Sitting around the fire pit, we started this week’s session with the tale of ‘The Twelve Months’ which really got us thinking about which months that different fruit and flowers grow, including primroses, strawberries and apples.  Everyone showed excellent listening skills and enjoyed the story telling.  We then had a great game of wink murder.  Eye contact is essential in this game; when the ‘murderer’ winks at you, you are dead and must lie on the floor.  You can die dramatically or very peacefully; we had a mixture of both!  All detectives managed to solve the mystery and find the guilty culprit.

Next up, was learning the timber hitch.  The Forest Schoolers learnt it so quickly that we had a ‘Timber Hitch Off’ – we all had to tie one at the same time and do it as quickly as possible.  Then a real challenge, tie on with our eyes shut!  Then it was time to put this new knot tying skill to the test in den building.  Off we went in team to build a den using the tarps and paracord.  And what great and varied dens they were!!  A super first-time effort.  We spend time discussing our best part of our den, and others contributed what they liked about other people’s den!    We saw some fabulous team building, communication, working co-operatively and resilience as well especially when ideas didn’t quite go to plan.

Some of us chose to play in our dens whilst others decided to light the fire so we could cook some food.  This week, everyone tried cooked sunflower and pumpkin seeds in soy sauce as well as apples dipped in sugar and cinnamon and cooked on the fire.  These were a definite hit!!