Campfire and Popcorn (2104-11-03)

In preparation for the Campfire we collected twigs from the Warneford Meadow.

A few of us started the campfire early to get it ready for cooking whilst the rest of us held our News Circle: Isis went to her Grandma's house; Daniel went to Keyhaven and saw a tree house; Freya had her birthday on Friday and party on Saturday; Izzy went to Freya's party; Emily drove to Freya's party; Natty and Imogen stroked a crocodile at the crocodile park; Polly went to her Grandma's birthday party where there were two cakes; Morrigan went to France to see her Grandma and went to a zip wire park; Oliver is in the Ice Hockey team and is practicing on Sunday and Thursday; John's brother, dad and granddad have had their birthdays this week and he saw his two month old cousin; Theo has lost a tooth; Jay was eight yesterday and got an ant hexbug as a present; Ranan also drove to Lena's party; Rayan made loom bands at a friends house yesterday; Yasmine got a crystal at the museum; Ayoub has had an eye test, been to the dentist and the museum; Rafiq went to Kique's house for a sleep-over and hurt his lip on the way to the session; Joe went to his great uncle Aubrey's house in Norfolk; Ivo found a stud popper in his pocket; Tim bought a google watch for his birthday and picked wild mushrooms in the park this morning.

We explained the rules for lighted sparklers and what to do if there was an accident and then went outside to light them.

We cooked popcorn using two methods: mostly in a wok with a lid, in a little sunflower oil, but also in a clever wire cage.

We went back inside, as it was quite cold, and sang from some song sheets Emily had printed out.

We sang We are the Woodcraft Folk, Dorcas, The Worm Song, Blue Lake and Rocky Shore and Mornington Ride and a couple of rounds.

We were in fine voice for our Closing Circle.

Leaders: Emily, Rana, Debbie, Tim
Helpers: Yasmine, Chimena
Elfins: 21
Woodchips: 1

Story Telling with Jackie Singer (2014-10-20)

We played Octopus and Dead Ants whilst people arrived.

We held our News Circle: Ayoub has a new bike; Yasmine's mum has a new car; Dylan is ten in a week; Joe is going to Norfolk; Ivo was hit by a wooden brick at school; Raffa introduced himself; Theo has made up a new language; John walked with Theo and others from Thornhill; Jackie brought us a story; Jay is going to Hill End on the 19th of November; Luke found a snail and named it Pale Snail; Chimena saw her favourite birds, long tailed tits, in her garden; Emily (and Flo) walked through Warneford Meadow and saw a jay, not a 'big chaffinch'; Rayan saw a dead bird that had probably been killed by a cat; Oliver played ice hockey yesterday; Rana is very tired; Natty vaporised his teacher; Polly's neighbour had a party; Morrigan is going to France; Daniel went to Florence Park and played tennis; Isis made a witches mask; Lena is eight in a week and four days; Matilda hurt her shin; Tim dug a hibernation hole in the greenhouse for his tortoise.

Jackie started the session by getting the group to synchronise, clapping and calling in time and then varying the volume.

Jackie told the whole story of Anansi and the Wedding Invitation, acting it out as she told it.

A couple were planning their wedding, but decided not to invite Anansi as he and his children ate too much.

In order to prepare the food the bride's family had to cook rice and so needed water from the river. The youngest daughter was sent to fetch water but when she dipped her calabash in the water music started to play and she could not help but dance. She danced until she could no longer stand and lay down. The next daughter was sent but the same thing happened. The big aunt went to see what had happened, but the magic music started to play when she filled the calabash and she too could not stop herself from dancing.

When the bride groom arrived there was no food ready, so everyone went to the river, where they found those who had already gone and they too started to dance.

The bridegroom realised what was going on and shouted out "Anansi show yourself!", Anansi did, saying that as he was not to be invited to the party then he had brought the party to him. Everyone apologised to Ananasi and went back to cook the wedding breakfast.

Jackie then had us divide into groups to play the daughters, Anansi, the River and the wedding guests.

Jackie playing the big aunt.

The spider musicians.

Return to the cooking fire.

We held our Closing Circle.

Leaders: Emily, Rana, Tim
Helpers: Jackie, Raffa
Elfins: 20
Woodchips: 2

Autumn Collages (2014-10-13)

We played a game of Octopus as people arrived.

We held our News Circle: Isis had a hurt finger; Matilda, still a little pale from Chicken Pox, had found a crystal; Lena had done colouring in at school; Izzy is preparing for her Piano Prep Test; Polly had visited with her grand parents; Morrigan had had tube pasta in tomato sauce, and liked it; Jay went to Dance on Saturday; Milly thought the clocks had changed so was late for school; John went to Dan's birthday party; Imo bumped her knee; Debbie was an hour late for work due to thinking the clocks had changed; Natty saved his show and tell until the end; Joe went to two friends house; Emily has bought an Over Locker from Lidl; Rana is looking forwards to restarting arabic classes with Rayan; Rayan did pd dipping at a nature reserve; Yasmine is moving to a bigger house; Ayoub went to a friend's birthday party; Theo has new super hero cards; Rafiq found some old cards he had lost; Daniel went to a party; Dylan is winning in Karate; Oliver went to the JR; Kique has new kittens from Rafiq; Ivo watched a Garfield movie at his cousin's house; Tim went to the dentist.

