Merry Moot (24th March 2014)

We met on the Green for the last Spring session and kicked off with a frenetic final game of Octopus. Vidar and Millie were the last fish swimming.

We had snacks at the firepit - marshmallows, tortilla chips, blueberry and chocolate muffins, grapes and hot chocolate, fruit flakes and hummus (not necessarily in that order).

Then we held our Merry Moot:

Connie, Bibi, Ruby, Zena, Millie et al formed a group...
















….and did a 'mystery act'….

…starring at least one rabbit;

                                                  Seren and Millie sang a Dinosaur song;

Nick and Jago did a crazy chase scene...

 ...featuring a large red wig(!);





Bibi sang 'For the First Time in Forever' from Frozen; Lucy, Arthur and Nick did a fabulous version of 'The Silly(?) Song' - and then again very fast... Tei did a card trick called 'Hand Sandwich'; Seren sang 'Let It Go' from Frozen. 

By which time - despite the fire - and extra hot chocolate - we were all well and truly frozen.

So we got up and played the Hula Hoop Game 




...with 7 (yes 7!) hula hoops going in both directions around the circle.
















Special thanks to Arthur for the closeups!

And we ended our sessions with a belting Woodcraft Folk Song. 

Some off us will be meeting up again at the Iron Age Elfin Hostel next week - and we are all looking forward to many (warmer) days on the Green when we get back after Easter.

Thanks to all the Elfins - helpers - and leaders for a lovely Spring.






Session leader: Amanda
Leaders: Lucy, Catrin
Helpers: Nick, Claire, Marie, Tei

Elfin Takeover: Favourite Games (17th March 2014)

This was our first Elfin Takeover. The Elfins led the way voting on their favourite games to play on the Green.

Session leader: Kate
Leaders: Lucy, Alison
Helpers: Marie, Claire, Sophie

Tin can cooking (10th March 2014)

This time the Elfins had their first go at cooking on tin cans on the Green. Thanks to Tim from East Iffley Elfins for the idea!

Kate stepped in at the last moment and led a fantastic session.

Each Elfin had a can that had been pre-pierced with holes to draw air around the top and a little door at the bottom.

They used tea lights as a heat source and cooked a variety of tasty morsels on top of the cans.

And ended with a spirited Woodcraft Folk Song.

Session leader: Kate
Helpers: Marie, Claire, Lili

Woodstock and Dampers (3rd March 2014)

This was our first time at the Green since last year. It was a boggy welcome back to our spiritual home! The bottom half was awash with marshy pools but fortunately the top half nearer to the firepit was merely very muddy indeed. Congratulations to all parents who managed to deliver their children across the morass!

Since we were last there the firepit itself has acquired a standing army of silent sentinels - tiny chestnut trees wrapped in coccoons of white plastic. One day they will form a copse at the north end of the Green around the clearing where any walker along the woodland trail would happen upon our firepit - but that's a couple of years away. In the meantime we told all the children to take care of the baby trees - and weaving crazily in and out - they did.

We started later than normal at 17:30 because this was our second hook up with Woodstock Elfins. 

They came with four fantastic lanterns made from willow and many-coloured tissue paper - hung on sticks planted behind the pit - they were the four turrets of light framing our beacon fire guiding people across the Green as darkness fell.


We kicked off the session with the Name Train game. Everyone mills around until they bump into a partner when they play Rock, Paper, Scissors (have you noticed how many of our games start this way?). The loser grabs on behind the winner conga style and they both chuff around chanting the winner's name until they bump into another player's train when they play Rock, Paper, Scissors again - the losing train joins on behind the winning one and they all move off chanting the new winner's name. Eventually there are only two trains left - and the winner takes all. We followed this up with the ever popular I Am the One and Only. 


Then everyone set to making dampers

 - first rolling out bread dough with optional white and milk chocolate buttons or raisins

 - then wrapping the dough sausage around a stick 







- before holding it over the fire to cook. 

Once again the dampers took longer than we imagined to cook through - but that didn't seem to bother anyone. Some people stayed cooking them for most of the evening while others went off into the dark of the Green with Alison to play torch lit games...


We started with Torch Statues where one person is 'it' and the rest strike a pose and pretend that they are statues. The person who is 'it' walks up to each statue one at a time, shines a torch on them and tries to make them laugh without touching them. The first statue to laugh is the next person to be 'it'. Funny faces and strange warbling noises seemed to work best.

Searchlight followed. One person is 'it' - they turn their back - the rest go and stand on the other side of the field. Then they all try to creep up and tag the person who's 'it'. The 'it' person turns round randomly and shines their torch at the creepers to try and catch them moving. If they're caught moving in the torch beam, they're out.

Lastly, we played Story Torchlit Tag - one person is a storyteller and chooses a word as their 'trigger'. The other players all stand around the storyteller with one finger touching them. The storyteller has a torch. As soon as the storyteller uses their 'trigger' word in the story, the rest of the players have to run away and the storyteller runs to try and catch them.

Then there were flasks of steaming hot chocolate for all and marshmallows on sticks for those that wanted them. Finally it was back to standing around the firepit to sing Bog in the Valley, Campfire's Burning and The Woodcraft Folk song.

A big thank you to Woodstock Elfins for helping us with the spring awakening of the Green - we're hoping to see many of you again at the Hostel in a couple of weeks' time.

We left the firepit surrounded by its chestnut saplings and tiny earth mountains moved by mining moles - they've even popped up inside the circle of stones. It was good to see the changes the seasons are bringing to our nook - we're looking forward to spending as much time as we can there as the weather improves - and to blue skies and blossom walks in a couple of months.

Session leader: Alison
Leaders: Ian, Penny, Barry, John, Catrin, Lucy, Debbie
Helpers: Nick, Claire