St Charles, 07.01.21

Year 5 and 6 Thursday 7 Jan 2021

Today brought the icy cold, and I thought twice about starting with something that didn’t involve keeping warm, but I did it anyway. We gathered round the apple tree in the Peace Garden and I told the children about an old English tradition of Wassail. Accordingly, we toasted the apple tree’s health with ice cold apple juice (instead of the traditional hot, mulled cider) and decided that we should really look after this tree. It has all but fallen over and needs to be straightened up with a stake but we couldn’t do it this week as the ground was too hard. We noticed tiny, green shoots poking through the ground and we noted that although everything seems lifeless and still, there are things are happening that we cannot see; and although it still seems dark and gloomy, everyday (since the winter solstice) the sun will come up a little bit earlier and set a little bit later, and before we know it, it will be spring. We are slowly and imperceptibly moving from the dark to the light.

We played ‘Spiders and flies’ and’ Predators and prey’ very successfully, incorporating year 5’s inventive game adaptations. After that, we went to do what we wanted. Some children built a battle camp and played zombies; some made table-frame shelters culminating in a house design competition; others flitted in and out of groups as they pleased. Two of the children made Mr B a coffee using the Ghillie kettle, and another two got a fire going. It was cheering to see the children remembering the bushcraft skills they had previously learned, with others wanting to have a go next week. We had hot chocolate and biscuit time round the fire circle with a lot of relaxed and friendly chatter going on.