Woodland Education-getting our kids out playing in the woods!

Check out my friend Ciara's great coverage on Nationwide this week...
getting the kids out into the woods!

http://vimeo.com/65611610

Woodland Heritage Project in Wicklow

Early in 2012 we received LA21 funding from Wicklow County Council to run a  Woodland heritage Education Programme in Hollywood Woods,, Hollywood, Co. Wicklow. We worked with four different primary schools in the local area, bring them to the woods for a complete woodland immersion day. We played tracking and hide and sneak game, we deprived the kids of their sight by blindfolding them and leading them through the woods, we hunted for the bugs of the woodland, we tasted all the tasty edibles there are to be found in the ditches, looked at the trees talked about plants and their uses, we packed loads in and the day just flew, with the kids going home exhilarated and mucky and totally immersed in the woods! Job done!

For this project I linked up with my good friend and colleague Ciara Hinksman at Earthforce Education, you can check out what Ciara does here: http://www.earthforceeducation.com/

LOCAL AGENDA 21 - Donadea Tree Nursery Project!

GROW have been granted two Local Agenda 21 grants this year to continue on with our woodland education programme!! Yay! We've been successful for the first time in receiving a grant from Kildare County Council for this project, so finally getting stuck in locally with our beautiful North Kildare woods - Donadea Forest Park. We're hoping to be able to link in and work with the schools local to the area, and really make it a 'local' woodland education programme, with the main focus with this project being the development of a 'Tree Nursery Project', the idea being that in the autumn the kids will gather tree seeds from the woods, bring them to their school, build a nursery bed and plant the seeds in the bed. They will then be nursed and minded by the students and hopefully in the spring time then there will be a healthy bed of young saplings, with the idea that maybe in a couple of years time they might be able to plant the trees back into Donadea and plant a native woodland in their own school. Very exciting! If you're a school in the Donadea area please feel free to get in touch with us, we'd be delighted to hear from you! I'll be keeping the blog updated as the project develops!