Tag: Dow’s Wood

Dow’s Wood November

We are trying to visit the woods at least once a month this session for some outdoor learning.

The weather today was drizzle with some windy spells. So it was rain-suits on.

This morning we headed to the woods. We putted on waterproof clothing and went. Leaves were falling down on the way to the woods. Different colours of leaves. When we entered the woods it was muddy, filled with leaves and sticks. We were on a scavenger hunt looking for many different things. We had a list. After a certain point we stopped and had a break. We wrote interesting poems and heard them. They were nice. Near the end we did something about natural disasters. We had to save stick people affected by a flood and make a shelter for them. Then we headed back for lunch and on the way I found a big leaf.

Alexia

It was quite muddy and beautiful leaves where falling on the ground and our faces.

Lexi
A group of children walking along a woodland path.

As we travelled through the paths we had a bit of a scavenger hunt, this was supposed to lead to making some art at the end of the morning but we ran out of time.

Poems of all sorts

Children sitting along at the edge of a wood a wall writing.

We stopped at the big rock pile among the oak trees and talked about different forms of poems. This included a couple of types we had not written before. Then the children found some quiet spots and did some writing.

We gathered back at the rocks and read the poem out as loud as we could over an increasing wind.

Tanka snow
Snow
White soft cold
Falling with the wind
Covering the wild grass
No ears to listen to birds

Tony

Oh! look a crow look! look! What ?what happened CRASH!!!!!!!!

Calum

Look what I found
A fish swimming
I wonder if a cat will find it? MUNCH!!!!!

Noah

The woods – acrostic poem

The woods is a place of beauty
Having fun in all weather sun, rain, snow, rain
Everyone finds one thing to remember about the woods

With friends or family
Old and young
Old and young in joy it
Days go bye and the woods changes
So go to the woods

Juliet

Look what I found poem
Look what I found
a A stick
Moss and shaped
Next to the rocks
I wonder if it will break?

Billie

Look what I found?
A rock
Staying still
Sitting on the grass
Wow! It looks amazing

Xander

Tanka
Leaves
Multicoloured, thin, wavy
Sailing off trees
No eyes to see where they’re going

Look at what I found
Look what I found
Moss
Growing and sitting still
On top of old cranky rocks
Will it ever stop?

Alexia

Look what I found
Moss
Growing and still
On a old tree
Does the tree like it?

Lexi
Some concrete poems written by a child, rock, leaf & squirrel
Concrete Poems Juliet

Stick People in Danger

After the poetry session we had some snacks, being careful with our litter then headed over to School Wood.

We have been learning about Natural Disasters in class, when we got to School Wood we found some tiny stick people who had been flooded out of their homes. The Biggies were challenged to create some shelters the right size. Some of the refugee sticks got together others made solo efforts.

We discussed the features that the class had created to help the sticks have warmth and shelter.

We also built dens for two refugees and we could team up with other people. (The refugees are fake small sticks). Our class built dens for them because a flood hit their homes. We needed to build dens that were flood proof, wind proof, safe, warm and some other things for them. We did all of this in this paragraph because our topic is natural disasters.

Gene

But the thing I liked the most was building houses for the little people also known as refugees who were in a flood. We did it because our topic was natural disasters.
They were made of wood they were also tiny.
We had to build them a house it was hard I had 4 sticks. I also put-put walls on it and added I fire place, a bed, and an umbrella to keep their fire wood dry.

Tony

A morning in the woods

On Monday the Biggies spent a morning in Dow’s wood.

We looked around for autumn colours, measured the ages of some oak and beech trees, kept our eyes peeled for plants and creatures we could put in a food chain. We also had time for quiet writing and drawing.

We saw an owl going through the trees, found spider web galore and walked a couple of miles. We covered some maths, literacy, our IDL topic about Food Webs and more. Lots of learning & fresh air.

Rosehips
Rosehips
Looking up through the oak trees.
raindrops on grass
Raindrops on grass
tiny fungi, white toadstools
tiny fungi
A Garden spider on gorse
A garden spider
A Hazel Nut in a childs hand
A Hazel Nut

Pupil thoughts

I enjoyed everything and I don’t have a favourite because I found everything very enjoyable. I had a lovely trip to Dow’s wood that day and I would love to go again.
I learned about the size of an oak and another tree that I forgot its name.
I drew, wrote, had my snack and a lot more.

Gene

I liked most of the stuff that we did, the measuring trees were a bit hard though. It was hard because we had not tall people (we were all small) We had a small paper notebook with us and we did activities in it like we made a colour list, we measured trees as you know, we wrote on blank pieces of paper you could do, a story, a poem, a picture poem. All that sort of stuff we also drew. We also had to find 3 interesting and cool leaves.

Chloe
Autumn Colours

I learned how different trees spread their seeds. For example a Hawthorn tree spreads its seeds through animals eating them.
I enjoyed walking where the old train track used to be because there was a really good view of trees and there was so many colours.
We did some measuring of trees, writing and some art work of things we could see.

