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Plans for a one year pond study
Week Two
My mum once again accompanied us to the pond, a fact I was very grateful for as pond study doesn’t seem to be holding the little ones’ attention. Imagine that. This week we decided to familiarise ourselves with our chosen tree. Here were our goals:
- Take a photo of the tree
- Do a bark rubbing for our nature journal
- Measure the circumference and height of the tree and make a note of them at the back of our journal
- Identify any plant in symbiosis with the tree
- Attempt to identify the tree
First though, here are some photos of the wildlife seen last Monday:




This week we weren’t there for the wildlife alone. We wanted to know what tree we had decided to study:

I still didn’t have the foggiest clue. We began with a bark rubbing:


Next up was measuring the circumference, which T11 did using a piece of string. Our plan is to remeasure at the end of the year and see if it has changed much. I had also researched how to work out the height of the tree using this website
I’m thinking the people of our village were wondering exactly what was going on!


Next we looked at the plant life growing on the tree and we found lichen and Ivy:



It was interesting that the children straight away said that the presence of lichen meant that the air quality was good and pollution was low. Thank you Apologia Plant Biology! I kinda wished we’d noticed last week when we were studying pollution! When we come back to pollution we will take a look at the Lichen underneath the microscope
And finally I wanted us to try to figure out exactly what tree we were studying. The bark rubbings were a start and I also asked the children to scout around and pick up any leaves which had fallen under the tree. These were the three types we collected:

Whilst doing some research I had happened upon this website which had a lovely downloadable key to identifying trees in the winter by their buds. Oh, was I happy! Help at last! So back we went to the tree, with Gary in tow. Gary works in the horticultural industry so was immediately able to identify it (irritating, no?) but I was thankful he kept it to himself until the children had tried by themselves using the id guide:



Black buds which belong to an………Ash tree! So there you have it. This year our tree study will be all about the Ash by the pond side! Next week we will be concentrating on the fauna and flora of the pond area, and I’m really looking forward to it.
I am taking a blogging break until the Tuesday after Easter, apart from posting next weeks pond study, when I will reveal our very first journal page, on Thursday. I hope everyone has a wonderful Easter break.