Guest Posted September 3, 2009 Share Posted September 3, 2009 Hi everyone, this is just a real quickie before i go into school for the first day (pd day) I set up a wood work area as enhanced provision on tuesday. The chilfdren are using real tools, nails hammers, and the one i am real scared about...a hacksaw. Ive heard of other settings provding this. But how have you found the chn using it. I'm sure they must be responsible otherwisde it wouldnt be in play. It does worry me slightly. Obviously the first weeek it will be very carefully monitored and the children will all get a good safety talk prior to using it. If anyone out there is using or has provided it in there setting. Would k;love to hear from you....one more thing, do i need to send out letters to parents about it and get the to sign allowing their consent. thanks heaps xx Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SueJ Posted September 3, 2009 Share Posted September 3, 2009 I have children from aged 2 to 5 and v. occasionally we do wood work - my heart is always in my mouth. We use proper adult sized tools as many years ago when training was told these are better. Have also found a hacksaw is not much cop. We have a workmate type bench to ensure wood if v. securely gripped and use v. small pieces of wood as the children find anything much thicker than a broomstick handle in diameter too much when sawing. It is also a good idea to have a candle nearby - not for prayer you understand - it helps if the saw is "greased" by rubbing the candle up and down each side of the teeth (adult job obviously). The children love banging the huge nails into bigger blocks of wood and are partial to sanding down - so lots of different grades of sandpaper. If wood is smooth you can also move on to polishing - beeswax is good! Our children recently made claves (posh name for wooden beaters) (20cm lenghts of dowel x 2) and painted them like barber's poles in red and yellow to tie into a topic based around spain and making music with wooden instruments. My insurers were ok with it provided the activity was properly supervised which with this age group this is v. much a one adult to one child activity when sawing and hammering. Polishing and sanding was done in small groups just in case of splinters. If glueing pva will glue but need to make sure fully dry before moving. Hope that helps. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted September 3, 2009 Share Posted September 3, 2009 Thankyou very much, that reallydoes help. My heart is going to be in my mouth i think forever now, but my NN'S are reasuuring me all will e ok. Great tips aswell, will defo use the candle wax, does that blunt it slightly. Will let you kow how it goes tomorrow. Thanks again xx Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cait Posted September 3, 2009 Share Posted September 3, 2009 Candlewax eases the saw through the wood. We use Junior Hacksaws which the children thoroughly enjoy - we have only one out at once so that it can be supervised. Children enjoy sawing bits of trees up that we pick up from the floor in the woods. We've not had any bother with these saws. We had one accident last year when a child cut his thumb slightly, but Mum was great and said - 'Oh he's always doing that with Daddy's too!' Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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