I really loved it because I enjoyed how we did our colour list and we measured the trees. We collected 3 leaves and we stopped for snack time. We sat in a quiet space and we wrote and drew. Then we went back to school just in time for lunch.

We walked talked and sat on rocks.
We also wrote and did more walking and drew.

Writing & Drawing in the Woods

Some Food Chains

Back in class we though a bit about food chains & webs.

Completed worksheet showing 2 food chains
Completed worksheet showing 2 food chains
Completed worksheet showing 2 food chains
Completed worksheet showing 2 food chains

Outdoor Learning day June 2024

Photoblitzer

The first thing we did was Photoblitzer. At it’s core, photoblitzer is a website that Mr. Johnston gave all of us. The web page had a small list of photo ideas, then we had twenty minutes to take pictures going along with the list.

Nathaniel

Capture the flag

playing capture the flag

Next we had a game of capture the flag in the playground. This is a new game for the Biggies and went down really well. Lots of running, laughing and thinking.

After our photo blitz challenge we did a game of capture the flag, I had never played it before but it was really fun. Mr. Johnston split us into two teams team red, & team yellow. My group started off as team yellow, my team had me, Olivia, Lexi, Alexia, Rory & Tony. In the first round most of them came sprinting and I tug Juliet, Harry, & then Xander. Team yellow won the first round

Chloe

Dow’s Wood

After the interval we headed down to Dow’s Wood. We started by searching the wood for new creatures to add to our collection at the Banton Beasties. This is a new site that well will make public soon. We found quite a few interesting ones and a few more got away.

One Beastie was not very welcome. We were attacked by swarms of midges. This made our other activity in the woods more difficult than usual, we stopped to spend some time writing and drawing. It is a credit to the Biggies that they got some done! 

In the woods, a thick tree canopy shades mossy rocks. 
In the woods, big blue flys lurk uncatchable. 
In the woods, midges bite continuously and with no mercy. 
In the woods, ferns are everywhere.
In the woods, there is no escape from midges.

Juliet 
King of the Forrest
For he is king of the forest 
He has a centurion of bugs
For he is king of the forest 
There’s a smile on everyone’s mug

For he is king of the forest 
He cares for the children 
For he is king of the forest
He has a crown of ferns 
Placed on by a hern 

Nathaniel
The Nature Poem

Deep down in the woods,
Through the lush leafy forest
At the heart of the woodland,
This is how it starts.

Xander

Pendulum Painting

We constructed some painting pendulums in the playground in the afternoon. This was messy but fun and gave some interesting results. The next day we took our art, edited it in Snapseed to boost the colours. We then but it on a virtual gallery wall and added ourselves as a visitor.

Earth Day in the Woods

We celebrated Earth Day a little early on Friday last week. We went to Dow’s Wood. We went firstly to see what sort of living creatures we could find. We also spent some time just sitting quietly by ourselves drawing or writing. The idea was to spend some time appreciating the world around us.

Creatures

A 3x3 montage of creatures found in Banton. A flatwork, a snail, a slug, a millipede, an earthworm, a millipede and a earwig, creatures in a plastic box, a pilot ground beetle, a spider.
We found a variety of invertebrates, in the undergrowth and under logs and rocks.

We are building up a collection of creatures we can see in Banton. We will classify these and find out about their lifecycles.

Drawing & writing

A montage of 3 line drawings of trees.

Deep in the heart of the forest, lied an oak tree. This tree however, was
different from all the others. Not tall or with fine bark or posture.
Instead covered with disease.
One of the oldest trees you’d think would be colossal compared to the others, not short and plump, even surrounding trees, far younger, would be taller.
It was widened with deformed bark that form a distance, looked soft and fluffy, however when touched was solid.
At the bottom was kale-green coloured moss, this feature however was ordinary among oaks, unlike deformed bark.

Rory

Tae Mother Nature, I like the wee beasties you hide
Tae Mother Nature, I like the wind you blow fae other countries
Tae Mother Nature, I like the moss it’s like a cushion
Tae Mother Nature, make the tree go high and the breeze go low

Tony

Outdoor Learning Day June 2023

We started the day by going to the woods to gather a bit of firewood and different things to test as tinder.

The woods have changed quite a lot since our last visit, the grass & bracken is a lot higher. Down by the Gladstone we saw a woodpecker and later on a frog.

Back in school we tried different items as tinder with our flies and steels. not much success. The only thing that really caught was some bog cotton we had picked on our previous visit.

Next we mixed up some dough to cook over the fire later on in the day.
Dough in a bowl

We then explored a new App Seek by iNaturalist , which helped us identify plants and animals in the school grounds.

In the afternoon we rolled out out dough and wound it round some twigs, while the dough was rising we set up the fire pit.

Some marshmallows might have been toasted too.

Outdoor Learning Day with the Biggies

Today the whole school had an outdoor learning day. The Biggies:

Went to Dow’s Wood, we collected a hoard of words to use later, had a treasure hunt and collected some kindling.

Next we prepared the fire pit, reminding ourselves about the safety rules and chopped some kindling with great care.

After that we read some of the playground poems we wrote last week to the rest of the class.

