September - Woodcraft - sort of

We are not always able to do woodworking per se, and instead have been using the good weather in September to practise woodcrafting skills. Some of the children have made outdoor 'picture frames' with tree branches, practising square lashing and netting knots. Natural objects of interest can then be 'woven' into the netting to make a temporary display until something new comes along.

Some of the children followed this up to use their knotting skills to try to make a den. Finding tall branches that had fallen down was not that easy to do on the park, so we re-cycled the legs from an unwanted gazebo to make the tripods. Making the tripods was reasonably straightforward. Getting them to actually stand up and take the laying on of a frame and 'tent' was something else. It was hilarious fun. Several capsizes later, we gave it up as an interesting job! And the den cover has been used at playtime as a parachute - it has amazing lift and when it has been very windy, we have 'flown' it well away from the main road - just in case!

The children decided to make miniature den models to test why their tripods had not been successful. The common answer was that 'feet' and some sort of tethering would have been useful. The ingredients for both of these new ideas sit at the bottom of the gazebo box!!! To be continued ......