Stories from the Forest 2

On Thursday 19th March, the day before the eclipse, I has my second visit with the Primary 3,4,5 class at Resolis.

What happened...

The day aimed to build on the project’s theme of ‘Stories from the Forest’ and to help prepare for the Wild Forest Day next Friday. This time we were focusing on the Forest's wildlife, how bird songs, animal tracks, and other signs tell us what's happening and how important it is to use every sense and be still to ‘listen’. There were lots of stories from the children, from me, and some wonderfully imaginative role-play shows about how it might feel to be a creature of Millbuie Forest.  

We started by talking about how to understand the ‘secret’ languages of the forest. Since the last visit the children have worked very hard on the challenge I set them to learn the names of the Forest wildlife by playing the wildlife card games I made. So we played some fun games of ‘guess what animal I am’, with the kids playing roles, which was great. The children had lots of their own stories about seeing and hearing wildlife. One girl had a buzzard nesting nearby, several children had lost chickens to foxes and pine martens, (we talked about wild animals behaving like wild animals), some had seen red squirrels in the Cairngorms National Park. One girl was terrified of moles because of the way they look, so we spent a bit of time in a discussion between her and two other girls trying to allay her fears..

I showed some wildlife photos on the computer with plenty of sound effects and images. I asked them to shut their eyes and listen to birdsongs, and kept them interested by asking lots of questions. Plenty of important themes came up for discussion, including life cycles, habitats, ecosystems and seasons, threats faced by animals, predators and prey, migration routes, native and non-native species. We practised recognising birdsong and making bird calls again, which they enjoyed. 

I was so pleased by how much their knowledge and awareness of the Forest's wildlife has improved! That was one of the aspirations for the project, as it will really help their awareness and creativity when they are outside. They all got a sweet for all their efforts!

After the break we all had a discussion about the children's favourite animals. Each chose a creature living in the Forest and we thought about that creature’s favourite food, scariest thing, best day ever etc. We then went through to the drama room and the children split into groups of 2 or 3 and prepared short role play shows, where each was acting his or her favourite animal. We talked about how it was important to be in character – if you were a siskin talking to a goshawk or a field vole talking to a tawny owl, your chat might not be so friendly! I kept the birdsong playing at low volume all the time, as it was so lovely and calming to listen to, and like being outside.

The children and I shared filming the shows, which were really entertaining and imaginative as well as ecologically surprisingly accurate. They included a play about a poorly-sighted bat (roosting with its feet in the air), being harassed by two pine martens and finally scaring them away, one about a wildcat and a fox exchanging tips on catching food, one about a pine marten who encounters a squirrel eating a nut and discovers he has a nut allergy(!), one about a coal tit escaping from an osprey and a buzzard who get into a fight over it (‘See ya suckers!)’, and one about a bat giving a mole a big worm, then a tawny owl killing and eating the mole and the bat escaping….Life can be tough.

By then it was almost lunchtime, and we had just enough time to return to the class and, with help, for the children to sew up the A5 workbooks of cartridge paper, with each child decorating the front cover and writing down his or her chosen ‘Forest name’ eg Foxie. Each one will contain a tracks sheet, mammal and bird spotter sheets, a sketch map, spare pages for writing/drawing, and will be kept in a plastic Ziploc bag that can be used for collecting small things when we are out in the Forest.

The children had hoped that I would tell them the ghost story I'd talked to them about that takes place on the Millbuie, but that will have to wait until next time....

A few reflections...

I had been prepared to break up the half hour powerpoint with games, but in the end the children were too interested in it and it wasn’t necessary.  The powerpoint lasted for longer than I’d thought because it was so interspersed with comments and discussions and anecdotes from the children. I made a point of asking them about almost everything I showed as it really kept their attention. I had planned to play bingo and some more formal games, but found it easier to ad lib with ‘guess the animal’ and bird calls at appropriate moments. I left the bingo cards for them to use in class later. The sweets were useful, because they helped keep the children focused (before I’d handed them out!) on the outline for the shows, until we went to the drama room.

