Chinese New Year (27th January 2014)

We started early in the hall playing a game called Dragons' Tails. Everyone split into two teams - each team formed a chain conga-style and the last Elfin in each had a scarf tucked into their waistband as a tail. Then both dragon heads had to try to steal the tail from the other dragon. Harder than it sounds.

Then in our circle Amanda and Claire handed around prawn crackers, sesame cakes and coconut biscuits and introduced us to Chinese New Year which this year is on Friday, January 31st. Amanda said that both she and Kira were born in China so Chinese New Year is very important for them. She told us about the lunar calendar and the years being named after animals in 12 year cycles. She read 'The Great Race' which tells the story of how the order of the animals was decided by The Jade Emperor.

She explained that people born in each year are influenced by the character of the animal and that this year was the Year of the Horse - cheerful, hard-working and independent. She explained that dragons bring good luck and that at New Year giant dragons with people inside perform a dance where the dragon chases the pearl of wisdom. And....that we were going to perform one today!

And so began the Story of the Dragoncraft Folk

We broke up into groups - one started work on the head…

...one on the tail and the body scales….

...and one built a rhythm with drums, tins, cardboard boxes, tambourines and other shakers…

Elfins moved between music making and dragon making. Then 7 climbed into the finished dragon…

When parents arrived we took it in turns to do a loud - raucous - wild - dance - 

- the dragon moved at surprising speed chasing the pearl and looked wonderful.

As everyone was leaving Amanda gave out traditional red money envelopes (with 10p inside) for good fortune, a fortune cookie and a card dial for finding out what animal year you are born in.

It was a very happy Woodcraft Chinese New Year.

Session Lead: Amanda
Leaders: Lucy, Kate, Alison, Catrin
Helpers: Claire, Marie, Tei

*UPDATE*

The Dragon Rides Again: Wolvercote Primary School borrowed the dragon for their Year 2 Key Stage 1 assembly. Kira, Bethan and others got to be dragon people one more time.

Snow globe 2: Global Warming (20th January 2014)

We ran about outside before coming in to play Octopus. Seren won the first round and Zena was the only fish to make it through on the second.

Not quite all run out, we sat down and thought about melting ice caps - recapping on last week. Then we talked about crazy weather (melting ice, flooding, freezing...) and how it affects people as well as animals. The Elfins told each other about their own experience of extreme weather and about The Maldives as one dramatic example of the impact of climate change.

Then we split into four teams (each with a dice and a bowl of ice cubes) to play the Icecube Game. Each player had to throw the dice and then try to melt an ice cube:

1 - Hold for 10 seconds
2 - Blow on it for 10 seconds
3 - Stand on it for 10 seconds
4 - Lick it 10 times!
5 - Rub it between your hands for 10 seconds
6 - Sprinkle salt on it

Salt and rubbing worked best - though standing on it was most fun.

One final challenge - each Elfin put a cube in their mouth to see who could melt it first without crunching! Nick won. We got together in the circle to talk about the results.

Then it was time to finish off the snowglobes. Unfortunately a couple of the clay penguins and polar bears had not come through the baking process well :( and will need more work. However, most of them looked great. We added water, glycerin and glitter to the jars and stuck the lids on with epoxy resin with the clay figures attached. Tomorrow evening, we'll find out if we really have snowfall when the globes are turned upside down. Fingers crossed.

Ended with a spirited rendition of the Woodcraft Song.

Ruby's snowglobe

Session Leads: Alison, Catrin
Leaders: Lucy
Helper: Marie

*UPDATE*

Marie's snowglobe

It's a bit difficult to show them 'in action' but here are a few…

The epoxy resin made some watertight - but not others…

Will now try some bathroom sealant to make doubly sure...

Emily's snowglobe

Snow Globes 1: Global Warming (13th January 2013)

Had fun in the playground then came in and played the Shrinking Icecaps game. All the Elfins were polar bears living on large ice floes made out of sheets of newspaper. When the music began the polar bears had to jump from ice floe to ice floe. When it stopped they all had to get onto one - but each time the music stopped a sheet of newspaper was removed! All the bears had to help each other stay on the dwindling sheets of ice...

Apart from the shrinking ice caps the main complication was that Catrin had forgotten to provide music - so instead had to sing The Wild Rover at the top of her voice for accompaniment!

