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.