Forest School Year 4 Newsletter Week 5

Year 4
Native American’s

Native Americans used ‘talking
sticks’ to indicate who should
be listened to. Children were
taught to actively listen to
the person holding the stick,
they would look at the person
talking and be still.
Dr Collins used loppers to cut
short Hazel sticks for
everyone. Sam remembered
that Hazel used to be thought
of as ‘the tree of knowledge’
We compared freshly cut wood
or ‘green wood’ to wood that
had been cut last year and
had dried. The green wood
was colder than the dry wood,
probably because the ‘green
wood’ had more water in it.

Back at the firecircle
we used
potato peelers to
whittle the Hazel
sticks, removing
some of the bark.
The glove
protected our
hand. Never wear
a glove on your
whittling hand, so
that you have a
firmer grip on the
peeler.
Tell-tale signs of whittling

Can you see
where Victor
stored his
feather?
After whittling
we decorated
the sticks with
wool and a
feather to finish
the ‘talking
stick’.

If you see us holding a
‘talking stick’ it means
we have something
important to ’say'.

We toasted marshmallows and played the screaming game.
As the children relaxed
themselves more they
were able to control
their bodies and run
much father on one
scream. Some of the
children started to
protect their breathing
by walking back to the
start line.

As time was a little short we
added a feature to the dens.
Here the two sticks tied at
one end were transformed
into loppers!
This held the
coats…
And this held
the weapons.
Every den should have a
pond to fish in.

When I asked what these were I was
told that they were spare sticks!

Its been great getting to
know this tribe!

Thank you to Mrs Scanlon, Miss Leader
and Mrs Jones and for all their help.