Then Natty showed us his new sister.

We got out the materials and made collages, using stamp cutters to make shapes from paper as it was too wet to collect real leaves.

And put them on the table for display.

Polly's tooth came out, with quite a bit of bleeding.

All the pictures were displayed and we held our Closing Circle.

Leaders: Debbie, Emily, Rana, Tim
Elfins: 22

Wildlife in our Gardens (2014-10-06)

Whilst Tim got the adults to check our registration forms Emily, Debbie and Rana led some games of Dead Ants

and Octopus.

We held our News Circle: Daniel went to three parties; Oliver showed us his giant Hex Bug that he got for his birthday; Kique went to a zoo and saw the most poisonous spider in the world; Lena spent the weekend with Izzy and went to the Story Museum; Izzy had some Norwegian visitors; Emily spent a lot of time tidying for her visitors; Morrigan did cooking today; Imo's mum's birthday is today; Polly couldn't remember what she had done on Saturday; Debbie has started her Christmas shopping; Milly went to a friends farm and lost their dog but used walky talkies to find it; Natty had a serious conversation with Imo about devils; Rafiq needs more gold coins to buy flying boots; Dylan has a birthday soon; Joe asked us "What is your favourite coloured number of the alphabet?" to which the answer is "Potato"; Luke found four earthworms; Ximena went to Boundary Brook Nature Reserve and saw an owl; Rana fell over at an Eid celebration; Rayan went to an Eid party on Saturday and a Farm on Sunday; Jay watched Kung Foo Panda (so did Tim); Theo has reached a new level in Minion Rush; John went to Theo's house a few days ago; DJ Matt Rush showed his books at Ivo's School; Isis's karate teacher has had a new baby boy; Tim has shared Memrise with his daughters.

We decided to play some games before the main activity. Most of our games are rather hectic, which not everyone enjoys, so we decided to play a most structured game: Duck, Duck, Goose.

We then made bird feeders from popcorn, peanuts, apples and suet balls.

We held a circle and sangHappy Birthday to Oliver and our Closing Song.

Leaders: Emily, Tim, Debbie, Rana
Elfins: 20

All Photos.

Camp Tales, Woodcraft Rules and Games (2014-0929)

Whilst people arrived we played a game of Octopus.

We held our News Circle: which people are getting very good at so it went quite quickly: Dylan went to camp and had fun; Ivo cut himself on camp but had fun; Joe went to the London Eye; Rafiq made a Bionical Chicken; Emily enjoyed camp especially the campfire; Izzy is taking the Prep test in Piano; Luke found a Pale Tussock Moth caterpillar (Callitereara pudibunda) on camp; Ximena told us that their other caterpillars (Painted Ladies) have pupated; Isis showed us the mask she has made and has a wobbly tooth; Milly has had an interview at Rye St Anthony school; Debbie's cat, Thomas, has died; Daniel got lost in the maze at camp; John did the challenges at camp; Theo built a Lego model on Sunday; Oliver completed the maze and made a bug house at camp; Morrigan liked weaving on camp; Polly's favourite thing about camp was the merrymoot; Jay went to the street party and watched the Lego Movie in the street; Tim built the campfire at camp.

The last session was a little rowdy, the weather was great and the children were very excited, even games on the field did not tire them out. After a great Elfin Camp the leaders wanted to talk about how we have good times and what makes a session no fun.

The children came up with lots of suggestions: being nice to each other, listening to each other and respecting each other and the school and environment. Woodcraft is about peace and friendship so fighting and being rough is out of place.

Tim explained that if someone kept ignoring requests to join in and was making a session no fun for others then they could be asked not to come the next time, though this has never happened.

Debbie reminded everyone that when someone calls Woodcraft then everyone should stop, reply Folk and then listen to the person who has made the call.

Jay came up with the brilliant suggestion that we do some practice, so we did: everyone larked about and then Jay shouted Woodcraft and we all replied Folk, we then repeated this with leaders calling out until we had it perfect.

We decided to play Dead Ants

then Snakes in the pit

Everyone helped to put the apparatus away.

We had a quick play outside.

We came back in and sang If I had a Hammer, Black and White, Back of the Bus, then held our Closing Circle and sang Charlie was a Pigeon.

Leaders: Emily, Debbie, Tim
Helper: Ximena
Elfins: 15

Elfin Camp 2014

We had an enormous group of elfins and parents, forty though five had to drop out at the last minute.

The weather was fantastic and so was the site: Hill End Centre.

We pitched our tents and then held an Opening Circle.

We walked into Wytham Woods and ate our packed lunch and then carried on walking through the woods.

After lunch we did activities.

Built a campfire.

Ate supper.

Lit the Campfire.

Held our Merrymoot.

Had cocoa and went to bed, and were quickly asleep! The adults moved the campfire in a wheelbarrow to the kitchen fire and sang songs late into the night.

In the morning we packed and finished off a few craft activities.

Packed our tents.

Held our closing circle.

Did a litter sweep, finished packing and went home tired but happy!

Google Story is nearly as good!