In the circle we ate Iced Gems and talked about polar bears and penguins and their habitats. We talked about what a climate was and the idea of climate change. We used a globe to point out the North and South Poles and learnt the difference between the Arctic and Antarctic.

Each Elfin had brought a jam jar to make a snow globe. 

We made black and white models of penguins and polar bears out of clay just small enough to fit inside the different jars. 

Snow creatures by Kira, Zena, Seren and Vidar

Everyone's polar creations

Catrin took them home to bake ready to finish off next week.

We sang the Woodcraft Folk Song - twice! 


Session Lead: Catrin
Leaders: Alison, Kate, Amanda, Lucy
Helper: Tei, Marie

Making Birdfood (January 6th 2014)

Everyone played in the playground then came in and played Ducks and Chicks. We split into groups of 4-6. In each group 1 Elfin was the fox and 1 was the parent bird. All the others were chicks. The chicks had to line up behind the parent. The fox had to try to touch one of the chicks and the parent had to try and block the fox by moving up and down the line. The chicks must not move. Once the fox had touched a chick, the fox became a chick, the parent became the fox and another Elfin (previously a chick) became the parent!

In the circle we all said the name of a bird that we knew and talked about why birds need extra food in the winter while eating garibaldi biscuits and grapes (us that is - not the birds).

We split into 4 groups and Kate explained how to mix food together for the birds in our washing up bowls. We cut up lard and combined it with grains, rolled oats and grated cheese to make a sticky mess! Some people enjoyed squashing it through their fingers. Others, especially the vegetarians, were a lot more hands off...

Then everyone made the bird feeders either by tying string through the bottom of a plastic cup and filling the cup with the lard mixture or by tying string around a fir cone and patting mixture on the cone to form (in some cases enormous) balls. Nick's was practically the size of a house brick and required two strings to support it!

We sang The Woodcraft Song and Elfins took their bird-feeders home to refrigerate overnight.

Gone overnight!

Session Lead: Kate
Leaders: Amanda, Lucy, Catrin, Alison
Helper: Marie, Tei





*UPDATE*

The birds quickly picked them clean...

End of year Merry Moot (16th December 2013)

We invited parents to join us for the Merry Moot and spent the first part of the session practicing our acts.

Sophie, Lili, Catherine, Stephanie and Marie joined the audience and we began:

Catrin did Jabberwocky, Ruby played recorder, Connie played violin, Nick, Jago, Vidar and Stan did a clown act, Connie and Millie read a story, Bethan read a poem, Tei did a card trick with Seren assisting, Nick and Stan did football skills, Nick, Jago, Vidar, Stan and Arthur did the clown act again, Seren kicked off a game of charades and all joined in.

Amanda and Stephanie spent a lot of the party in the kitchen making hot chocolate topped with mini marshmallows. It went down a storm.

All the Elfins picked a tiny wooden Christmas tree decoration from a lucky dip bag. Then we sang We Wish You A Merry Christmas and the Woodcraft Folk Song before heading home for the holidays.



Session Lead: Alison
Leaders: Catrin, Lucy, Kate, Amanda
Helpers: Tei, Sophie, Marie, Lilli, Catherine, Stephanie

St Nicholas (9th December 2013)

Some people started by playing outside in the playground while others did free drawing inside.

Once everyone was inside we began our circle with the Rabbit Fingers Game.

Then we drew and coloured in pictures of St Nicholas and decorated ginger bread 'lebkuchen' figures with icing to look like Santa Claus (thank you to Lucy for the baking!)

We turned the lights off and sat in our circle around candles with our decorated biscuits and a mysterious basket covered by a tea towel. We talked about St Nicholas who's celebrated across Europe on 6th December (especially in German-speaking countries). Lucy told us about the tradition of shoes containing gifts outside the door that led to the stockings we know (and love) in Britain today and we learnt about the real Saint Nicholas, who lived in Myra in Turkey and who helped vulnerable and homeless children.

We learned about more traditions in other countries:

• Lucy told us that in Switzerland St Nicholas travels with two black faced chimney sweeps called Schmutzlis who carry whips to punish children who have been bad.
• Christine told us about the Austrian tradition where St Nicholas is accompanied by an angel and a krampus - a frightening figure, dressed in fur, with horns, chains and a whip.
• Vidar talked about the Swedish yule log 
• Catrin described the Catalan Caga Tio (Uncle) - a wooden log who 'poos' presents while you are beating a tree with sticks!

