Tag: exploring

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.

Tong School Visit to Arnish Gun Emplacements

Just before the end of the school term, as part of the project on the wars and into the Iolaire disaster, a trip to the gun emplacements at Arish Point was organised by Tong School. Tim went along to help and tell a few stories.

The bus dropped the classes at the carpark below the Bonny Prince Charlie cairn and they walked along to the emplacements.

The ruins of the emplacements gave a great opportunity to explore and to talk about what it must have been like to be based there on a wild winter night. We also looked across at the Beasts of Holm and talked about the Iolaire disaster.

  

The gun emplacements housed two 6 inch coast guns, had a watch tower and two search lights in smaller enclosures. How effective the guns would have been is questionable; when the Dutch Submarine Zeehond failed to respond to the challenges one of the guns was fired, it missed and the shell bounced over the water, embedding itself in the wall of Sandwickhill Cemetery. Much to the embarrassment of the Navy but to the huge amusement of the young people form Tong School when they heard the story.

Although the daylight at this time of year is short it does allow for some amazing skies which we took the chance to enjoy before boarding the bus to go to the museum for a visit.

Environmental Studies with Breasclete School

Tim went to Breasclete School to explore the croft land next to the school, there were plenty of invertebrates including a spider who was ‘snacking’ on a fly. The young people used the Field Studies Council fold out charts to identify the species and plants they found and collated the information using cameras and drawing.

Environmental Studies with Tong School

Tim was asked by Tong School to show them how they could use the moorland, a short walk from the school, to look at the fauna and flora they could find there.

The class wrote their own journey plan to get out to the moor and they organised the class to get there. When they arrived at the moor using the Outdoor Team’s environmental box they researched the plants and invertebrates they found documenting them with photographs and drawings.

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