Tag: exploring

OH-COP week with Tong School P4-7

On the 25th September 2024, as part of the OH-COP week, Tong primary school were visited by Fraser. He organised a introduction session to orienteering, map reading and supported the young people to create maps of their local environment.

“We’re standing here, in the playground”, “That’s the playpark over there”

The young people were each given a map, shown how to use the local landmarks and map key to locate their position on the map. They were divided into groups, taking turns hiding items in the school grounds and plotting the location on their maps, and locating the items hidden by other groups. The young people engaged fully with the task, worked well as a team and enjoyed finding increasingly difficult hiding places to increase the competition.

“Let’s go, I know where to hide the bag!”, “Mark it on the map”.

“We’ve got one more bag to get”, “The boys hid it there”

The young people were then asked to use natural resources to create a map of their local environment. Some created detailed pictures of their street, displaying their houses and the neighbouring homes, including distinguishing local landmarks.

“That’s my house, and there’s the road”

“I used the leaves for the trees, and the pine cones are cars”
With support, the children added a map key to their picture. They creatively used the resources to depict their local environment.
Once the activity was finished, some children enjoyed creating other pieces of transient art using the natural resources.
If you would like to arrange a session or help to run a session like this, please contact the Outdoor Learning Team.

OH-COP week with Tong School P1-3

 

On the 24th September 2024, as part of the Outer Hebrides Conference of Peoples (OH-COP) week, Tong primary school were visited by a Fraser. He organised a minibeast hunt in the local woodlands for the P1-3 pupils.

“We went on a bear hunt in these woods, “Let’s explore!”

 

They gathered to talk about the woodlands; how to be safe, responsible, and how the area might impact the local community and the wider environment. The young people were provided with a minibeast checklist and pen, magnifying glasses and containers, and in small teams were asked to explore the woodlands to record the minibeasts they discovered.

“Help me lift this up”, “Look, a slater”, “I’ve got it in the tub”.

The young people engaged fully in the activity, sharing the equipment and celebrating each minibeast discovery made by their team. They learnt about the food chains which might be present in woodlands, how habitats and the animals which reside in them will be affected by climate change.
“That’s a consumer”, “I’ll dig him out”, “Come see the spiderwebs”.
If you would like to arrange a session, or would like to use the resources provided, please contact the Outdoor Learning Team.

Fire craft with Stornoway Playgroup

On the 7th November 2024, young people and ‘Aunties’ from Stornoway Playgroup visited the Castle Grounds to participate in a fire craft activity with Fraser, from the Outdoor Learning Team.

The aim of the session was to explore fire safety. The young people learnt about the fire triangle, the three elements we need to create fire: fuel, ignition and oxygen.

The Fire Triangle Explained: What Are The Three Elements

Some young people shared their recent experiences of Bonfire night:

“It was so big!”, “I saw fireworks”.

Others shared their knowledge of fire, most commonly where they had seen them at home:

“We use logs”, “Daddy uses a lighter”, “We cook burgers”.

The Playgroup Aunties practiced starting a mini fire using a striker and cotton wool to catch the spark. Fraser set a larger fire in the fire pit and this was used to make a slice of toast for their morning snack.

“I smell the toast”, “I want butter on mine”, “I flipped it!”.

 

The young people learnt about the hazards of fire and how to move around a fire safely. The Aunties are planning are planning to visit to the Castle Grounds to try den building with the little people.

Please get in touch with the Outdoor Learning team for any advice or help in organising an outdoor session.

 

Teamwork with Stornoway Primary P7

On Friday 1st November 2024, Tim and Fraser worked with the young people from Stornoway Primary P7. The activities were based in the Castle Grounds. The focus was teamwork.
Fraser’s activity was to design a shelter in the woods. The young people in groups of six to eight were tasked to build a shelter they could spend the night in. There was discussion about if this was an fun prospect, for some young people they were not definitely not excited by it.

 

The group were able to choose different sized tarpaulins, ropes, and to use natural resources. They were given thirty minutes to selected a suitable site in the woods, design their shelter, collect resources, and erect their home from home. All the teams were able to construct a shelter, some with a little more success than others.

After the thirty minutes, a team ‘spokesperson’ evaluated their shelter to the other teams. They talked about why their team selected the area, what resources they used and why, and what they would do differently next time.

The activity could be replicated in any school grounds and the equipment can be borrowed from the Outdoor Learning Team.

On possibility is the activity could be used to create opportunity to discuss the challenges of refugees and how people could become refugees. This progression has been used by one school with a lesson in a shelter leading to a discussion on how this made them feel.

The first part of Tim’s activities was for sub-groups to use a set of ‘skis’. These are planks with ropes which the  young people use to cross an area where they are not allowed to touch the ground with anything other than the skis. There were varying degrees of success leading to discussion of what successful team work might look like and different method of achieving success.

