Woodland play session

#forestschools #play

Earlier in the week we had a play session in the Wood, we were blessed with glorious weather and had a lovely day.

 
Lots of hot drinks brewed on the fire


I showed everybody how to make fire with a fire steel and char cloth
 

 and then every one tried to light a fire of their own without using matches.

Everyone managed it without using matches and they were all very pleased with themselves - as they should be  - it is not as easy as it looks!

We had lunch and hot chocolate and then I then showed them all how to make char cloth in the hot embers of the fire, using a lidded can, with a hole in the lid (very important!)  and cotton rags. Char cloth is useful as it is really easy to get an ember going when you strike a spark onto it. You can make charcoal sticks for drawing in the same way

The children ran around and played lots of hide and seek games and built a den and gathered firewood and enjoyed themselves - no mobiles or games consoles in sight!

The adults sat around the fire and chatted and listened to bird song.

Everyone had a great time :)

Playing in the Wood

Can you spy a panda?

No, I am NOT suggesting Compostman is like a panda! But...we have a HUGE thicket of rampant Bamboo which we need to sort out.

So..the Allen Scythe was brought into action along with various hand tools, to cut down the thicket of bamboo.

This is the pile of cut bamboo canes after less than half of the growth has been cut down,.

The bamboo is so rampant - it is taking over a huge area

  and we have to stop it spreading so drastic pruning is needed.

I have offered the canes to our local Wildlife Trust and also the Play rangers who work with them, so hopefully lots of bug houses and dens will get built all over Herefordshire as a result of our "pruning"

Access to wildlife should be a right, not a privilege

Read a brilliant article in the Guardian from a link spotted on Facebook. "Access to wildlife should be a right, not a privilege " by Tony King

Evidence is growing that access to a wildlife-rich environment is essential for children's health and wellbeing

There is a growing and compelling body of evidence that regular and ready access to a wildlife-rich environment is essential for children's health and wellbeing. Recognising – and acting on – a right to that wildlife-rich world is essential for delivering better health, better educational attainment and better social development. Research published in The Lancet shows that, even after other factors are accounted for, living in a green environment makes people healthier.

Governments can and should articulate a new right: that every child and young person has the right to grow up and live in a high-quality, wildlife-rich environment with ready access to the physical and mental health benefits, developmental advantages and play opportunities it affords.

read the full article  here

Which is why I do, what I do to help people enjoy and appreciate the natural world around us - playing in woods is good for us!

Fun filled Friday

I am off to a pre school messy play and environmental themed games session this morning which should be really good fun!

Later on this afternoon

Play session went well, it was for a pre school and toddler group near to me. So we played a run around game, sang a couple of action songs about birds, the children ( and adults!) made dens built with fabric (and imagination) we did some bark rubbing and a lot of painting on BIG sheets of paper( wow some of the smalls were really getting into imagining the "woodland" I had said the room had become...)

and then I told them the story of The Gruffalo (one of my all time favourite stories!) doing different voices AND with some soft toy re-enactment...you should have seen the little faces when I produced from behind my back a large Gruffalo soft toy, at the appropriate bit of the story....They all wanted to cuddle it as well..

I don't blame them as he is a rather lovely soft toy!

I love my work :-)

BUT I am now tired and looking forward to a rest, I have had no dizzy spells since Wednesday so I am hoping it has gone now, whatever it was. My foot is fine now as well, so this weekend I shall do no business work but instead plant seeds :-))

Thursday

Dizzy spells abating somewhat I am glad to report. They seem linked to ear ache so I am really hoping it is just that as I have SO MUCH work to do here, it is untrue. Both "work" work AND garden/hen/volunteer/compost/house etc work.

Am very glad I am feeling less giddy as it is going to be a Manic Day here, I have Eco club this afternoon for a paper casting and paper fabric making session, then when we finish at 5 pm and I help to clean up the mess I am off to the other side of Hereford to do a Risk Assessment seminar until late.

Tomorrow morning I am the attraction at a toddler and pre school session, lots of messy play, den building and bird related stuff will be happening. I have a story to tell them, with all sorts of embellishments and puppets and stuff..

I am having to load up the car for that session NOW, as I won't get time tonight.

All this is, if course, dependent on my dizzy spells staying away so fingers crossed etc

Later on after lunch.
Well have everything ready for this afternoon, notes prepped for this evening...and all the stuff ready to load for tomorrow.

See you all later!

Eco Club - memberships and games

Quite a few of you have asked me about the Eco Club after school club I run at Compostgirl's school as well as the various environmental education things I do with children at Forest School.

So I thought I would do a post on some of the memberships and resources I have used. Some are free, some require a small membership fee, all are really good and I can personally recommend them. I also have listed some books and ideas sheets where you can find out more about some of the games we play and crafts we do.

