Candle Holders

The Pioneers made some wonderful candle holders form air drying clay last week. After a week of drying out they were ready for painting, here are a few of the ones they made.

And yes, the one in the middle is a toilet. What you mean you've never seen a toilet shaped candle holder before?

Bird Feeders

As the weather is getting colder it was a nice time to think about how various animals are preparing for winter, making sure they eat enough to get through the cold months, migrating somewhere warmer or even hibernating till Spring arrives.

Since we still had pine cones from a few weeks ago when we made pine cone creatures, it seemed they would make a good base for some bird feeders, for the feathered friends arriving to spend the winter here.

First we tied string to the pine cones so we would be able to hang the feeders up for the birds, I learned the hard way that it's difficult to do this once the feeder is complete, so my example is stringless! The we spread the pine cones with fat, making sure to squeeze it into all the spaces. Finally rolling now sticky pinecone in a tray of bird seed, again making sure to press it onto the gaps.

It was fun making the feeders and hopefully we'll get to watch the birds stop by for a meal.

Camp fires and new term

At the end of last term with joined with another group who are just starting out for an end of term celebration, Woodcraft style.

Boiling wells is a site owned by St Werburg's city farm and was the perfect venue for our campfire party. Both groups had made lanterns which they brought along and which looked beautiful when they were all lit. The children were set the challenge of finding several buildings and features in the wood's.

As well as our big campfire to sit round the chiildren got a chance to use the fire steels (aka sparky stick) to have a go at starting their own mini fires.

Finally with mugs of hot chocolate and a snack we all gathered together for a bit of singing round the fire. It was great to see so many people tune out on a damp and lets face it cold evening, and to meet our new neighbours.


This week saw our first session of the new term, and a little spice to our evening when the fire alarm went off and we had to evacuate the hall. Having checked we had everyone we played a few games outdoors (a goo thing we are not put off by a bit of cold weather) and watched the fire engines arrive.

Once the building was declared safe we continued our evening inside, the pioneers doing a spot of puzzle solving while the Elfins made some lovely autum inspired creations from pressed leaves. We had everything from rabbits and butterflies to tadpoles and pac man!

Here's a few of the pictures they made.