 

The equipment for these types of exercises can be borrowed from the Outdoor Team with briefing instructions and support if you would like it.

The second part of Tim’s activity was each sub-group was given a large sheet of paper on the ground and they had to create an art work, to create  window, or a picture with a deliberately vague brief to encourage creativity and discussion. The pictures were beautiful.

The resources needed for this were a sheet of paper and the young people’s imagination. They co-created transient art which in this case was connected to the environment and in some cases grew out of the environment. The activity could be used to create opportunities for discussions around sustainability.

Planting Beetroot with Small People

Beetroot is easy enough to grow in the garden, and it’s a solid favourite of ours! Your 5-a-day are important, beetroot is tasty and good for you. You can use it in soups, cakes, roast them or put them in salads. I personally like to stick some beetroot on a lollipop stick and eat it like a lollipop. 

They’re great veg to grow with kids because the seeds are quite big and so it’s not too fiddly for little hands. They grow best in slightly sandy earth, but they do well in any type of soil. For example, if your soil is a little too acidic, a little lime through it should balance it out. Beets grow best when there aren’t other plants right next to them so make sure it has a little room around it to grow. You don’t even need to plant beetroot in a plot, they’ll grow well in a tub or container of some sort!

If you want the young people you’re helping in the garden to be encouraged, beetroot is a good choice of vegetable for this. It’s easy enough to plant, and it grows easily a lot of the time. There is usually a little bit of time before you start to see it breaking through, but don’t worry as it will still be growing. They take a bit of time to germinate, even if you can’t see them. 

We used egg-boxes to start them off in. We chose these so that we could plant them into the ground if we wanted to, however if you don’t have the space to be able to plant them in the ground a reasonably sized container will do. Firstly we put some earth in each little section of the boxes. Little hands will certainly help with this!

As you can see here, beetroot seeds are big enough that little hands won’t have a problem picking them up here. You need one seed per egg divot. Put the seeds in the middle and press it down into the soil, before covering it with more soil. Your helper will be able to do this without a problem!

Your beets should germinate within 14 days, and you  might start to see, at the earliest, sprouts from the third day . Make sure you water these at least twice a week so they don’t dry out! When your beetroots begin to sprout you will start to see little purple shoots.

Around then, it’s a good idea to move your beetroots to somewhere with a  more room. For example, if you have a little garden space. Cut up your egg boxes and plant them in a little pre-dug plot. If you don’t have the garden space available, a big box will work just as well! The egg boxes will break down as they’re biodegradable anyway.

With this done, all you have to do is keep your beetroot watered and to watch them grow over time.

Then when they are ready it is time to cook them and make lollipops.

 

 

 

 

Training for Nursery Staff (Part 2)

Tim delivered a train the trainer course to allow practitioners to be trainers for the Forest and Outdoor Kindergarten SCQF level 7, the plan is to embed this training throughout the authority. As in the last post on this training it is based round exploring the three areas of People, Place and Pedagogy; the Who, Where and Why of good practice.

The training was delivered at the Water Wheel Building in the Castle Grounds and the surrounding area and although it was chilly it was a great space to play in.

We started by discussing fun important memories from growing up, and although we were in an outdoor setting most of people memories had an outdoor element to them.

Even with the theoretical content which was needed we tried to make the course as practical as possible to illustrate how the learning through playing can be taken outside.

The aim is for the participants to grow their confidence to take the principles into their nursery setting and encourage others to spend more time outdoors with the young people.

Exploring the Moor with Tong School

The class were doing a project on black houses and wanted to look at and explore the moor behind the school. Tim first looked round the village to see if there were the remains of any black houses on the crofts but sadly in Tong he couldn’t find any, so the decision was to have a walk out onto the moor, look at how it was different to the rest of the village and how the land might be being used.

The class used the Outdoor Journeys model developed by Simon Beames at Edinburgh University as a start point to prepare. Tim went into the class and they looked at the map and discussed the potential hazards, wrote this out before completing their journey plan to be left a the school before they set off. (Here are the CnES versions of the documents; Journey Plan, Hazard Assessment)

The walk went out of the school up the road, left out towards Craignish and the followed the peat tracks past the fank to the 42m high point. Then before turning to head for the wind turbine and then back down Barraidmhicille Mhoire to the school.

It was a very frosty afternoon so frozen puddles were a great source of interest with everyone looking at the ice and then jumping on it to smash it.

As part of the project to look at how people lived in black houses the class learnt the song Eilean Fraoich, they thought it would be good if they stood on top of some peat banks and sang the song.

On the way round the moor the class looked at the plants and birds they saw, it was so cold they came to the conclusion that was why they didn’t see many birds apart from seagulls.

The cold wasn’t bothering the cattle we  saw near to the end of the journey.

The journey ended back a the school and the inevitable ‘wellies off scrum’ and lots of smiling faces.

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