Hello once again!
What wonderful fall weather we had this week! This gave us so much time to play and explore outside. This week’s theme was “archery” and oh boy (girl?!) did we have fun!
Before making our own bows and arrows we learned some different parts of a real bow and arrow and discussed where and why bows and arrows are used. We came to the conclusion that nowadays bows and arrows are used for hunting, but also in archery competitions. A long time ago bows and arrows were also used in wars as weapons. Over the many hundred years of archery, humans have developed astonishing way to create the best bows and arrows! Our versions that we were about to create would certainly be much more primitive, but it helped to know a little about the making and history of archery. We spoke about the tools and materials we would need to make bows and arrows: string, knife, feathers and wood. But not just any wood! The Snowy Owls were very eager to get started and were on a mission to find the perfect piece of wood for their bows: not too old and with a natural bend. At the end of the property by the riverbeds of the Beaver River are a lot of washed up logs and branches. The perfect place to go on a hunt for the piece of wood. A lot of larger pieces of wood were found and also lots of perfectly straight branches for some arrows. As the children brought their findings back to the table some of them noticed that as they began working the wood, the sticks snapped or cracked because they were too old. Back to the river banks to go find the right piece of wood! This time each of them came back with several pieces of wood, which was a very smart move as more of the wood determined itself to be unsuitable for archery uses. Time flew by while sharpening the point of straight branches to make arrows and taking off barks to make the bows more smooth. We actually even forgot our morning snack! Ha-ha! Slowly but surely everyone had created a bow and several arrows, so we could interrupt our making and have a quick snack. But now that everything was made, it had to be tested! While the children were still chewing their food, they quickly drew their own personalized a bulls-eye. After setting up the targets and going over some safety rules … Now … NOW it was time to try the hand-made bows & arrows out! And it was AWESOME! Some of the bows needed improvement, but luckily Taven brought his real bow from home and let everyone have turns with it. In the beginning it was more difficult for the kids to shoot the arrows, but with more practice some of the students actually began hitting their targets! The excitement was huge and they children became very competitive, keen to get a bulls-eye! After a while only Taven was still shooting, determined to finally get his bulls-eye. His hard work payed off: after about 30 min of aiming and shooting … he finally shot right into the middle of his red bulls-eye! Good job!
After our archery excursion we had a late lunch and decided to take advantage of the awesome weather to do more exploratory play. Between looking for frogs (they’re all gone 🙁 ), playing tag, climbing trees, foraging for leftovers in the gardens … time went by so fast once more. Before we knew it, the first parent had already arrived!
We had a blast and made the most out of this lovely fall weather!
Next week we will be focusing on fire making. We’ve had a looot of practice, I’m sure some students will be earning their fire beads! 🙂 We also want to cook a meal on our fire, so if you have a veggie or two to spare, make sure to bring it to Forest School next Wednesday!
Thank you! Tamara