The plays themselves were much more realistic and less fantastical than last time, and the children seemed to completely grasp the challenge of giving some sense of the animal/bird’s actual daily life as well as providing entertainment. The improvised lines were excellent and often funny, and the ecological relationships were impressively accurate.  It was a Thursday, so the children all had school uniform on. That did not seem to affect their spontaneity or imagination, but the filmed outcomes were not as colourful as last time, when many were dressed in animal onesies.

One aspect that was excellent was that the autistic boy played a full and active role throughout, doing exactly what the other children did and joining in with them. This was a marked improvement on last time, when he remained drawing pictures at the edge of the class. The teacher remarked on this and was amazed that he had not even lost interest in the fairly lengthy powerpoint.  I had hoped that he would become more involved, so it was great to see this level of engagement. The other wee girl who has certain issues on the spectrum was fantastic, acting her role as a hunted siskin with great energy.

I had various additional activities that we could have done, given the time, but I chose to spend time on the open-ended discussions as they seemed to stimulate a lot more imagination and creativity, as well as being great learning opportunities. The talk and discussion really helped with the realism of the plays. I believe that in a project that is all about creativity born of keen awareness and use of all the senses in the natural environment it is vital that there is a basic interest and knowledge in the ecology of the Forest.

The teacher and pupils all helped with taking pictures and filming. One regret about the day, however, is that it was too intrusive and difficult to record the children’s spontaneous anecdotes and comments, which they often came right up to tell me. These stories were at least as alive and creative as the plays, but impossible to capture without losing them. I suggested to the teacher that she might try to capture one or two later in class.

I got positive feedback from a couple of the children I talked to about the morning. One said that the ‘best thing was making up the shows’ and ‘doing the guessing games’. 

Another said that she enjoyed the powerpoint and, ‘I really liked all the really cute ones like the little baby bat, and the baby squirrel and the baby wildcat’, and that the ‘sound bits were good’ She also said, ‘I liked the way you asked lots of questions so we wouldn’t get bored’.

So - another fun creative day! Hoping for good weather on 27th!

spring sunshine

The Wild Forest Day is closer than I'd thought! The Easter Break runs for much of April, so, to keep up the momentum, the Head and I decided to try to fit in the class visits and our much-anticipated day in the Forest before the end of March. We have planned the next class visit for this Thursday 19th and the Wild Forest Day for 27th March.

With this in mind, the Head teacher and I spent the glorious forenoon of Sunday (Mother's Day) morning out in the Forest, following the route I have been planning. She needs to consider the health and safety aspects, but was also keen to have an idea of what to expect, so she can prepare the class.

It was a beautiful crisp early spring morning, sun hazing through clearing mist, song thrush, chaffinches, coal tits, robins, goldcrests in full song, frogspawn fresh in the burns and ditches - a real sense of spring gathering force, despite the night's frost.

I had sketched a map with ideas for activities at various points that will use all the childrens' senses and heighten their awareness of what 'stories' the Forest has to tell. The route involves going off the track into wild bog woodland, across a burn, some pathfinding. I never feel completely relaxed unless I'm off a track myself, and am sure it helps to get out of one's 'human' identity. The 20 children will be split into 4 groups of 5 - each group will think up an animal name, a wild 'call sign', names for each child to do with the history or wildlife of the forest. We will be looking closely through hand lens and binoculars, using wildlife calls rather than words to communicate, telling stories and acting plays on 5000 year old chambered cairns, thinking about predator and prey in hunting games, tracking animals using tracks and scats, playing tactile games with eyes closed, choosing and sitting with a special tree, learning and listening to bird songs, watching out for red kite, osprey, buzzard and red squirrel, making dens, nests and nature sculptures, passing messages from ancient peoples between the three chambered cairns.... 

Every thought, impression, feeling, word and experience that the Forest gives us over the course of the day is part of its 'story' - to be noted down in pictures or words, in small found objects, to be 'gathered' - and to help with a final collaborative creation.

And every creative thing the children do, whatever inspires them, both in the Forest and back in the classroom, is part of their 'gift' of imagination back to the Forest. 

The Head teacher was happy with these ideas, and with letting the children take things where they wanted to on the day - they will have plenty of their own inspiration.

