Bow and arrow fever

This morning the children in Foxes class were quick to spot some new, giant drinking straws. Mrs Lewis had seen them in the supermarket and thought they would be great for building roads for the cars to race on. However, the children soon had their own much better ideas.

Tilly began by showing her friends how to make shapes out of the straws just like they had done with Mr Gill using bamboo sticks in 'Forest School'. Emmanuel realised he could make a star shape by laying the straws over each other.

This soon reminded Austin of Gigi's fabulous Susan costume on World Book Day where she wore a home made quiver full of arrows for her bow. He soon found some wool and set to work to make his own bow. With some help from Mrs Lewis showing him how to tie a knot he soon had a fully functioning bow and arrow.

Promising not to shoot his friends Austin showed Emmanuel, Ruth and Megan how to make their own.

Not one to be out done, Tilly realised she could make an even larger bow by joining 2 straws together.

This group of children realised the classroom was too crowded and not big enough to safely test how far their arrows could go and off they went outside to test their devices.

For the rest of the day children were busy making bows and arrows and improving the devices by trying different ways of attaching their wool to the straw. After lunch Archie decided he needed somewhere to store his arrows before he shot them and using a variety of joining techniques he made a quiver that he could wear over his shoulder.

Mrs Lewis was very impressed with the way the children worked well together, all around the classroom children could be heard saying "have you tried doing it like this?" and "I found that this worked better". Their perseverance and determination to succeed made Mrs Lewis very proud today!