Fire pit area designs

This week we thought in detail about the design of the fire pit area in the front playground - where things would go and what materials we need. If we have a fire and we want to use the Kelly Kettle at the same time where does it go?

 Next we need to find out about what materials are available - what can we use to build it and some seating. We need some shelter around it too.

How big should it be? What size? How much stone or sand and chips do we need?

Do we need logs or planks for benches to sit on?

Finding a place for a fire

Today it was too wet to fire up the Kelly Kettle so we thought about where a good place for having a fire would be in the school grounds. Mrs Miller agreed that we could have a corner of the front playground. The playground group are focussing on the back playground so we can go ahead with our plans.

What kind of fire area should we have? What materials do we need? Do we need help to make it?

Do we need some more materials to build shelter aroung the fire pit? Pallettes? Fencing stabs? Could we reuse Christmas trees in the structure?

What have we got? What do we need?

This week we made some lists of equipment we have for outdoor learning. We split up into two groups and made lists of what we could find and some suggestions for what we might need. We also asked Mr Scott to bring one of the big guide tents to our space so that we would remember it (there are two tents but they are quite big so one in our space is enough).

We definitely need more Paracord - our rope is great but heavy and difficult to work with.
We could make up our own fire making kits if we get some tins and some fire steels and metal colanders.

It would be good to have a special place to use the Kelly Kettle and practice bushcraft in the front playground.

We wondered about having an 'Open Tent Day' when the weather gets better. We could put the tent up in the front playground in the  morning and invite every class could be to visit the tent through the day.

Some of the things we would like to have are wheeled carts to carry our equipment up to Muddisdale and across to the Peedie Sea.

Next week we will use the Kelly Kettle and think about the best place for doing that in the school grounds.

Muddisdale

Today the Mission Explore Group went to Muddisdale to have a think about activities all classesd at Glaitness could do there. Three of us had never been there before. 

There has been a lot of rain recently and some of the path is washed away. It has been eroded  by all the rain water draining off Wideford Hill. The ditch was very full of muddy, fast running water.

We had a good look in some of the areas off the path too to think of things we could do in different places.

It was a long walk for some of us. 

We worked out it was about 1.5 miles all the way round and to and from school.

Its important to always have wellies for our trips. 

It makes puddles fun rather than something we have to avoid.

Back at school we just had enough time to write some of our ideas down. They will be laminated and put on the activity tree for everyone to browse and think about.

The ideas for activities at the Peedie Sea are blue and the ideas for activities at Muddisdale are green.

Here is our list. If you think you can add more please write them in the comments below. 

bird watching

tree identification

den building

path repair

stick shelter making

stick sculptures

measuring

hide and seek

stick arrow trails 

minibeast hunt

leaf matching

picnic

hot chocolate and kelly kettle

dough twists

exercise circuits

treasure hunt - aniumal cards

troll hunt

guided talks

tenting

insect traps

photography

drawing and painting

bridge building

racing model boats/ rafts

relaxation/meditation

Pick Up Three Pieces

storytelling

The Peedie Sea

Today the group went to The Peedie Sea to look at outdoor areas we could use and have a discussion about how we could use them. There is already a good map of the paths we can use to show where we can go and safe boundaries. We did think of some ideas for using the Peedie Sea itself but these would have to be carefully organised and we would need buoyancy aids if we were going to go near the edge to float model boats or rafts. 

The trees there are getting quite big now - some as big or bigger than us so there are lots of good activities we could do in amongst them in suitable weather. 

We do need some guidelines and rules for how to act around the areas where there are other people and dogs and traffic, and some advice for suitable kit and clothing. We need to keep thinking about 'Leave No Trace' rule and keep the PU3P message going. There are some new bins that need stickers.

Here is a short list of some of the things we thought we could use the area for:

birdwatching

tree planting

tree measuring

tree indentification

mini beast hunt

walking

jogging

measuring distance

cycling

scootering

racing models

balance bikes

skateboarding

cycling proficiency

tag

rounders races 

treasure hunt

geo-caching

sculptures in the trees

picnic

bushcraft

woodcraft

hide and seek

outdoor performances

hanging interesting facts in the trees

model creatures in the trees

canoeing

raft building

model boats and rafts

kite flying

shelter building

den building

tenting...

PHEW!

Back in school we had a quick look at the front playground and had a few ideas about where we could practice putting up the big guide tent - we need a tent 'team' who know how to do this and can help other groups with it. We also thought we need a fire pit area for the Kelly Kettle. We will speak to the playground group about this too. 

Mission Explore : The Playground

"You have to imagine that there are no buildings, no fences, no water or shelter."

• How would you survive? 
• What would you do? 
• What games would you play? 
• Where would you make a fire? 
• What would you sit on?

Today we explored the back platground as an area for practising outdoor learning skills which we can take further away from school, like to The Peedie Sea, Muddisdale and Scapa. Even in this small space we thought of a few things we could do:

Early years - we are all going on a bear hunt....

Everyone - traversing the trees at the top of the muddy slippery bank

We realised there are games we play already which could be shared and become popular with everyone - perhaps we should make a map? Look out for that on our noticeboard.

We ran out of time for making hot chocolate with the kelly kettle but we will have time next week as we start at 2pm and we are going to check out the front playground and the Peedie Sea for potential. 

A high priority is to make an equipment list and a desirable kit list for children. Perhaps we should have some spare kit - waterproofs and wellies?

Meantime we are going to gather the logs to a good place for the kelly kettle.

Where can we go? What have we got? What can we do?

At our first meeting we gor to know each other a little and talked about where we can go to learn outside. We worked out there are a few places we can use:

• the school playground
• The Peedie Sea
• Muddisdale
• Wideford Hill
• Scapa

Some of these places are too far away for the youngest children in the school to walk to so some are more suitable for P4 - 7. Next week we will start thinking about an equipment list and explore the school grounds and think about what we can do within them,