Of course, it is the creative imagination that counts. As Jose Ortega Y Gasset wrote, 'To be surprised, to wonder, is to begin to understand'. Another writer, W. MacNeile Dixon, believed that, 'To understand any living thing you must, so to say, creep within, and feel the beating of its heart'

We are hoping for good weather for 27th - and I hope that the Forest will give us the inspiration we need to begin to understand something of what it all might be out there beyond the human world... 

Feedback from the class

I thought I would post some feedback from Jane Bentley, the Head teacher, on Project Wild Millbuie so far - after the class visit where Jim Mackay gave a talk on the history and I worked with the class on wildlife and performing plays about the Forest. All these great ideas will help decide what creative work we do, so I have organised them on a table and made suggestions to Jane about the areas I can help with.  I love the idea of 'letters' to and from the Forest, fitting in with the stories ideas. I hope to do some role play performances about the wildlife. I am also getting the materials for a scrap book and can help each child make one, complete with spotter sheets and maps, next time I visit the school.... 

Hi Jim and Becs,

The children have been full of beans since you were in.

They have done the power point for me, I have  seen their plays – WOW –they obviously loved it so thank you both so much for all the work you both put in.

Lorraine Fyfe who teaches the children on Fridays said they were totally engrossed for the whole time.

Having seen and heard all about it I asked the children what they wanted to do next with everything they had learned/experienced so that we could let others know what  a great time they had all had – here’s the list (take a deep breath):

Stop frame animation with plays – creating puppets to be their animal parts

Make a big class book

Have a picture of forest in background , photo of each child and then they add their thoughts around the edge of it

Make a comic strip version of their plays

Make up a forest song

Each have own scrap book which will last the length of the project in which they write/draw etc their thoughts/feelings/ideas – not directed by school but independently add to it.

Write notes about the history of the forest

Make a quiz type/question and answer book about the forest

Make a story folder about the forest

Paint and draw the amazing , interesting things in the forest

Make books about the animals

Write reviews about the forest

Make a forest scene ‘in a box’ and use that as background for animation work or a puppet show based on plays

Do a presentation about the work they go on to do in the forest and invite Jim back to see it

Tell forest stories to each other

Make models of the burial chambers and what they might be like inside

Collect rocks and sticks when in forest and make something with them

Make a model of the forest in the future

What would blacksmithing have been like in those days?

Make houses for the animals

Make a model of forest in the past

Do forestry art, collect things and make pictures with them

Draw your favourite place when we have been to the forest

Have a Milbuie forest day

Make models in clay

Make a den

And breath out!!

These are pretty  well verbatim from the children with one or two tweeks as I wrote them in my notebook so that I would understand when I had to translate for others!

Just a few things to keep us busy!!

So I hope you recognise just how inspired and stimulated the children are  about this project - thank you.

Stories from the Forest

I visited the Resolis Primary class for the first time at the school on 27 February. The main aim - to excite the childrens’ imaginations on the subject of the Millbuie Forest. I hope to introduce more in-depth learning about the wildlife at a later stage - right now it is about sparking interest and a sense of connection.  

What happened...

I had arranged for Dr Jim Mackay, a local historian, to give a short talk on the prehistory and history of the 'Millbuie', and he gave an informative powerpoint with plenty of local photographs. It was fun when some of the farming children recognised their dads'/grandads' farms and fields from 19thC photos! The children listened with interest for at least 20 minutes, and there were plenty of questions, particularly on Vikings, ghosts and wildlife.

Once Dr Mackay had left, I started by asking which of the children had been in the Forest and what it had felt like, whether they had seen or heard anything interesting. We imagined being a neolithic child hunting and what sorts of things we'd have to look/listen for. In groups we looked at a series of A5 wildlife photos I'd mounted on card, and I asked them who had a creature that was 'scary' 'cute', 'weird', 'a predator' etc.

That was a good chance to introduce some names and basic facts about ecology. By then it was almost morning break, and I wanted to have some quick fun, so we all practiced owl hoots and raven calls. They were soon learning from each other.

