Session 19 - What wood you like to make?

Today it was SL's turn to invite a friend to Forest School. Before coming outside, they went through the handbook together so that W would be aware of our health and safety procedures. I had originally planned to play the reef knot trust circle game as a warm up, but the children were keen to show W the seconds away hide and seek game, so we played this instead.


Next, we passed around a cutting of pussy willow and the children shared their memories of last week's session with W. SL said he had enjoyed using the bow saw and N the hand drill.


After collecting the equipment for today's session, we headed down to the site where we had been working last week. The group showed W how to check for hazards and set up the tool area. SL showed W the tool talk for using a bow saw. After watching J and SL expertly demonstrate how to saw a disc of wood, W was keen to have a go. 

SS used the loppers to tidy up some of the damaged branches on the pussy willow and to cut some lengths of wood to save for skewers.


N had saved her wooden disc from last week. She used the hand drill to continue drilling a hole through it. She then decided to remove the bark using a fixed blade knife. N said she liked the colour of the wood underneath.
W counted the rings inside the disc of wood he and SL had cut. S noticed that the tree was the same age as him.


The group agreed that once they had made enough wooden discs for a key chain each, they would make some more to turn into a Forest School banner. SL suggested that they could use the hand drill to make dots in the surface of the wood in the shape of letters to make up the Forest School banner.


W said he had really enjoyed his visit to Forest School and would love to come back every week!