Let there be light

As we often go out into the woods, camp or even sleep in our shelters in the woods we all know that a torch is a very useful thing to have. A tiny powerful one that you can hang up in your tent or shelter is even better.

 With that in mind the Pioneers have all created their own tent lights. Small enough to fit in your pocket, but with the homemade diffuser, you can even read by it.

 Of course if you don't feel like a nice quite read there is more active fun to be had with them too

CD recycling

CDs are a common form of plastic waste, once they are scratched they are no use and we've probably all had a freebie with a newspaper or magazine that we didn't really want, so it's always interesting to find new ways to use them.

This one was really simple and great fun. Have a look at our homemade spinning tops.

The legend of the Mermaids Pool

Each year Woodcraft have a project called Hands In, where groups form around the country get together to work on something together. This year theme is story telling, the stories will pass form group to group with each group adding a bti mroe. Finally the completed stories will be circulated later in the year.

Our group was one of the first groups, and our starting passage was about a group of children looking at a map of Kinder Scout and the surrounding area and deciding to visit.

We started by looking at the map ourselves, noticing what kind of features we could find. Then we looked at some photos of the local area. We also found out more about the legend of the Mermaid's Pool on Kinder Scout.

After writing our part of the story the children painted pictures of what they thought the area, and the mermaid might look like.

Pinecones

On one of the few dry afternoons of the holidays I went out for a walk and collected a few pinecones. So many options for things to make with them. We added some bits of felt, coloured pipecleaners and of course a few googly eyes and here's what the Elfins came up with:

 A mouse with pink ears and a long tail

Sky diving pinecones, complete with their own parachutes

 A very colourful bird

The pioneers started out on some bead work, there is still more to go but they are looking great already. They are planing to sew them onto leather bracelets to finish them off but here's a sneak preview of their work so far.

Winter in the Woods

A wonderful winter night in the woods this week. All wrapped up we set off to the outdoor classroom for some fun and games.

First a team challenge to transport as many tokens as possible form the bases in the woods, to the central circle, without being caught by the circle guardians. Do you turn on your torch so you can run faster but risk giving away your possition or keep the torch off and creep up slowly?

Then another challenge, this time to find the Christmas trees around the area and match up the pairs, red baubles, blue baubles, no baubles?

Then it was time for a rest, hot chocolate and a biscuit before one last game and home to bed.

Have a a great break and we'll be back in the new year.

Merry Christmas for Bradley Stoke Woodcraft

Naughty Elephants Spray Water

or Never Eat Shredded Wheat.Did you have a rhyme to help you remember the compass points?

This week the Pioneers have been making their own compass, using a sewing needle, a drinking straw and a pot of water.

Resourceful as ever they  used the magnets on the door catches to magnetise their needles. Floated on water they will now point North. However seeing a needle floating on water is not that easy, which is where the straw comes in. Placing the needle inside a length of straw means it can still turn round but is much easier to see.

They also talked about some of the other ways to know which direction is which, such as where the sun rises in the morning and sets in the evening, or which side of a tree you're likely to find moss grow. Have a look at this list and see how many of them you know

Learn the Art of Natural Navigation

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow

Few things are more fun than heading out into the frosty winter air and building a snowman. We can't organise snow on demand, so we did the next best thing. Making our own, never melting, snowmen.

Just as with the colder kind everyone's snowmen were different, the children spent a long time sorting out the perfect way to build their snowman and then adding hats, scarves, buttons and of course carrot noses.

Father Christmas took so long to sculpt that his maker is going to be adding the red to his suit at home.