Then we uncovered the basket to reveal tangerines, swiss chocolates and "Grittibenz" (a sort of brioche in the shape of a Michelin man) (thank you again to Lucy for all the baking - and the chocolates!)

We went around the circle taking a grittibenz, chocolate and tangerine each and telling each other all about our different Christmases:

• some of us travelled to our grandparents' houses
• some of us stayed at home
• some of us visited friends or had friends to visit
• some of us celebrated on Christmas Eve 
• some on Boxing Day
• some moved Christmas to suit our friends and family
• and some of us celebrated the Winter Solstice instead 

We linked hands and sang the Woodcraft Folk Song


Session Lead: Lucy
Leaders: Catrin, Kate, Alison
Helper: Christine, Marie, Tei

Animal masks and Stories (2nd December 2013)

Bulb planting and Dampers (25th November 2013)

John from Wolvercote Tree Group met us at the fire-pit with 300 bluebell and snowdrop bulbs! He outlined two large areas to sow with bulbs and showed us all how to do it. The Elfins set to with trowels, forks, sticks, dibbers and their bare hands...

When all the bulbs were sown everyone washed their hands and started rolling out their dampers - adding chocolate chips to some and twisting them onto bamboo sticks.

Meanwhile Lucy had  set the fire and Tei had lit it. We cooked the dampers over the fire - but it took significantly longer than the 7 minutes in the recipe and everyone was pretty hungry when they were done... Maybe we'll roll them thinner next time - or use water instead of milk? More practice needed!

While eating around the fire we had a really good chat about which sessions everyone had liked best and what we would all like to do next term. Almost all the sessions got a mention and the overall message seemed to be that everyone wanted variety but the big winners were games, being outside, anything to do with cooking and eating and making things.

We sang Campfire's Burning and the Woodcraft Folk Song before going home.


Session Leads: Lucy
Leaders: Amanda, Alison, Kate, Catrin
Helpers: John, Marie, Tei, John

Decorating Woodcraft Bags (18th November 2013)

Quite a lot of Elfins and leaders went down with the lurgy and missed this session including Catrin who was supposed to be leading it!

Everyone else met in the hall, grabbed a green cotton drawstring bag and painted it with Woodcraft themed pictures using fabric paints. Unfortunately we painted small bits of a few people's trousers too...

We learned a Very Important Lesson - even if fabric paint says it takes 72 hours to fix on the packet - it probably will just dye everyone's clothes immediately. Have decided to invest in overalls....Thanks to all for being understanding.

Bags looked great. Trousers not so much... Spare bags and paints went around to those who missed the session afterwards.


Session Lead: Catrin (off sick)
Leaders: Lucy, Alison, Kate
Helpers: Marie

Lantern Walk/Meet up with Woodstock (11th November 2013)

We met outside The Plough in Upper Wolvercote and added wire carrying handles to the jam jar lanterns we'd decorated last week. We all lit candles in our lanterns and walked in a fairly freeform wobbly procession to the green.


It was pitch dark by the time we'd made it to our fire-pit on the far side; so we hung our lanterns in the trees and left a trail of lanterns from the road to the fire-pit to guide the Woodstock Elfins when they arrived.

When they got there we all played I Am the One and Only then sat around the fire-pit and sang Campfire's Burning, Cowboy, Bumble Bee and Dorcas and finished with the Woodcraft Song. Luckily Woodstock brought songbooks (read by torchlight) and a guitar. (Note to self: must find a leader who can play an instrument - any instrument - or force Elfins to learn...)

All said goodbye and North Oxford Elfins headed home leaving Woodstock to enjoy the fire-pit.


Session Lead: Alison
Leaders: Lucy, Amanda, Kate, Catrin, Barry, Ian, Belinda
Helpers: Tei, Marie And all the Woodstock Elfins

*UPDATE*

It turns out we have got a Leader who plays an instrument! Kate plays guitar, piano and ukulele. Some of the Elfins do too - we'd just never asked...

Jam Jar Lanterns (4th November 2013)

We started by playing outside in the playground. Then in the hall we made a square-ish circle and ate bat chocolate chip shortbread cookies while telling everyone our news from half term.

We chose a jam jar each and painted our designs using glass paint - with lots of concentration and lovely results. Anyone who had finished their lantern painting joined in a huge group drawing on a roll of old lining paper - which they enjoyed just as much!

