National Tree Week - Year 6 Using Ratios to Plant Trees

In Maths this week, the Year 6 children have been learning about ratio and proportion. Being National Tree Week, it seemed the perfect opportunity to test out their numeracy skills by challenging them to plant a mixed hedge, using some of the trees kindly donated by the Woodland Trust. http://www.woodlandtrust.org.uk

Their first task was to identify the different species of tree, divide them in to groups and count how many were in each group. The four different species they would be planting were osier, hawthorn, goat willow and downy birch .

Once all the trees had been counted, the children calculated what proportion of the total was represented by each species of tree. Based on these proportions, they decided in which ratios to plant the trees. Finally it was time to get planting.

Despite very cold conditions, the children worked valiantly and managed to plant hundreds of trees between them.

In the afternoon, the Year 4 Forest School group continued the good work and added a layer of bark around the base of the trees to help suppress the grass.

Hopefully, the damp loving trees will thrive on our boggy ground. If we are really lucky, we may even be able to train the willow over the path to create an archway.