On a beautiful, sunny, autumnal day in October 2015, the two 5th classes of St. Pius X G.N.S. headed off on a Tree Trail to Bushy Park. We were so excited! Ms. Smith and Ms. Judge had organised clipboards, maps, paper bags, cameras and A4 sheets of paper for each group. Six captains were chosen from each class to lead the teams. We chatted animatedly as we made our way to the park.
Tom from the Dublin City Parks met us at the Apple tree. He fascinated us with the amount of information he had. It turned out that the Giant Redwood, which was huge, was only a baby! As we walked around the park we were jotting down as many interesting facts as we could. We took lots of photos of the trees and picked up some interesting leaves. Walking towards every tree was so exciting as we didn’t know what story would be behind it! We looked at all the native trees and learned that these trees grew naturally in Bushy Park as the conditions are perfect for them. At one stage, Tom led us to the ruin of a shell house. He told us about the Shaw family. The dad had had the house built for his son who loved the sea and enjoyed collecting shells. We climbed through the windows and door and felt the shells cemented into the walls.
Each person collected an interesting object to research. As you can see, our excellent photographers took brilliant photos!
We were sad when it was time to go. We thanked Tom for his time and his wisdom!
That afternoon each group did a mini-project and presented their work to the rest of the class. We had a great day and learned so much about nature in Bushy Park.