Amanda took the jars home to be baked so we can finish them off next week for the lantern walk.

We played The Forest Game and sang a final raucous version of the Woodcraft Song.


Session Lead: Amanda
Leaders: Catrin, Lucy, Alison, Kate
Helpers: Tei, Sophie, Marie

Where in the World? Games (21st October 2013)

After a bit of a drama when we couldn't get the key to get into the hall (everyone happy in the playground!)...we started with a circle and passed a roll of gaffer tape from arm to arm while shaking hands and saying 'hallo'.

Then reminded ourselves of the Woodcraft Rules:

1. Be Kind
2. Listen when others are speaking
3. Act safely around the fire
4. Do as you are asked
5. Have Fun!

Then we all wrote our names on a paper boat and sailed it across Kate's brilliant 'map of the world' shower curtain by holding hands and rowing - half of us shouting 'Heave' and half shouting 'Ho'.

AFRICA 
We landed on Africa first and played 'Nyama' (meat) a game from countries in East Africa. All stand in a circle around 1 person. They shout out the names of animals. At each name everyone jumps up and claps. If the meat can be eaten by humans they jump, clap and shout Nyama!
We sat in our circle and ate chocolate (made from Fairtrade African cocoa beans).

ASIA
Next we sailed our boat to Asia and played Banana Pass - a relay game in teams with all team players lying head to foot. The first player has to pass a banana over their heads to the player behind using only their feet. The last player has to eat the banana.
We ate rice cookies from Japan in our circle.

AMERICA
Then on again - we sailed our boat to America and played Skateboard Racing in two teams - each player in the team has to lie on their stomach on a skateboard and make their way to the next team member on the opposite side of the room using only their hands. The team to get all their players across first wins.

EUROPE
Lastly we went to Europe and played The Forest Game from Denmark. Pairs of players hold hands to make arches (the trees) all the other players except one are squirrels - the remaining player is the fox. There should be less trees than squirrels.   One squirrel can be safe sitting under a tree (the arch). If another squirrel comes and taps them on the shoulder they must leave their tree. If the fox catches them, they become a fox too. As squirrels become foxes the number of trees is reduced!

We ran out of time and sang the Woodcraft Song before demolishing doughnuts (America) and liquorice (Europe).


Session Lead: Kate
Leaders: Catrin, Lucy
Helpers: Marie, Lilli, Tei

Where in the World? People and Places (14th October 2013)

We played Capture the Flag outside with Tei and Amanda leading. Then inside we split into 4 groups and took it in turns to do 2 activities thinking about people and places:

WHERE ON EARTH HAVE WE BEEN?
- Two groups started with a giant map on the floor. They made little stick people of themselves with card and cocktail sticks and stood them up with blutack on the map to mark the countries they had visited and the countries that friends or family came from. Europe was so full of cardboard cutouts and cocktail sticks you could hardly see any countries! There were far fewer in other parts of the world - some in China - a few in North and South America - one or two in Africa.

DESERT ISLAND PICKS 
- The other two groups tried to agree the 5 things they would need to take if they went to a desert island. There were lots of good discussions. Some people felt you had to take only practical things including food and water. Some people felt the natural environment would give you many practical things like food, water and shelter. Other people thought they needed to take something personal - like a favourite toy - and that emotional things were just as important as practical things.

We swapped over the two groups so everyone had a go - but we were pushed for time. In fact, we could have just done one of the activities because the Elfins were happy to keep talking - though variety is nice!

In our circle we ate doughnuts and talked about it all before singing the Woodcraft Song.


Session Lead: Amanda
Leaders: Alison, Lucy, Kate, Catrin
Helpers: Marie, Stephanie, Tei

Where in the World? Food (7th October 2013)

We all got together outside again (making the most of the gentle autumn weather) and began with The Bean Game led by Tei and Arthur. In this game lots of different beans have associated shapes and jumps which the Elfins did when Arthur called out 'baked bean', 'coffee bean', 'runner bean', 'string bean' and, of course, 'human bean'!

We sat at the log circle and Seren, Stan, Arthur and Zena unfurled the 'Elfins Rules Scroll'. We talked about the 5 golden rules:

1. Be Kind
2. Listen when others are speaking
3. Act safely near the fire
4. Do as you are asked
5. Have Fun!

We took a vote and pretty unanimously accepted them as our rules.

