Forest Pencils (If reading in email please click here for complete post with video clips)

A practical outdoor activity for children and their teachers/parents:
Look here for a story to accompany this activity:
The Magic Pencil by Jane Glynn

Here's a fun way to make a pencil or pen holder out of a bit of elder and some leftover ballpoint pens or pencil stubs. Suitable (if adapted appropriately) for all ages. First you need to cut some elder branches - if you are lucky there will be some growing in your school grounds, garden or local park - make sure you get permission from the owner! It looks like this when it's cut. The lovely thing about it for this project is that it has a soft white pith in the middle that is easy to squash and holds a pencil/biro in place nicely! It has a slightly bumpy texture to the bark - ideally you want nice straight sticks a bit longer than an average pencil.

You can put the inside of ballpoint pens straight into the pith - or if the elder branch is chunky enough you can use left over pencil stubs that are too small to write with! It's easy to take the middle outside of the inside of biros - I'm trying to use everything I have collected over the years which seems to include a lot of biros - now I have to find a use for the plastic outsides! (Any suggestions gratefully received!)

It's easy to insert the ballpoint (or pencil end) into the elder - just gently push it in, exerting a little extra pressure to break down the pith as needed.

If you can't get it all the way in don't worry - you can always cut a bit of the ballpoint off and reinsert it.

You can use string or wool to attach leaves/petals/feathers to the stick pencils or, for more precise designs, try using double sided tape. I prefer to tear it rather than use scissors as it's easy to tear and the scissors don't get ruined and sticky!

It's great to use wax rubbings to add more decorations.  There's always something to use even in winter - here (February) I'm using freshly picked sage - it smells lovely as you are rubbing it!

If there is not much around - grass can be used to make a lovely green band.

To finish off I like to add a little gold band using very thin thread.

Do hope you and your class/children will enjoy making these and write some wonderful stories with them. Please look here for a story The Magic Pencil to use with this activity.


Copyright Jane Glynn, February 2019
Permission granted to reproduce for personal and educational use only. Commercial copying, hiring, lending is prohibited.