Our new year started with our tradition of foraging for brambles and making jam on the fire.
It felt good to be back home in the woods!

We also noticed how abundant the rowan berries were at the start of term and used them to protect trees in the woods, and feed the birds. We are hoping the birds will help us with seed dispersal and we might have rowans growing in our woods in the future.

All our teamwork and nature connection is through games – also in Autumn we played a big game on a loop of night and day, with challenges and obstacles to overcome, treasures were hidden, storms came over that damaged their shelter and foxes came in to eat their food while they were sleeping. Children had to work together, recognising the value of individual contribution, as well as being resilient, making their shelter stronger. We picked the last of the brambles and made flapjacks in dock leaves over the fire.

Apples don’t go unnoticed by us! We collected fallen apples to make apple crumble over the fire – not a drop was left after snack.

We love the Autumn colours – we have games to help us notice the differences in leaves. We also use them to craft decorations for our dens – bashing them in fabric with a rock.

We never knew horse chestnut leaves could be so big!

The traditional game of conkers never seems to lose its appeal.

Our Light and Dark game helped us connect to the season and the darker days to come.

In October we had the opportunity to go to visit the deer farm near Pitmedden forest. We squeezed in tight on the truck and quietly entered the deer’s environment, learning about rutting – their call is very loud and it was cool to see them fight up close – we were glad they didn’t hurt each other.

We have also got stuck in to some conservation tasks on a wee burn (with the owners permission!) – we made a dam, a riffle section and an inundation area for wetland plants to thrive. We worked hard and made very efficient structures in no time. Proud moment for the team!

We discovered how much the gorse, broom and bracken is ideal for hiding games, making tunnels and trails – it really helped us connect with how animals feel moving through their habitats.

We also connected with migrating birds through our game, Migration.

We prepared birch logs for a carving project learning the skill of axe work.

From birch logs to beautiful birds…..

We have also been working on our fire starting skills, appreciating the dry bracken as it dies off for the year, when its really dry it burns well.

We always have time for Ninja

This year we are recording our sessions on hand drawn maps, we get around Fife!

As part of our Samhain celebrations we visited the Collessie Man, a Pictish Warrior 1000’s of years old! We also shared lots of stories about our ancestors, which was both sad and fun. The ancestor soup was delicious! We finished our day off by sending Winter wishes out into the world.