You Shall Not Pass!!!

For those of you who catch the reference. ;D

Today's blog is an activity that has never been done before!  
"What ever could it be?  What does it involve??  I must know!!!"
I see your curiosity has peaked your interest!  So let me put your mind at ease!
The activity was to make our very own Wizard/walking sticks!

As with any new project, there are bound to be snags here and there.  You know.  Those moments when you're like: I've thought of everything! (=D 
And then something you didn't think of pops up.
Haha, but the good news here is, although there were some snags here and there, they didn't actually deter us at all.  Everyone stayed pretty excited about it! And through the weekend!

We started the activity with about 8 kids and me heading off to the woods because we hadn't bought them staffs to go straight into decorating.  Oh no.  They were going to go into the woods and find their own walking stick! 
​Excitedly, we started out and spent about 15 to 20 minutes searching the trails for the best stick.  One would be chosen!  Then set aside for another!  Other kids would find sticks and offer them to anyone.  I think they all enjoyed getting off trail and scavenging for sticks. ;D

          After we had all picked our favorites, we took our chilly selves back to the portable where we would then strip the bark and begin sanding them smooth!  Here's where the first snag became apparent.
Although we had gotten lucky for a day without rain, our sticks were actually sill pretty damp from previous rains.  Some were straight up muddy!  If they had been dry, the dirt would not have matter as it would just dust off as we sanded.  However, wet dirt is not going to come off.  Only smear.  So after talking with my wizards, we decided to leave our sticks near our heater to dry over the weekend.  It was super cool it was Friday and that worked out so conveniently!

Come Monday, I had several kids approach me during free time and ask if we were going to work on the staffs.  I re-assuredly said, "Yes! Of course!", and come activity block, with now nicely dried sticks, we set about de-barking them, sawing off points, and sanding! =D​
Snag number two: The sand paper I bought was not the best apparently, haha.  However!  It still worked, just not well enough to make them as smooth as one would like for a staff.  Still determined, the kids worked hard at sanding, and to help them out, I brought in my electric sanding tool the next day!

They loved how smooth this helped their staff become.  Some of them, wanting even smoother, pulled out the sandpaper and worked at their staff even more!  The next day, those satisfied with their walking sticks began the decorating process. 
​I had bought leather strips to wrap around; feathers and wooden beads for dangling cool bits they personally got to design; they could use the wood burning tools to add cool designs onto their staff, and even the internet if they were having a creative-block!  

When I asked the kids how they rated this activity I got a 7 to 10 rating!  Others asked if we could do it again next year!  I'm so excited and happy it went well for them!  They gave me good feedback for the future, and all that is to say, we all had a really fun time doing our brand new project:
​Wizard Staffs/Walking Sticks! ^_^

By Nikki Bjorklund