Two Schools, Two Activities: St. Anne’s and Conlig Primary Schools at Clandeboye
On 29th September 2005, the pupils of St. Anne’s and Conlig Primary Schools came together on the Clandeboye Estate to take part in a Northern Ireland Tree Campaign Environmental Adventure and Autumn Seed Harvest workshop.
The day kicked off with a nature walk through the woods within Clandeboye Estate, where we had set up our Environmental Adventure. The children from both groups got the chance to make some new friends as they navigated their way through the nature trail by following our “handy” signposts. Along the way they stopped to take part in our ‘I’m a Celebrity’, Leaf Identification and Tree Ring games as well as participating in an Un-Natural Nature Walk. In addition to the games the children took a closer look for signs of wildlife within the woods. As well as the abundance of autumn berries (such as Blackberries) and fungi including Puff Balls the children saw Pheasants and identified deer footprints.
After a bite of lunch the children made their way to the Conservation Volunteers “Demo Garden” where they participated in an Autumn Seed Harvest Workshop which was filmed by BBC Television’s Lifeline. In the workshop they were introduced to the various ways our native trees produce and disperse their seed each autumn as well as looking at the variety of fruits from our local trees. The children identified dispersal mechanisms such as wind, animal and even explosion.
After discussing the many ways that trees are important to us, the children got the chance to help our Tree Nursery extract some Hawthorn seed from the berries. After a lot of mashing, washing, squashing and sieving the berries, thousands of clean seeds and a handful of mucky children emerged. The extracted seed will be grown on and hopefully in a few years time, planted throughout Northern Ireland.