Make it Monday

One morning last week, while we were away on holiday, we attended a Countryside Ranger led workshop on making Willow animals.

Each time we are up in this area on holiday we usually attend one of these Countryside Ranger events and they are always very good. This one was led by the same ranger who taught us bushcraft shelter and fire starting skills two years ago.

 

The willow animal making was a simple but really effective idea.

 

The children were shown how to bend the softened willow to make a frame for their animal and advised on how to strengthen the structure. Then they were given free reign over what animal to make and how to go about making it.

 

James took his inspiration from the visitor centre/museum the event took place in. There is a river nearby that is famous for salmon jumping and so he decided to make a salmon.

 

 

 

Calum was going to make a fish but then thought his shape looked quite round and so decided to make it an octopus instead!

 

 

David wanted to make an angler fish. I have no idea why!

 

You can see their willow skeletons below before they added the skin.

 

 

The skin was simply strips of tissue paper painted with a mix of pva glue and water. The strips were then placed over the skeleton and layered up.

 

 

Ta da! Here is the finished angler fish!

 

 

 

The finished octopus....

 

 

And the almost finished salmon....

 

A few of the children were leaving their creations for the Ranger to hang up and decorate the visitor centre. James and Calum decided that they would leave theirs too, since the chances of us getting all three animals back to our own house unscathed were fairly slim!

 

We went back to the centre the following day to admire their creations in their new hanging place.

I think they all did a really good job with their creations.

 

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