Instead of news we went around the circle naming our favourite food and the country it comes from: Italy - pasta, pizza, parmesan; France, camembert; Japan - sushi; UK - sausages (but originally Germany) and so on. There was lots of support for Italian food!

Then we played a food tasting relay game: there were 4 teams - the first player had to run forward - put on a blindfold (swimming goggles covered in gaffer tape) - take one of 6 foods from a bag and taste it - then run back and whisper to player 2 what they thought the food was and what country it was from. Player no. 2 whispered the food and country on through the team until it got to the last player who had to run back to the food bag and mark the food on a map of the world before putting on the blindfold themselves (phew...complicated but it worked really well). Food tasted: avocado, croissant, vegetable spring roll, papadum, banana, tortilla chips.

We finished up the remaining food at the fire-pit and talked about where these foods come from. Catrin got croissant wrong! Lucy explained that it actually comes from Austria - Vienna to be precise - not France...

We ended by playing Bat and Moth and singing the Woodcraft Folk song.


Session Lead: Catrin
Leaders: Lucy, Alison, Kate
Helper: Tei

Elfin Camp (28th/29th September 2013)

This was North Oxford's first Elfin Camp. We took 9 up to Youlbury Scout Camp for the weekend and had a fantastic time with Elfins from all over the Oxford District.

After we had pitched our tents all the groups were mixed up for camp duties and to get to know each other. They started in their new teams (Willow, Ash, Beech and so on) by making friendship bracelets. Then throughout the weekend everyone chipped in in traditional Woodies' fashion with cooking, washing up and litter picking. 

The weekend was packed with things to do: whittling, campfire construction, shelter building, poncho making, dampers baking, adventure playground climbing, slack-rope walking and more. Not to mention the Merry Moot and singing around the (huge and fabulous) birds-nest campfire until late. North Oxford Elfins did their bit with ukulele, card tricks, singing and some dramatic tales.

The snoring person who kept some people awake on Saturday night shall remain nameless...

(See Iffley Fields blogpost for some great photos)

Autumn Walk with Blackberries and Woodies Mess (23rd September 2013)

We met outside (still lucky with the weather) and played Duck, Duck, Goose (with inventive new words each round). Continuing our theme of speedy news we did a circle with one word news!

Then we split into 4 groups and each went looking for 15 autumn trees and bushes (with picture recognition sheets) and found alder, elder, bramble, ash, field maple, sycamore, oak, silver birch, holly, ivy, blackthorn, hawthorn, horse chestnut and dog rose - everything we were looking for except beech!

Along the way we collected blackberries and when we got back washed the blackberries (and our hands) and made Woodies Mess (blackberries, meringue and cream) to eat at the log circle.

We had a short talk about some less than Woodies behaviour and decided we'd talk in another session about what rules we should have before ending with a pretty good rendition of the Woodcraft Folk Song.


Session Lead: Catrin
Leaders: Amanda, Lucy, Alison, Kate
Helper: Jan, Tei

Fire-pit Inauguration (16th September 2013)

We met outside again and played the very scary Blob Tag. In a standing circle we did news as a race against time.

All gathered to plan around the fire-pit

Then we split into groups and all groups took it in turns to build the fire, gather nettles (wearing gloves) and put marshmallows on sticks.

Nettle and mint tea and marshmallows on the go

We boiled nettle and mint tea on the fire, toasted marshmallows and shared with our guests: Mike Buck and John came from the Wolvercote Commoners and Wolvercote Tree Group. Some parents joined us too and Hilary from Woodcraft District came with her guitar.

Hilary leading the singing

We sang Campfires Burning, Land of the Silver Birch, The Cow Kicked Nellie, Woodcraft Folk are We and ended linking hands with the Woodcraft Folk Song.

The fire-pit is well and truly inaugurated.


Session Lead: Alison
Leaders: Catrin, Lucy, Kate, Hilary
Helper: Tei, Jan, Mike, John

Cutting Out the Fire-pit (Saturday 14th September 2013)

The Wolvercote Commoners kindly dedicated their monthly workday to cutting out the fire-pit and building the log circle around it.

The fire-pit is now edged with moss-covered stones donated by Mike Buck (Chair of the Commoners' Committee) from his garden. Mike, Maddie and Simon from the Commoners' Committee did most of the work with Lucy (Commoners and Woodcraft) and Nick and Stan (Elfins). Catrin (Woodcraft) did a bit of log carrying at the end.

