Later in the year, Year 6 will be going on an adventure which will require us to learn lots of new skills. One of these skills is being able to tie a range of different knots.
In Forest School, we use a range of knots for a variety of purposes. One of the first knots we learn to tie is a reef knot. This is a simple 'all-purpose' knot which is easy to tie, holds well and can be untied easily when no longer needed.This video shows you how to tie a reef knot: www.animatedknots.com
Once we had all mastered tying a reef knot, we joined our lengths of ropes together to create a loop. To test the strength of our knots, we held on to the rope and leaned out to let the rope take our weight. Thankfully, all our knots held and we didn't end up on the muddy grass.Next we played a game where each person around the loop was given a number. The caller called out two numbers (for example 1 to 3) Person number one had to try and reach number 3 by pushing against the rope, whilst the rest of the children in the circle had to hold the rope firm to stop them from reaching each other.
After our warm-up game, the children were given a rope challenge. Their task was to create a rope structure that would support their weight.
The boys quickly decided that the den building posts would be the ideal place to create their structure.
Their rope bridge began as quite a simple affair with one rope being strung from one post to the next. It gradually morphed into a much more complex web-like structure criss-crossing between the posts. The boys experimented with different ways of securing the ropes to the posts. They were able to use reef knots to join short ropes to make longer ones.
Murad discovered that if he stood on one rope, a different rope in the structure would move upwards like an elevator. The boys had great fun working out which ropes would make their team members (and Forest School Leader) shoot up in the air or come down to earth with a bump (yes, thanks for that Imath!)
Reece made himself comfortable in his hammock inspired rope contraption, whilst Imath, Farhan and Murad tested which parts of the rope structure could support all their weight without touching the floor.
As the session drew to a close, we made sure we removed all of the ropes we had been using and packed them away.
It's great to read of another school using ropes and this blog post is helpful in terms of how you have introduced the process. I also think every school needs den building posts! Lots of them!
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing.
The den building posts come in very handy due to our distinct lack of mature trees on site! The children love using the ropes. I would like to learn some more rope related skills so that I can pass them on to the children. It would be great to learn how to make our own scramble nets, hammocks or maybe even fishing nets for our boat related adventure in March!
ReplyDelete