Shelters finished

The S3 xl group have been making shelters over the past few weeks as part of their John Muir Award. We finished them off today before the mid-term break.

The woodland strip around the school is very densely planted and needed thinning out. We took the opportunity to harvest some strong poles for our shelters.

Putting the final touches on this shelter to keep the weather out

We needed to use the shelters for real as it started sleeting before the end of the lesson!

If you went down to the woods today....

... you may have come across some Currie pupils...

Cooking damper bread over a small group fire

or kick sampling the burn in Roley's Wood for invertebrates to test the water quality

xl exploring the woods

The S3 xl group are continuing their work towards their John Muir Award.  They recently did a litter pick of Roleys Wood, as part of the Conserve Challenge, and have been exploring the woods around the school using their senses.

Today we were looking at leaves and making art, inspired by the work of Andy Goldsworthy and the beautiful autumn colours.

Everyone also tasted the wild wood cordials we made last week from rosehips and elderberries collected within the school grounds. Good to drink hot cordial on a wet morning!

Shelters in S3 xl

The S3 xl group have decided to work towards their Discovery John Muir Award this year. They have learnt about who John Muir was, and been testing out their survival skills in some woodland in the school grounds. Last week was very wet but they tried out their first tarpaulin shelter to great effect.

John Muir Award Celebration

The xl group (new S4) held their John Muir Award celebration experience today. They had made beautiful cards for staff inviting them to join us in the woods.  Everyone spoke about activities they had done towards their John Muir Award, as part of their 'Share' challenge for the award itself. Mrs McKinnon gave everyone their Discovery Award certificate, and then we all cooked damper bread over a wee fire in the woods. Congratulations everyone!

Festive cooking on an open fire

The S3 xl group have been out in the school grounds Period 5 every Thursday doing work towards their John Muir Award.  Today was the last time this term, and to celebrate we used our newly acquired skills to do some cooking outdoors.

Lighting the fire safely. Notice the neatly organised sticks graded by size!

Some of the group made a simple damper bread dough with self raising flour, water, sultanas and a touch of sugar and salt

We cleaned freshly harvested sticks with potato peelers, wrapped the dough around the stick and cooked our bread over the fire

Ms McMaster was a big fan!

Yum!

Shelter building with S3 xl

Pupils have been learning safe methods to fell small trees, thinning the woodland and creating poles for their shelters

They have also been learning different knots. Natasha and Connor are using square lashing in their shelter.

One of the team's completed shelters

Mini shelters with xl

The new S3 xl group have been exploring the Millennium woodland strips in the school grounds as part of their work towards a John Muir Award. Last week we pruned some of the lower branches near the path and created habitat piles from the cuttings. This week we used natural found materials in the wood to make mini shelters - and tested how waterproof and windproof they are. In a few weeks time we'll work as a group to make a bigger shelter.