Lanterns in action

The lanterns turned out well and made a nice atmosphere for our hot chocolate on the first night of camp.

The weekend was a great success, it must have been we are already talking about planning another!

Saturday morning we split into groups and did some trail laying in the woods, the trail led us to some caves which the children had great fun exploring. I'm not sure the bats were quite so happy about it.

After lunch there was plenty of time for games in the field next to the burrow, the children made quite a maze in the long grass. We also did a bit of whittling, everyone made a marshmallow toasting stick ready for the campfire. Along with the marshmallows we tried out campfire toffee apples which went down very well.

Sunday morning saw more playing in the field and crossing the suspension bridge for a snack on the other side of the river before packing our bags and heading home.

Let there be light

We had a great session tonight making lanterns from empty tin cans.

A couple of weeks ago we asked everyone to save an empty baked bean tin, fill it with water and stick it in the freezer.

This week everyone brought along their tins of ice and after a chat about the safety rules (ie no running with nails, make sure you have enough space around you) we got to work using large nails and rocks (we didn't have enough hammers) to make holes in the tins. The ice is important as it stops the tins from getting crushed. It doesn't take much force to make a hole so we did have a couple of problems with children hitting the nail in too far and shattering the ice. Fortunately we had some spare tins. I held the tin still with my feet when I did the demo model as I was working on a slippery floor. Tonight we worked outside and the cans stayed still better in the grass.

Once the lanterns are done and the ice melts drop in a small candle.

It's important to realise just how sharp the inside of the lantern is once you;ve covered it in holes. To put the candle in hold it by the wick and drop it in. Do not put your hand in. Light with a long taper

We'll try and get some photos of the lanterns in action at camp.

Are you sitting comfortably?

This week we played a new game, the aim was to be the first team to pass an electric current (a squeeze of the hand) from the generator at one end of the line to the siren at the other.

Each team sat in a line holding hands, with the generators next to each other and the sirens at the far end of each line. A coin toss determins whether the current should pass on or not. Heads a squeeze of hands should travel to the siren and make it sound, tails nothing should happen. The siren from the loosing team swaps teams and becomes the generator for the other team.

This week we made mats to sit on when we are at camp. The brightly coloured plastic is the kind of fabric which councy castles are made form so should be nice and waterproof. We used sticky backed plastic to personalise the mats.