Fire-pit complete

Mike came back the following day to secure the logs in the circle with stakes.

It is a fantastic piece of work and leaves a great resource for the whole community.

Saplings will be planted all around the area so that in years to come the fire-pit will be in the middle of a clearing in a copse at the north end of the green..

Wildling Sticks - Marking Out the Fire-pit (9th September 2013)

We met for the first session of the Autumn. Tei led everyone in a new game - Zip, Zap, Boing - we really had to concentrate as the sounds and actions bounced around the circle. Alison followed up with the Robot Game.

In our news circle we told each other about what we had done in the holidays. We were joined by John from the Wolvercote Tree Group and Mike from the Wolvercote Commoners' Committee who have kindly allowed us to build a fire-pit for the use of the whole community. John showed us a diagram of the tree planting plan for the green and helped us to find a site for the fire-pit.

Then we all went off and found sticks.

Hazel split with a bill hook

The tallest wildlings

Mike brought hazel sticks and bill hooks and showed us how hazel splits easily along its length so you can trap things like feathers in the cleft.  He explained that's how arrows were feathered.



Using the same technique and lots of wrapping around with wool we made wildling sticks with leaves, grass and feathers that we collected and many coloured wools. We used the sticks to mark out the fire-pit ready for turf-cutting at the weekend.

Wildling Sticks marking out the fire-pit on Goose Green 

Mike joined us to sing the Woodcraft Folk Song at the end of a good day.


Session Lead: Lucy
Leaders: Catrin, Kate, Amanda, Alison
Helper: Jan, Tei, Mike, John

Summer Barbecue (15th July 2013)

We invited all the parents and carers to join us for our last session on a lovely sunny afternoon. Before they arrived some of the Elfins lit the barbecues and everyone made haloumi kebabs and stuffed bananas with chocolate (Rosa and Tom had apple and chocolate instead).

We cooked sausages and haloumi kebabs and baked the chocolate bananas and apples. Lots of parents came - Hamish, Gemma, Lilli, Nick, Jan, Helen, Abi, Sophie and Jack to name but a few and there were other smaller people too. We all picnicked on the grass - ate well - and washed it all down with lashings of ginger beer.

Then - to the surprise of some - everyone joined in the games and singing. We played Octopus and Bat and Moth and sang I Like The Mountains (as a round), The One and Only and the Woodcraft Song.


Session Lead: Lucy, Catrin
Leaders: Amanda, Kate, Alison,
Helper: Tei

Silly Sports Day (8th July 2013)

We met up outside - split into four teams - and played some of the very silliest games Kate could think of:

• Crossing the Swamp (all the team had to get across on a rug with only a few extras to help them - and no stepping in the swamp)
• Monster Relay (on stilts - in monster masks - to rescue a variety of Martha's toys)
• Water Race (each team must fill the distant bucket using only a small teacup)
• Blind Man’s Brick Box (blindfolded each team member must sort out the coloured blocks - with only their shouting team mates to help)
• Feeding Time (how do you eat marshmallows with a fork attached to a beanpole - when you can only hold the wrong end of the pole?)
• 5-a-side football
• Three-legged race

We ended with rousing versions of the The One and Only and the Woodcraft Song.


Session Lead: Kate
Leaders: Catrin, Lucy, Amanda, Alison
Helper: Tei

Boat Making (1st July 2013)

We met by the Mill Stream in Lower Wolvercote where everyone made junk boats and made and decorated origami boats. We talked about what things we had enjoyed doing at Woodcraft Folk and what things we wanted to do and put these ideas in words and pictures onto the sails of our boats.

Then we sailed them down the river to see which ones were best.

Some of the boats got waterlogged quickly and others lasted longer (thicker card might have been better). Some of the Elfins abandoned their boats to their fate and went into the water for a paddle instead. It was a lovely afternoon and a great way to make use of our closeness to Wolvercote's waterways.

We ended as usual with the Woodcraft Song.


Session lead: Kate, Amanda
Leaders: Alison, Lucy
Helper: Tei

Flower Crown Walk (24th June)

We met on the green and then went on a long, slow walk down the footpath and back along the canal.