In the afternoon we made a fire and cooked some marshmallows.

Finally we went to help primary 1 & 2 to tour the village and take photos of some of the important places in Banton.

No photos of the fire pit or the preparation:(

Dow’s Wood – September

This morning the biggies went for a walk in Dow’s Wood, they took part in a photo challenge, kept their eyes peeled for animals and plants and played some big.

An Artist at Rest
Conkers in the making
Thistle seeds
Hawthorn
A tiny frog explores a jumper
Looking for colours
Toadstool
There…
Two Roe

Today we went to the woods, we walked around the woods for a while taking pictures, stopping to look at wildlife, and wild plants. We eventually made our way to the Gladstone. Whilst at the Gladstone we sat down somewhere in the area, making sure to not go too far, and drew something like a small plant, a tree, or something similar.

Later we made our way to the school wood and played two team tag, after two rounds of it we made our way back to school.
Charlie

Today we went to Dows Woods, in Dows woods there was a cute tiny frog on Josh’s jumper (on a rucksack as well) and Hollie picked it up and put it in the trees.

When we were walking through the grass I found some hazelnuts that a mouse had eaten some a squirrel had eaten and some nothing had ate (and we also found conkers on a huge conker tree).

We sat on rocks and had to draw what we saw I drew some grass but there was a huge mushroom with a giant slug on it, Bobbi and I turned around for a few minutes and when we turned back it was gone.
Olivia Rose

There was a slug on a mushroom eating it. The slug was huge and then it disappeared.
I liked how we went and drew pictures of trees, leaves and other cool stuff I drew a tree that had no leaves on it.
At the start we got given a piece of paper so we could find\do things like make a rainbow, find a shadow and other things.
Mr Johnston found a shield bug it was green and had a little bit of yellow on its back he wasn’t scared of it.
-Bobbi

Hazel told Josh there was a spider on his head and he was rubbing his head saying get it off me. Hazel kept saying there’s a spider on your head and me standing laughing.
Standing there laughing,
We saw lots of bugs,
We drew stuff we could find,
We played a game it was fun ,
We saw two deer and a frog,
We had a long walk,
We saw mushrooms.
Amy

There is a bug out there that looks like a mosquito we called Tostito and we found a huge mushroom.
There is glass everywhere which is sad because we should be helping the environment.
There is a tiny green frog and a huge black beetle and they where really cool.
Hazel

At the woods we did challenges it was a photo challenge we are going to judge them soon the challenges were a rainbow, something moving (not a human), a shadow, something that makes you happy, a repeating pattern and a beautiful view it was hard because we went into different groups of three and four we couldn’t decide so we took tons of different pictures and we are going to pick them and Maybe win!
Hollie

Today we went to the woods and we did tones of stuff, all of it was very fun we played games and we drawn stuff, I drew a tree and everyone drew something cool, for the game we lay a game where you need to hide and then you need run, avoid the seekers and you need to sit on a log to get two points and if you just hide for the time limit you get one point.
Josh

Today at the woods we saw a frog and a huge ground beetle, we did a photographic challenge we drawn nature and we saw a rabbit hole. We played 2 team tag it was really fun even know my team lost. We saw a deer it was really fun and I can’t wait to go again
Rory

We found a beach tree and something came down it was a beach mast and it had seeds inside of it. There was spikes and it was green and when you opened it it looked like a flower.
Mia

We walked around the woods and we had a chart we had to find living things.
I enjoyed playing two team tig and seeing all the wildlife. We saw beetles, spiders, a wee frog, a shield bug and a pair of deer.
Daniel

I enjoined going through the long ferns and seeing how tall they were.
I enjoyed finding a spider and watching it walk on my hand.
I enjoyed drawing a plant.
Alex

Today I was in the woods with my class. I seen a beetle about 4.5cm big. It was black with a purple outline around it. We found the beetle Walking around on a rock. It was one of the coolest things I saw went we were walking in the woods.
Elise

I liked going to the Gladstone, the rocks surrounded by the oak trees and the old railway track.
I liked seeing the sheep and the deer.
I liked doing the game in the school woods where we have 2 teams and 1 team hides and when the team hides the 2nd team try’s to find them whilst the 1st team needs to get to the seat.
Harry

Dow’s Wood Photo Walk

We took a walk down through the woods this morning. We went to take some photos for the Kilsyth Rotary photo competition and get some inspiration for Art and Writing.

The photo comp is title Colours of Nature, although it was still a bit early in spring to get a lot of colour in the wood we managed to take a lot of photos.

We also found some burnt gorse and grass and a fair bit of broken glass. This will give us something to think about.

We ended up playing a game or two in School Wood and Josh spotted a roe deer!

We will post some of the photos for the competition once the class have made their selection.

Primary Six Poets go Down to the Woods

On Thursday the primary sixes for both p6-7 & p4-5-6 went down to the woods.

We were going to do a little Earth Day prep, but also to play games and read and write poems.

It was quite cold to be sitting long  so we warmed up with  running around game. All  the children really all concentrated on writing and drawing in their tiny notebooks.

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