Autumn Lanterns

Following on from last weeks light theme, this week we made autumn lanterns.

First we decorated the paper with leaf rubbings, or other designs. Then made the decorated paper into lanterns.

A little light recycling

All the fireworks and bonfires over the last few days, and with no doubt more to look forward too over the weekend, was the inspiration for tonight's craft

Time to create our own fireworks display, and recycle some old CDs in the process.

To the woods

That's right, this way to the woods and our traditional last night of term fun.

Tonight's games had a certain glow about them as we all played the part of fireflies. You may not know it but fireflies are happiest when they change the colour of their glow frequently, they have to cycle through the colours in the correct order though. Young fireflies learn one of two rhymes to help them know which colour to change to next.

Richard        (red)
Put               (pink)
Out              (orange)
Your            (yellow)
Glowing     (green)
Bottom       (blue)

or
Brian           (blue)
Get              (green)
Your            (yellow)
Orange        (orange)
Pants           (pink)
Ready          (red)

As we don't have the advantage of built in glow so we used glowstick bands to show our current colour, and had to chase another firefly to swap bands, while hiding from those who were trying trade us back the wrong way.

The last camp of the year

The weather is getting cooler and the evenings darker,  but we managed to fit in one last camp of the year.

Having already practised, the tarp shelters were quickly up and the children settled in. Then time for a bit of wood collecting to keep the campfire going. We were going to need it, as well as being a nice focal point of the evening all our cooking for the weekend was done over the fire too.

With everything prepared there was time for some whittling. For those who hadn't had much chance to do any before we started simple with some marshmallow sticks and gnomes. There were also some more advance projects for those who wanted something to get stuck into. Some beautiful wooden mallets were created.

Sunday morning everyone chose the items they wanted for breakfast, to be cooked in a paper bag!

There were also campfire hotdogs, with the bread cooked on a stick over the fire.

Taking Shelter

In a couple of weeks time we're off to the woods. Thanks to our grant from Bradley Stoke Town Council earlier in the year this time we'll have the equipment to be able to set up shelters and stay overnight.

The tarps we've been able to buy are much smaller to pack than a tent, and give plenty of shelter form the elements. Of course, a practice run is always a good idea, no one wants to find their shelter is leaking at 2am.

Tie dye, the finished products

Well after letting the dye set for a few hours, the ties were removed and the final results revealed. Some really fantastic creations emerged.

Tie Dye, work in progress

Undeterred but the rain it was a riot of colour this evening, for our tie dye. We'll have to wait to see the final result though. The dyes all need to be left overnight to fix before we can untie them and see what we've created.

Harmonicas

A great first week back. It's always nice to see what people have been doing over the holidays, and to meet those who are just joining the group.

This week we made our own harmonica using lolly sticks, you can make a lot of different noises although it's hard to play a proper tune. After experimenting with the noises we could make we played a hide and seek game. One person went out while we hid the toy frog. Then using different sounds from our harmonicas we help guide the seeker to find the frog.

Sound's to easy?? Then try the harder version, have two teams of guides, two seekers and two hidden objects. It takes a lot of concentration to make out your own teams signals.

Camping by the Sea

This years summer camp was held at Ringstead Bay, a beautiful site on the cliff top over looking the bay. We were able to spend some time each day down on the beach exploring and paddling.

There was also lots of fun to be had on the site, with bushcraft and archery proving particularly popular.

This year Woodcraft Folk celebrates it's 90th anniversary, so we held a 1920's theme day. Performing songs and ceremonies which were written for the beginning of the Folk by our founder Leslie Paul. We did a traditional wapenshaw, where everyone tidied there tents and laid out their equipment and had a menu which would have been familiar to 1920's campers too. It seems they ate quite a lot of cake!

Later in the week a walk across the cliffs into Weymouth for ice cream and fish chips was fun, if a little damp.

This years wide game was based on Alice in Wonderland, with the aim being for each team to collect a suit of cards to present to the Mad Hatter. Much buying and trading of cards was needed, and there were lots of mini games to take part in to earn tokens. Flamingo croquet was popular, though not everyone was convinced that the hedgehogs and flamingoes were so keen. The doormouse needed help with her giant tea pot and tea bags, the caterpillar kept people guessing with his word games and everyone was needed to make red roses to keep the queen of hearts happy.

For the Pioneers and Venturers the day ended down on the beach, sleeping out and stargazing.

As well as the sound of the sea, evening brought out the noisy and surprisingly large insects too.

Water balloons and bubbles.

There's nothing like playing with water to get children excited, so this week we devoted the whole evening to water games and challenges.

The first team challenge, was a water relay. The aim being to get as much water as possible in your teams bowl, should you go for slow and stead, or run faster and risks the spills.

The next challenge was an individual one, race with your water balloon and spoon to the far end and back. After watching several balloons burst one person found a novel way to keep his balloon intact. Definitely one of the slow and steady school.

Then back to the team challenges, working together to carry a leaky bottle whilst trying to preserve as much water as possible.






Finally the foam challenge, again a relay but this time each person had a bubble blower and tried to fill their teams container with foam.

Leather work

Our Pioneers have been busy over the last few weeks with their leather work. Starting with designing their own pattern for phone pouches, then cutting, punching and sewing the leather shapes to create the finished objects. The plaited bracelets proved quite popular too.

Mosaics

Take a look at some of the amazing creations that the Elfins made this week. We started with some balls of clay, beans, lentils, shells, pressed flowers and leaves. The photos don't do them justice, in reality the beans stood out much better against the grey clay.

r mosaics.