We took cardboard crowns covered in double-sided tape with us and and along the way gathered  leaves, twigs, flowers, petals and other stranger objects (including a tin can to decorate Finn's!) to stick on to the crowns. The challenge was to find as many colours as possible and we were amazed by how many we found.

Seren's crown

We got back tired and just in time to sing the Woodcraft Song.

Session Lead: Alison
Leaders: Catrin, Amanda, Lucy, Kate
Helper: Tei

Banner Making (17th June 2013)

We met at the playground and played on the equipment. Then we all sat down on the green alongside and made two banners for our group out of old sheets.

We painted freeform patterns with fabric paint on a giant yellow Elfins Banner and cut out letters from scraps of fabric to make a dark green 'North Oxford Woodcraft Folk' banner complete with a lovely yellow, red and green logo stitched by Lucy.

We ended with games in the playground and the Woodcraft Song.


Session Lead: Catrin, Lucy
Leaders: Kate, Alison
Helper: Tei


*UPDATE*
The following weekend North Oxford banners had their first outing while we were bubble making at Wolvercote and Wytham Midsummer Festival's Fun on the Green.

Tie-dye T-shirts (10th June 2013)

We met up in brilliant sunshine to make Woodcraft Folk T-shirts.

Everyone mixed green dye and salt in buckets with sticks. Then we sat on the grass and tied our T-shirts up with rubber bands and dyed them! Lucy took them home to wash them.

We played games and ended with our Woodcraft Song.

Seren, Tei and Catrin's Designs

Session Lead: Lucy, Catrin
Leaders: Kate, Amanda, Alison
Helper: Tei

Bubble Making (3rd June 2013)

We met outside on another sunny day and the Elfins mixed glycerin and washing up liquid to make bubble mixture and poured it into our paddling pools.

We used a variety of tools to make bubbles: tennis racquets, kitchen utensils, pipe cleaners, hangers and hula hoops.

The last of these meant Elfins standing in the middle of the pool while the others tried to lift the hula hoop with a column of bubble attached up and over their heads - several times they very nearly made it!

We played The Colour Game - one person stands in the middle - the others in a wide circle. The circle players can only advance towards the centre person when he/she shouts out a colour - and if they are wearing it...

We ended by linking hands and singing the Woodcraft Song.


Session Lead: Kate, Alison
Leaders: Lucy, Amanda, Catrin
Helper: Tei

Fantasy Countries (20th May 2013)

We met outside and Sue Dowe from West Oxford Elfins came along to help.

We split into four groups and made countries on the grass out of tarpaulin, boxes and rope.

The Elfins considered who might live in each country and what they might do. They also decided on each land's natural environment and drew up its laws. Then we all travelled round visiting each others countries and learning about them.

We played Bat and Moth - everyone stood in a circle with one person blindfolded in the middle (the Bat). One other person (the Moth) had to try not to be caught by the Bat but every time the Bat said 'Bat' the Moth had to answer 'Moth'. Some people were very good at catching moths by sound alone! We ended by singing the Woodcraft Song.

Session Lead: Amanda, Alison
Leaders: Catrin, Lucy, Kate
Helpers: Sue, Martha, Tei

Making Fire with Bananas and Chocolate (May 13th 2013)

We met on the green which was to become our spiritual home. For today's activity we needed a fire so we all had a go at lighting one in Lucy's brazier with cotton wool and flint. Then - with rather more success - tried with matches!

We made bananas filled with chocolate and put them on the fire to bake. While they were cooking we took it in turns to go on a bug hunt.

Finally, we ate the (delicious) bananas and chocolate and ended by singing the Woodcraft Song around the fire.

Session Lead: Lucy
Leaders: Amanda, Kate, Alison, Catrin
Helper: Tei

The First Ever North Oxford Woodies (6th May 2013)

We met for the very first time, none of us really sure what to expect. So we played Getting to Know You Games:

• Octopus
• Getting into birthdate order (while standing on chairs!)
• Deadly Infection
• The Name Game (while throwing a ball around the circle)
• Sheep, Pig, Cow 

And learnt the Woodcraft Folk Song:

Link your hands together,

A circle we'll make.

This bond of our friendship

No power can break.

Let's all sing together,

In one mighty throng.

Should any be weary ,

We'll help them along.

Should any be weary, 

We'll help them along.

And North Oxford Woodcraft Folk had arrived!



Leaders: Alison, Amanda, Kate, Lucy, Catrin
Helper: Tei