Musical Leopards

 What a musical bunch!

I was really excited for the Leopards to tell me all about the new topic they're are getting stuck into. They were keen to tell me about the performance they'd done earlier in the week and decided to put the skills they've learnt in forest schools to have a go at making some new instruments. 

Some children made frog sticks or 'guiros'. They started by choosing a suitable piece of green wood, sawed it to size then whittled the shape (some making animals such as crocodiles, frogs etc) and adding the spikes that they'd run a stick across to make the 'ribbit' sound. In order to make the spikes they used a mallet to hit the sheath knife at an angle in two places to chop out a triangle shape. This technique is similar to how they use the bill hook so they picked it up easily and taught one another once they were shown. 

 

Some children decided to make instruments from the materials they found in the woods, exploring the different sounds the objects made and making up songs accompanied by the instruments. 

Well done Leopards, it's been a brilliant afternoon.