Sloyd with 5th grade

Gustavs teacher had invited me to attend the sloyd class together with the 5th grade. I was very excited to be able to go, and very curious as to what they were making.

For the moment they are working with natural wood, and all the pupils are making a feed tray for the birds of the garden.

The base of the feed tray is a piece of larch complete with the bark still attached. Those pieces are approximately 5 cm (2") thick.

They had started on those some time ago, so they were all pretty far in the process when I paid them a visit.

The staves are small pieces of willow and the wickerwork is also willow. 

I was asked if I could help with making the holes that were to be used for mounting the tray in a tree in the garden. 

Each pupil would mark out the position of three holes and I should check that they were evenly distanced before we would start the drilling. 

Instead of me doing the drilling, I found a brace and a 10 mm bit (3/8"), and instructed the children in how to do it.

I helped by pressing down on the brace and they did the turning. 

The teacher had ordered some natural twine to use for the hanging system, but sadly it had not yet been delivered. 

The teacher told the children, that if they had their feed tray finished, and just missing the twine, they could make a table tannis bat using a scroll saw. That way they were all kept occupied.

I was amazed at how well the class were behaving. In the beginning of the lesson the teacher had some information on how to proceed with the project. She asked the pupils to sit down, each person on his/her own workbench. And much to my surprise - all the children quietly and quickly found a workbench, sat down and kept quiet. I am not quite sure my class behaved that well all those years ago..