Wednesday 13 August 2014

Brilliant Bark - Family Friendly Afternoon at Harcourt Arboretum


This week at Harcourt Arboretum our family friendly afternoon was all about bark! Bark is an essential part of trees and its look and texture vary between species. We wanted families to get a sense of this by going on our bark trail to see some of the different varieties we have on site and by gently touching the trees protective layer. From talking with children whilst they were making crafts it was clear that the favourite bark of the day came from a Prunus serrula, Chinese Cherry (it is my favourite too!). If you would like to see why and judge if it would be your favourite, come along to the Arboretum this week and take part in our Brilliant Bark Trail running until Monday 18th August 2014.

The crafts we had for the afternoon came from the pieces that naturally fall off our Pinus nigra, Corsican Pines and papery bark we collected from a Silver Birch that had to be taken down by our Arborists recently. We would never take bark off of a living tree. The families got to use these natural resources to make birch bookmarks, a matching pairs game, and a name band (depending on the length of their name the band could be a bracelet or headband or door sign).





 
The event went really well because of the number of participants and help from two wonderful volunteers. I thoroughly enjoyed helping to design this event and getting to work with children on their crafts in the afternoon. Families seemed to have enjoyed their time as well based on feedback we received and we had a good amount of repeat families attend who I hope will attend the next two as well.



 
 “I liked playing the game. I had fun.”
“I like my headband. We will come back.”
“I like making the bracelet. I liked using the bark.”
“I like making the book mark + looking at + feeling the bark”
“Lovely activity. Lots of helpful advice and guidance with great encouragement.”

Next Tuesday 19th August we will be finding out about Fabulous Flowers, for more information, please click here. Please come along from 1.00pm-4.00pm.


Corie Edwards.

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