Learn
Children are introduced to measuring, sawing, drilling, hammering, joining and sanding through carefully planned, age appropriate projects.
Outdoor woodworking workshops for ages 6 to 9
Woodworking in the forest.
Join our first woodland workshop on Saturday 17 October. Children will use real tools to build a wooden sailing boat, create a botanical printed sail and launch their finished creation on water.
Book a placeSaturday 17 October 2026
3:00 pm to 5:00 pm
Goldsworth Primary School: Forest School area
Ages 6 to 9
Maximum 12 children
- Small group
- Two Forest School practitioners
- Real woodworking skills
- All materials included
- A finished project to take home
- Marshmallows round the fire
More than a craft activity
Hands-on, confidence-building.
Habitat gives children the opportunity to work with real wood and real tools in a carefully supported woodland environment. Every workshop combines practical skills, independent thinking and creativity with the satisfaction of completing a project they can use, display or play with at home.
Build
Every session is centred around one achievable project that children help create from the raw materials.
Feel proud
Children leave with new skills, greater confidence and something real that they made themselves.
Our first woodland build
Build a sailing boat in a woodland area
For our first Habitat workshop, young builders will transform a simple piece of timber into a working wooden sailing boat.
They will measure, saw, drill, sand and assemble their boats before collecting leaves and flowers from the woodland to create unique hapa zome sails. At the end of the workshop, every child will launch their finished boat and take it home, and we finish around the fire with marshmallows.
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Measure and mark
Children measure the wood and mark the shape of their boat.
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Saw and shape
Using securely clamped timber and age appropriate saws, they create the bow and sand the edges smooth.
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Drill and assemble
Children drill the mast hole, prepare a wooden mast and assemble their boat.
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Create a hapa zome sail
Leaves and flowers collected from the woodland are placed onto cotton and gently hammered to create a unique botanical print.
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Launch and test
The finished boats are placed on water for their first woodland voyage.
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Fire and marshmallows
We finish the afternoon around the fire, toasting marshmallows and looking at what everyone has built.
“I made this.”
Three small words that can build an enormous amount of confidence.
However the day goes
Every workshop ends around the fire.
Whatever we build, the last part of the afternoon is the same: the fire is lit, everyone toasts marshmallows, and the children look at what they have made together before heading home.
It is the part they talk about on the way home, and the part that turns a group of children who arrived as strangers into a group that built something side by side.
Practical skills for curious young minds
- Measuring and planning
- Safe tool handling
- Sawing and drilling
- Sanding and joining
- Creative problem solving
- Patience and perseverance
- Respect for tools and materials
And the biggest win of all Confidence in their own abilities
- Workshop
- Build a sailing boat in a woodland area
- Date
- Saturday 17 October 2026
- Time
- 3:00 pm to 5:00 pm
- Duration
- 2 hours
- Age
- 6 to 9 years
- Group size
- Maximum 12 children
- Location
- Goldsworth Primary School: Forest School area
- Venue
- Price
- Included
- Tools, safety equipment, all materials, and marshmallows around the fire
- Children take home
- Their completed wooden sailing boat with a botanical printed sail
- Clothing
- Outdoor clothing and closed toe shoes are required
Safety comes first
Real tools, carefully introduced.
Using real tools is exciting and empowering, but it also requires clear boundaries, patient instruction and close supervision. Children are shown how to handle each tool correctly before using it and work at secure, carefully prepared stations.
- Maximum of twelve children
- Two Forest School practitioners
- Age appropriate tools and projects
- Clear tool demonstrations
- Close supervision
- Safety equipment provided
- Secure, carefully prepared workstations
How we work
Built on the Forest School ethos.
Habitat workshops are led by Forest School practitioners and run the way Forest School sessions run: outdoors, at the child’s pace, with real tools and real responsibility. The woodland is not a backdrop for a craft activity, it is part of how children learn.
Here is what that means on the day.
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The woodland is part of the workshop
Children work outdoors among the trees, and the woodland supplies the materials. The leaves and flowers they gather become the print on their sail, so the boat that goes home carries the place it was made in.
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Risk is managed, not removed
Saws and drills are genuinely sharp, and that is the point. Children are shown how each tool works, why the rules exist and what happens if they are ignored, then they use the tool themselves at a secure station with a practitioner beside them.
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Children work at their own pace
There is one project and no race to finish it. A child who wants to keep sanding until the hull is smooth can, and a child who wants to spend longer choosing leaves can. We support, we don’t take over: the boat that goes home is genuinely theirs.
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We look after the wood we use
Children learn to treat tools and materials with care, take only what they need from the woodland, and leave the site as they found it. Offcuts go back into future projects rather than the bin.
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Small groups, led by practitioners
Twelve children and two Forest School practitioners, one of them a Goldsworth Forest School teacher. Small numbers are what make close supervision and real tool work possible at the same time.
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Confidence comes from doing it themselves
Forest School measures success in what a child dares to try next, not in what they carry home. The boat is proof of the harder thing: they were trusted with something real, and they managed it.
For now, each Habitat workshop is a single session. We are also working towards longer, regular programmes that run across a term, the way Forest School is designed to work, so children can build on their skills week after week.
Created by people who believe children can do more.
Habitat Woodland Workshops was created from seeing how much pride children feel when they make something tangible with their own hands.
Our workshops combine the freedom and discovery of outdoor learning with the focus and satisfaction of genuine woodworking. Children are supported to try unfamiliar skills, solve problems and experience the confidence that comes from completing something real.
Two experienced Forest School practitioners
Every workshop is led by two experienced practitioners: a Goldsworth Forest School teacher and an additional Level 2 Forest School teacher. This allows children to receive close support and careful supervision while learning to use real woodworking tools.
This is only the beginning
New projects will follow.
Future Habitat workshops will introduce different woodworking skills and new objects for children to build and take home. Each workshop will offer a fresh challenge while maintaining the same small group format and carefully supported approach.
Book your young builder’s place
Places are limited to twelve children so everyone receives close guidance and plenty of time using the tools.
- Build a sailing boat in a woodland area
- Saturday 17 October 2026
- 3:00 pm to 5:00 pm
- 2 hour workshop
- Ages 6 to 9
- Goldsworth Primary School: Forest School area
- Maximum 12 children
Reserve your child’s place
Booking and payment are handled securely by Ticket Tailor. It only takes a couple of minutes.
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