After morning break, I had set up the drama room so I could play morning chorus birdsong as they were coming back in. I noticed there were musical instruments in the room, so I used a small skin drum to help grab attention and set the scene. We imagined being in the forest again, and I asked them if they wanted to do some stories or wee plays. With the exception of one wee boy, who is autistic and preferred to draw pictures, listen and watch, they were all very keen to, and so we discussed what sorts of things a story/play might have in it. We decided that the Millbuie Forest should be the setting, but that they could be set at any time period. They wanted to include animals, and there was a discussion about including pandas, flying squirrels etc. I suggested gently that we could definitely include an element of magic, and animals from Scottish myth and legend, but maybe we should stick to what could possibly happen in Millbuie Forest itself ready for our visit. They were fine with that, and we decided unicorns are definitely part of Scottish legend (the Unicorn Tapestry etc.) and that talking trees are definitely feasible, although of course in Millbuie they would be likely to be scots pine, birch or larch (here I showed them the cards again).

So they began to plan their stories. I had a quick check in with the groups to see if they needed anything, and we decided they could use any musical instruments they wanted. Most groups took drums, xylophone or other percussion things. All the groups were having animated discussions and acting out scenes. I left them a wee bit longer and then went round each group to chat to them about how they were getting on. I reminded them that they might want to have a title and have some way of letting the audience know what was being acted out as we didn’t have costumes – maybe a narrator or a scene setter, or using improvised conversation. (See show planning)

Shortly after that they all seemed pretty ready, so I didn’t let the moment go, and we all gathered in the drama room leaving space for the performance! They were all really excited. The school lent me a flip camera, so I practiced by filming the first performance. Then I filmed the next 4 performances using my small camera, and let the children take turns filming with the flip camera. The audience was quiet while the others were performing, except when a laugh was called for. The performances themselves were excellent, very original, with a good mix of reality and fantasy.  After each performance we all clapped, and then I opened the floor to any questions or comments about it, or to any clarification of the plot. (for one of the plays see Millbuie Play 27-2)

We finished just as it was time for the P3s to go for lunch. The others danced to Duncan Chisholm’s music, which I explained was all about the landscape, or chilled on the floor until it was time to go for lunch 10 minutes later. I got a couple of hugs as they left. They were all in great spirits.  

Reflection

The whole morning seemed to go excellently, measured on the amount of enjoyment the children clearly got from it, and the amount of imagination they used while planning and performing their shows. Dealing with children in this situation seemed familiar and straightforward.

I was happy that they were so enthusiastic, and that they let their imaginations have free rein. I was also happy that they were interested in the talk about the wildlife, and that many of them already seemed to know quite a few animal names.  The wildlife cards worked well because they were visual. Just before break I sensed that they were getting a wee bit tired of information and being asked to think, so we did animal calls. That worked well, because it was noisy and participatory.

I wondered if the wee boy with autism was enjoying himself, but the teacher assured me he was fine drawing pictures, and when I checked in with him he nodded he was doing fine. He doesn’t really like being part of big groups, but he seemed to be listening throughout.

Although I was able to document the performances themselves on film, I could not easily capture the informal chats I had with the children, or the feedback they gave each other after the performances. These precious snippets were very informative about the process, but could not be filmed without disrupting the flow, unlike the performances. The children seemed (and are) quite accustomed to being filmed while performing, so they were not inhibited in their acting. The key point was that I tried to keep them continually ‘in the driving seat’, asking them to give each other (and me) feedback, and giving them freedom with their shows.

The five plays were original and very different.  Some had more of a wildlife theme. One was about two animals fighting for territory, one about two Vikings coming into conflict with a wildcat and a red squirrel. Others brought in quite an element of history/fantasy. One was about a ghost that came out of a chambered cairn when disturbed by some bone hunters, entering into the characters and turning one of them into a killer! Luckily nature came to the rescue in the form of a unicorn, and the return of the birds symbolized the return of normality.

Overall, all went as planned it and as well as it could have done. I have asked for feedback from the children themselves through their teacher and will check whether there is anything else I could have done. I hope the final 'creative output' of the Project will be collaborative - so we don't yet know what form it will take. Some of the performances did include a fair amount of fantasy, which was good for stirring up imagination. A key aspiration of the Project is that the children will learn about the real wildlife of the Forest and appreciate the importance of being quiet and aware of what lives there. The challenge from now on will be to develop these ‘quieter’ ideas in ways that remain interesting and creative.