Saplings Class at Wenhaston Primary School had a creative afternoon in Grove Woods working on the theme of what makes a celebration. They collected food from the wood that woodland creatures would enjoy, like berries, seeds, nuts, leaves and grains. Then they each coated a slice of wood in apricot jam and constructed a winter picnic for the creatures of the wood. It looked very beautiful and on revisiting the display the next day a squirrel scampered off, leaving several plates disturbed and partially eaten.
Other celebration activities included making a decorative wreath by weaving leaves, berries and seed heads into a hazel wreath.
Some of the class chose to invent games to play in the wood using sticks they found there. A simple game of ‘Pick up Sticks’ was one idea, using a bundle of collected sticks. Other more complicated hoop-la games were devised, involving throwing a hazel quoit onto a balancing stick and bouncing quoits off the tree trunk to land over vertical sticks. There were also elaborate scoring systems that took some remembering!
Hopefully the class will have happy memories of their visit as well as developing a closer bond with the wood and the creatures that live there.
Blyth Woods 