the logs and arrange them for sitting.

And in the warm sun, the logs were soon dry and, of course sparkling. To celebrate, the children… slid down the muddy banking.

Today was the first Wilberlee bench making session.

Following on from the school INSET in February Wilberlee identified a desire to have a dedicated outdoor seating space which could be used as a fire circle. As well as acting as a focal point for outdoor activities, it is a wonderful opportunity for the children to get involved in making this happen.

Over the next few weeks, groups will take part in different making tasks. They will learn how to use bow saws, how to split logs, make pegs for joining and even do a little whittling.

In today’s session the most surprising thing for me was just how able the children were to come up with ideas for bench design. While some may have been impractical for around a fire circle, all had merit and some will be incorporated further down the line.

The children from class two and three worked very well together. They communicated effectively and carried out the tasks required to make the log benches.

At the end of the session, some sawn logs, some drilled holes, the beginnings of some handmade pegs, lots of great ideas, laughter and fun.

Even with a whole month passing since our last session the children were able to talk with confidence about the things in the wood we needed to be mindful of to keep ourselves safe. Right from the start the children were mindful of walking around the fire circle and stuck to this for the majority of the session despite there being no fire or hot kettle today.

As there was a lot of new growth in the woods, the Last Session Review was supplanted somewhat by an impromptu forage walk where the children were shown different plants, some of which were edible, others protected and others invasive.

The children were interested and smelled the leaves. Had the forage site not been on a main dog walk, they would have tried some of them.

All of the children had heard the Three Little Pigs story and were familiar with the role of the wolf as “big and bad”. By using the Alternative Three Little Pig story, which tells the tale from the wolfs perspective, it was possible to engage the children in a shelter building narrative with a story both familiar and new.

We then discussed the merits of the pigs houses and their choices of building material.

The story led naturally into shelter building but the children were shown images of shelters which might be made in the woods. We discussed the different features of the shelters then the children set about making their own with tarps, string and sticks.

The children worked alone or in pairs and made use of existing shapes in the trees for the framework. Many included pegs and poles.

The children could choose to have their drink in their shelters, though some wanted to sit at the fire circle. They all took turns to use wipes, get their drinks and a biscuits.

We looked at each shelter in turn and pointed out where it had fulfilled the brief to be waterproof, warm, windproof, comfortable and hidden. All but two of the groups were happy to talk about their shelters. The children not only pointed out their construction methods but spoke about how they might improve their shelters.

Today the children seemed genuinely happy to be in the woods, enjoying being outdoors, walking in the mud and handling sticks etc.

They expressed a high level of knowledge around keeping safe as they have in previous sessions and had lots to talk about throughout the session.

During the shelter building, there was less “I can’t do it” than in other activities. This may well have been because of the free form nature of the activity or out of a sense of confidence that their efforts are valid no matter the outcome.

The groups worked well together with no arguments or negative interaction between the groups. The children were focused and enjoyed the activity.

On reflection, I realise I was not asked by any of the children to tie knots for them! This is quite unusual in a group and a step forward for this group from earlier sessions.

The dynamics today were superb. The children had such a positive attitude to all aspects of the session. It felt as though they were squeezing every last drop of enjoyment out of the afternoon. After the tidying up we discussed that this would probably be the last session in this programme and all of the children expressed regret that that was the case.

There was only one Babes session this week as I was leaving Friday for a canoeing trip in the Wye Valley with an assortment of Bushcraft Geeks from my course.

Our theme for the day was snakes. We started looking at different animals camouflage before trekking into the woods to look for exotic animals, snakes, three blind mice, a rat, two frogs and… a rubber chicken. I can never resist making a “look there’s chicken in the woods!” joke. Which of course no one gets.

Now at this point I was going to recount the tale of how the snake lost his legs.

But I forgot.

I was too excited by the chicken in the woods, I forgot to tell the story. Rather alarmingly no one seemed to notice (I bet C. would have had he been there).

I made hot drinks while everyone else collected things to thread onto string to make their own leaf snakes.

There was quality sliding-down-the-banking action and quite a bit of if-I-splash-this-stick-in-a-puddle-what-will-happen.

M. did his first mud slide today. A long way from sleeping baby in a pushchair.

As you can see from the photos, this was quite a rainy morning. Ideal for shelter building as it gave everyone the chance to see just how waterproof their shelters might be.

We started small. Having looked at pictures of debris shelters and discussed how they are made, everyone set to making use of  spaces in tree roots, stones, sticks and moss for camouflage. J. Put a big stick in the ground to stop anyone from standing on his mini shelter and M. Made his for the hedgehog who was visiting from Marsden Infants School.

As there was not too much debris around, we used tarps for the full size shelters. Families made all sorts of shelters in a variety of shapes and all of them seemed to keep the rain off.

To finish off we split down a log and made tent pegs with sheath knives. Children worked safely under supervision of their parents, Lisa and I.

A wet day, but a lot of fun all round.

Busy weeks are all well and good but catching up with blog postings can be difficult as one rainy day melds into another.

Then I look at the photos from the session and I remember that yes indeed it was a rainy day, at least in part.

That we chose the practice coracle, now a hat for the magic item in the name game then took turns wearing it for no other reason than it was hat shaped.

That I found a wonderful use for L’s uncanny ability to whistle like a bird by incorporating her bird song in the story via judicious use of the elbow nudge.

That it is possible to revel in the sound of a child’s voice while not completely understanding what they are saying to you.

That the muddy banking causes tears as well as laughter.

That the ribbons can be used to make a horse fence.

That the sun doesn’t need to shine for me to enjoy what I do.