Eco Club is an RSPB Wildlife Explorers Club. As part of the RSPB Wildlife Explorers club membership fee each child is a member of the RSPB and gets a magazine every two months as well as various occasional goodies from the RSPB. I also got to go off on a weekend in Bedfordshire for training as a Wildlife Explorers Leader ;-) The RSPB provide a lot of support and help to their clubs. Our RSPB membership is great and the children love the magazines and of course we take part in the Big Schools and Big Garden Birdwatch every year! There are lots of good, free ideas on their website as well.

Eco Club is also a Woodland Trust Nature Detectives Club , again for a small fee. The Nature Detectives Club is run by The Woodland Trust and they also produce the most amazing free resources as well which are available on their website to download and print off. The spotter and I.D sheets are especially good. The Woodland Trust are also responsible for "Springwatch" and Autumnwatch" as part of the UK Phenology Network, which records when natural events happen.

Eco Club regularly gets free trees and tree seed growing kits to plant, as part of the "Tree for all" scheme (in November and March) This is a scheme run by The Woodland Trust where children are encouraged to plant trees.

We are also registered as a BBC Breathing Places school so we receive emails and information packs from them with more good ideas in them for activities. This is free!



These are just a few of the resources I use. I have many feet of bookshelves full of books and info which I use in my environmental education work :-)


We start most Eco Club sessions with a game or two and here is the link to an an idea sheet I wrote in 2007 on playing environmental themed games. I use these games quite a lot and they are good fun.

We also make various craft things in Eco Club and Forest School sessions and here is an ideas sheet I wrote in 2007 on making craft items from natural materials ( bird feeders, mini beast houses, mobiles etc)

I used lots of these ideas when I worked for our local nature Trust as an Environmental Playworker and have used them since in various places.

There are some very good books with ideas for all sorts of activities and games as well. “Sharing Nature with Children 1” and “Sharing Nature with Children 2” by Joseph Cornell are inspirational books as is “Natures Playground” by Fiona Danks and Jo Schofield. Also “Earthwise” by Carol Petrash is very good. These are available from Amazon via the link at the top right of this page, or your local library may have them. The Woodcraft Folk Games Book is also very good, but I think that will have to be borrowed from a library. If your club joins the RSPB they provide very good guides on how to run a club with great ideas for things to do.

I hope this is all useful information :-) There is a lot of very useful and free stuff on the Internet, I hope these few links are helpful to anyone who either is thinking of helping at a club or just wants some interesting, fun stuff to do with their own children! The RSPB Wildlife Explorers Club and Nature Detective Club are not just for schools and youth groups, both offer family memberships which are also very good and again, I can personally vouch for that, as we are family members here at Compost Mansions.

So, now you have all this lovely information, why not go and play :-)

Saturday fun in the woods...with sausages!

Today we had another play session in the woods, this time with my friend M, her children N, K and J and a couple of Compostgirl's school friends as well.

Saturday was actually a lovely very hot sunny day here so it was lovely and cool in the woods.

We all went down to play in the wood mid afternoon,

Compostman lit a fire to cook on while I got my wonderful Kelly kettle going for hot drinks.











When all this was happening the children were playing tag, pretending to be the 5 Billy Goats Gruff on the bridge over the little ditch, making dens, collecting sticks, climbing on logs and gennerally haveing FUN!

We all had hot drinks ( chocolate for the children, tea for the adults) made with boiling water from the kettle while I cooked sausages and onions over the camp fire and then we all had Hot Dogs ( with ketchup)






Then the children cut, sharpened and peeled sticks and toasted multiple marshmallows , while Compostman made popcorn....YUM!







We finished the day with more running around, and a final play before going back up to the house smelling strongly of woodsmoke!

Just in case anyone was wondering, we DO come and play in our wood on other occasions..Compostgirl quite often goes by herself or with friends and makes dens and plays round the fire pit area BUT we only have fires and food when I am there to supervise and keep an eye on everything. Just to be safe!

Oh and in answer to a few queries, I AM a trained Forest School person, I DO have lots of First Aider qualifications including a "First Aid in the Outdoors" AND a "Paediatric First Aid" certificate....Compostman and I ARE both fully CRB'd and I HAVE done a lot of this sort of stuff, as has Compostman , although he is not a trained FS person.

When Compostgirl is a bit older we shall have camp outs in the wood and she can do the fire stuff with me...for now she helps to light it, has fun using my flint and steel and loves to poke sticks in the fire and to toast things.....

If YOU are reading this and want to do similar stuff , why not contact your local Wildlife Trust? They may well have Nature/Play Rangers who will be doing this sort of thing? Or the Scouts or Guides do it , as do the Woodcraft Folk.

As do I, for birthday parties and suchlike! ( for a fee!)


I LOVE to play in the woods!