Year two woods visit 19th March 2012
Monday in the woods showed me how important forest schools are to
children’s learning and just how effective they can be. The children had a
great time and were eager to become involved in the new and exciting
activities around them. Without realising it the children were building upon
what they had learnt in the classroom and then taking this further by becoming
actively involved in their own learning.
At the start of the day Harriet and I lead the first activity.
This involved the children translating a series of messages that had been
carved into logs from runes into English. They were given a translation sheet
and asked to decode the directions from the clearing, up the pathway to the
fire circle. In order to allow full participation and inclusion we split the
children into groups and then staggered the sending of each group. This worked
well and the task was very successful.
However the task unfortunately didn’t involve a large amount of
science, although it did use the children’s English skills with the ability to
find the right letters, write them down, then spell and read the word. It also
involved the children identifying different symbols and then finding the
corresponding letter.
It didn’t take the children long to take up the task and get the
hang of what they needed to do. This was good as almost straight away they
became engaged and eager to find the next clue. I altered the activity whilst
carrying it out by swapping the child who wrote down each translation as I soon
realised some children were more dominant than others. I also chose children
every so often to translate a letter who were very capable but shy, and as a
result tended to remain quiet. By doing this all children could feel included
and reach a sense of accomplishment.
I was surprised by the children’s teamwork with some offering to
hold the log so that everyone could see it during the translation. I was also
impressed when one child recognised the word ‘the’ in each clue because he
remembered the signs from before and this gave him a sense of achievement each
time resulting in further engagement.
The only slightly difficult part for the children was when two
symbols looked similar and then choose the wrong letter. Sometime this was due
to the symbols we used, or the way the letters had been carved. However after
saying to the children ‘I don’t think that’s quite right, have another look’
they soon came to the right answer and happily carried on, with some
remembering which letters looked similar for next time the problem arose.
Overall the activity was successful and the children were all able
to become involved and feel included. I believe the activity was pitched and
delivered at the right level and this is backed up by the children’s overall
success. I would feel confident in carrying out the activity again as the
children seemed to enjoy it and it provided a great start to the rest of the
day.
Lauren Harden
Congratulations on making a real success of this activity Lauren. You adapted well to the group and to the individual children's needs.
ReplyDeleteBy the way, can you tell us any more about the runes? Is it simply an alternative alphabet used for writing a language that was later written using the Latin alphabet? What kind of things did people write about in those days? Anything that could be considered to be science?
Runes are an ancient Germanic alphabet, once used for divination and magic, in addition to writing. The word "rune" actually means mystery, secret or whisper. They were used by people in northern Europe, Scandinavia, the British Isles, and Iceland from about 100 B.C.E. to 1600 C.E.
DeleteWhat were they used for?
Each rune has meanings related to it beyond that of its mundane and phonetic value. Each was translated into a word or a phrase which would signify important concepts to the early peoples who used them. Often this represented the forces of nature and mind. Each rune has a story attached to it, a relationship to a God.
Runic divination is not considered as "fortunetelling" as the future cannot be seen in the runes. Instead, runes were used to give a means of analysing the path that they were on and give a likely outcome.
Where did they come from/develop into?
Some runes symbols are likely to have been acquired from other alphabets, such as the Greek, Etruscan, and the Early Roman.
Between 400 and 600 AD, three Germanic tribes, the Angles, the Saxons and the Jutes, invaded Britain. They brought the runes with them. The forms of several of the runes changed, notably the runes for A/O, C/K, H, J, S, and Ng. Also, changes in the language led to nine runes being added to the alphabet to compensate for the extra sounds, and several runes were given different corresponding letters.
Due to different influences and time the runes developed and were altered to make an alphabet that we would find recognisable today. Examples of how this developed can be found at http://www.sunnyway.com/runes/origins.html.
http://www.sunnyway.com/runes/origins.html