In our first session, we thought about the impact that deforestation would have on our class butterfly – the White-Letter Hairstreak. The White-Letter Hairstreak relies on elm trees for their habitat, if there were no more elm trees, the butterfly would lose its habitat and wouldn’t be able to survive. We learnt how to make origami butterflies and used them to create the leaves on the tree. This shows how important trees are for butterflies.

For our second Courageous Advocacy session, we have become Woodland Ambassadors. We have been looking out to the world to see how we can help trees and looking up in awe and wonder at how amazing trees are especially in Autumn, when all the colours are so beautiful!

We have learned that trees do so much for us. They clean our air, they make homes for animals and they give people lovely places to play and relax. To learn more, we went for a walk around the woods by Tom Burt’s Hill. We looked carefully to see how many different trees we could find. We even used magnifying glasses to look closely at the leaves and we felt the different textures of the bark. It made us realise just how amazing trees really are, each one is different and special in its own way. 

After our walk, we created posters to spread the word about how important trees are and why we need to protect them. We want everyone to remember that we need trees. So please, take care of them, respect them, and enjoy them. Maybe next time you go outside, look up at a tree and think “How wonderful you are!”

To continue with our project, we went tree planting! We got on a coach to Seer Green and arrived at a small farm where they grow grapes. At the farm, we were planting a hedgerow, which is a long row of trees. This hedgerow will help local wildlife and provide homes for animals like hedgehogs.

We had to do lots of digging first to make space to plant the trees. There were lots of saplings we needed to plant and we had to make sure all of the roots were covered in soil. After planting each sapling, we stamped down the soil carefully. This is really important because air gaps in the soil could let water in, if it freezes it could harm the sapling.

Once we had planted all the saplings in an area, we covered them with a layer of compost. This helps them grow by giving them extra nutrients. Each sapling also needed a bamboo pole to support it and we put a plastic tube around it to protect it. We planted 80 metres of hedgerow. By planting these trees, we are helping the environment, supporting animals and making our world a greener, happier place.