What to do at a schools fair?

[Stubby]

Somebody will be along in a minute to say that it should be Unimog.

 

I was thinking along the lines of the JD 9560R in wisecobandits avetar

[hedgesparrow]

see if you can find a local hedgelayer to demostrate how a hedge is laid do it a lot in summer and goes down well i use silver birch for hedge as it shines.

as fo your self if you can manage it get a long large pole get it harnesed and climb it in the fastest time

[TreePuncher]

Axe throwing

[treeseer]

For that age, maybe slice up some branches so each kid gets a 'cookie' and counts the rings in it.

then they can mark the years in it, showing when they started school, etc.

 

Also troweling up a little dirt and showing roots, bugs, mycorrhizae and such, to give them an idea of what makes trees tick. show how the compacted areas have less life, and the mulched or natural areas more. this might also be educational for some of the adults, too.

[ArthurBottlesworth]

At Shrewsbury steam fair they had guy with tractor and log splitter

Trailer of logs and a splitter

Steady crowd, I was amazed.....

[mad matty]

Somebody will be along in a minute to say that it should be Unimog.

 

should be a mog!

cheers Matty

[B1rch]

At my kids school one of the dad's came along and carved them a really good totem pole.

Any good at carving?

[David Humphries]

We have been asked to put on a display at a schools fair next week. There is 4000 primary school kids coming and the day is focusing on agriculture and the environment. We have a large mature Oak which we can climb and set up some rigging kit. We are also hoping to touch a bit on tree biology. Has anyone else done stuff like this? Would be grateful of any ideas people may have as to how to keep them interested!

 

Cheers

Jay

 

Hello Jay

 

4000 kids is a big number to keep interested.

 

Like most have said, big machinery always seems to impress but we've found that often its the 'little' things that get their real interest.

 

We've led some workshops and walk talks where just getting them up close to trees to show them how they work from root to tip sparks their imagination.

This usually leads to a pretty interesting discussion with questions that only young minds can think of.

Guy's (Treeseer) suggestion of a cross section ring count with dates of significant events marked out always seems to be a good one.

A soft faced hammer to 'listen' to decay in trunks can be pretty interactive

Stripping down a saw is relatively quick and easy & ticks the 'how does it work' box.

Fungi presentation & a show and tell on how the individual parts of trees like seed, leaves and bark differ between species and tree types.

 

Demonstrations of work like air spading, bracing & pruning are always going to be a crowd puller & of course getting them off the ground will leave them with the best memory.

 

One word of caution, have a think about whether your insurance covers you for anything that you do which may expose the children to hazards but usually a risk assessment of what ever you do should suffice. Also if any recording goes on of your part of the event think about permission to film etc....

 

Most of all, enjoy, its a real buzz sharing your knowledge with kids.

 

Good luck with it, let us know how it goes

 

.

[woodrich]

Stand a few children around the tree.

Then ask them to add more children to make a circle to show how far it's roots spread out.

The winner can fell it.

Only joking.

 

If you're not OCD let them try wearing some ppe or a harness.

 

Sent from my GT-S5839i using Arbtalk mobile app

Edited April 21, 2014 by woodrich

[treequip]

I used to run the kids tree at the ISA climbing events.

 

My advice would be,........... don't do that, its a lot of work.