With Mell and the Two Rachel(les) in the wood (keeping socially distanced), and Meg and Sue on Zoom duty, we held our 2nd wood zoom gathering of the tribe from their homes for “Kinda Interactive TV”.
In our opening circle we passed around the talking stick to find out what everyone had been up too.
Jessica had cycled 16 miles on a tandem bike, seeing a bird of prey on the way.
Kym and Hazel had been busy potting on plants and found a very useful tin bath in which they will grow tomatoes.
Eva read to us a complete book about Doctor Duck.
Toby was still trying to design a lift that didn’t use electricity using magnets, but found the magnets too strong. In fact they got stuck either side of his finger!
Ryan showed us a photo off an egg with no shell. Only a photo as the egg got too smelly. A prequel to his cress head demonstration later.
Tris admitted the hat used by the bird to nest in was his dads, and named it a Hatihat! He described the massive tree art work on the back wall that he and his sister Isla painted. Jessica read us a bit of Matilda
Eva told us she’d lost a tooth and the tooth fairy left her a note full of tiny love hearts.
IMAGE HAT
We investigated the wormery. Lifting the lid on to Layer 1. Luckily Sam the woodman was leaving his left over food for the worms to munch on. What did he have last night? Evidence of sweet potato, red pepper. There was a little fungi was growing, fruit flies-all busy, and a few worms. Layer 2, the soil was much more slimey here, with lots of rotten stems and veg all brown… we found lots of busy worms creating soil and a few mating. Layer 3 more, the soil looked completed here and the worms more docile – resting perhaps from all that work soil creating and Rachel suggested maybe due to mating too. Layer 4 was the liquid gold – the worm liquid left over from the process. Through a tap, we drained some of this liquid gold and feed our broad beans and potatoes growing in our veg patch.
Here is some information about how worms create more worms. On the one hand, red worms have both male and female characteristics. Botanists call them “hermaphrodites”. On the other hand, they need a partner to make babies. They cannot reproduce all on their own. Having DNA from two parents helps keep the offspring strong.
Sage appeared. Riding the International Space Wagon no less, and talked to us of the importance of Well being. She Wearing all her PPP, mask and gloves, Sage noticed that all her woodland friends needed more than just food, water and shelter to be ‘well’. She needed friendship to feel well. Rachel said the trees help – because she cannot think small thoughts in a wood. Rachelle said she needed friends too, and that her art work helped her to relax and feel well being.
Talking of which Rachelle showed us what she was creating with white on black paper, white chalk, white pen and white paint, beautiful tree trunks with patterns on their trunk perhaps reflecting their cellular structure. She showed us how you can take any shape from nature and decorate the inside with patterns you think might be inside them. Black pen on white paper also works.
Rachel suggested next week we could investigate the Oak tree, and in preparation, we looked at the Oak catkins. Many trees have catkins, like Hazel and Willow, and Oak too. The catkins are male and are yellow, and on the oak hang down from the branch in a curtain. The female flowers are tiny (difficult to find) with fine filaments to catch the pollen from the catkins. These later become the acorns, so the magic of nature circles.
Ryan instructed us to making a cress egg. Beautifully facilitated a step by step guide on how to grow cress in an empty egg shell. Next week Surprised egg might have hair!
The Toilet Roll challenge from last week was met by Hazel and Levon who made a massive painting using the same method that Rachelle did last week. Hazel brought in one of her pet chickens who walked across the painting. “Did the chicken help” asked Mell… “noooooo” said Hazel ” I did it”.
Megan made a silver wonder-woman head band/bracelet /necklace! Megan’s favourite thing is dressing up, she comes from a tribe of fancy dressers!
Ryan read to us, and Billy and Tris gave us a tour of a star wars play then it was time for Jess to eat her dinner and for Mell to tell the closing story. It was about The King of the fairies.
Mission for next week is to try Rachelles white in black inside a tree trunk patterns and find and bring a question about OAK.
Kinda Forest School 