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Year 5, 13th January

Posted: Jan 14, 2023 by: Tara (Tara) on: Forest Blog

Such a lovely day with Year 5!

This term we will be focusing on: whittling wood; first aid (including wild first aid – my favourite!) and fire skills.

These first few sessions we have been continuing a class project on bridges.

We are making a truss bridge and evaluating it.

The children learnt to use a tenon saw and measure and saw, including at 45 degree angles, which were more difficult.

Just as builders do: we measured twice, cut once.  

The children really got to appreciate how focused and precise builders have to be to achieve accuracy.

After discussion they agreed some lengths just weren’t accurate enough and were discarded.

Rather than feel despondent, they persevered, considered the difference at the end and were so pleased that they set high expectations.

We are using pine for this, a soft wood.

These come from conifers, that have cones and needles.

Hardwoods come from broadleaved, deciduous trees.

Amelia shared with us a poster she made about litter.

“I saw lots of litter around my home area so I thought I should do this poster about littering. I think it has made a difference as there is less litter now.”

For free choice, we had some wonderful creativity and use of tools to make: frog sticks, spears and spud guns.

There was a café selling watery tomato soup and bread.

I was charged £55 initially for this, which was kindly reduced by 75 percent as “You are a teacher”.

Ronnie said, ‘Really, you should have it for free!” to which Joey replied, “No way! How are we going to make any money?”