Salty Sam’s Fun Blog for Children
Number 557
The Farms Project
Hello Everyone
A lot of children nowadays worry about the future of the world.
They worry about all the environmental problems that we keep hearing about on the news.
The children in Miss Pringle’s class certainly do.
They know about Bill and Bob’s tree planting projects and wanted to join in.
“Okay,” said Miss Pringle. “Let’s make this a class project.”
So her class went out in a group to collect some tree seeds.
lt was a good opportunity to learn the names of some of the trees in the area. They would put pieces of writing and drawings up on one of their notice boards about their project and add some photos in too.
The seeds were bagged up into paper bags to be stored in Miss Pringle’s shed.
They were sorted and labelled first.
They need to be left in the cold over the winter. This is called vernalizing – l told you about this word last week.
Trees are developing seeds now and winter is on its way, so this was the time to collect them.
Then the plan is to plant the seeds into compost in seed trays in the spring. They can be left on the classroom window sills so that they get plenty of light.
The children can keep an eye on them and make sure they have water every week.
Any trees that sprout will be transferred into small pots and put outside.
Trees will be happy living outside because that is their natural home. They may need watering if there is no rain for a while. A small tree newly-planted needs gallons of water every week!
The tree seedlings will be potted up into larger pots as they grow.
They will be ready to be planted out in a couple for years. At this stage of their life they are called whips.
You could wait ten years or more, but then they would be very difficult to transport because they would be quite big by then.
Miss Pringle got in touch with some farmers who lived on farms further inland than Farmer Jenkins. Farmer Jenkins has planted a lot of trees on his farm already.
l have told you about that before.
She offered free trees to a few farmers.
They were all interested.
They have plenty of room on their land to plant trees, but farmers are very busy people and don’t always have time to grow trees from seed. But children with busy, little fingers can do things like that for them. Don’t forget to wash your hands after you have been picking up things outside.
Miss Pringle said that the children could come and plant the trees when they were big enough to be planted out.
She and some parents would come and help.
Of course, Captain Jack and l will help too.
Trees on farmland can be put into hedgerows and will take away no space from growing crops. Sometimes, hedges and lines of trees can protect crops from damaging winds. When grain crops are blown down by wind, yield is reduced.
Trees can also be put into the corners of fields where they won’t really get in the way, but every tree planted will increase the numbers on the planet.
lf they are planted into grass, they will need to be mulched so that the grass won’t choke them. When trees are very small they can have problems competing with grass.
Planting trees is such a simple thing to do to help save the planet, and if you grow them from seed the cost of growing them is very low. There have been so many forest fires in recent years that a lot of trees have been lost. lt would be wonderful if they could be replaced quickly.
So which types of seeds did the children collect?
Well, they did collect some acorns to grow some oaks. Oaks are just about the most valuable tree for wildlife in this part of the world. But oaks grow to be very big and you need to plant them in a place where they have plenty of room to grow.
You can test acorns to see if they are viable (ready to grow) by putting them in a bucket of water. The ones that float will not grow. There are lots of acorns to collect this year. lt is a mast year for acorns.
Field maples and hornbeams are much smaller and are also valuable to wildlife. They are good trees to put into hedgerows.
And so are hawthorns. They have red berries for birds to eat.
Sycamores are bigger than field maples but are very easy to grow. ln fact, you have to be careful where you put them because they can spread lots of little seedlings everywhere which get in the way.
So five different types of tree seeds were collected; the children did not collect any yew seeds because they are poisonous to animals, so yews are not the kind of trees you want to plant on farms.
lf the project is successful, l can see it being rolled out further.
The planet needs more trees!
We don’t know yet how many of the trees will grow, but we are sure that we will find homes for all of them!
Bye bye everyone – don’t forget to subscribe to my blog!
Love and kisses
Salty Sam
www.christina-sinclair.com
Bill and Bob’s Joke of the Week
Bob: l think Dad looks ill.
Bill: He thinks it’s a head cold, but it snot.
Salty Sam © Christina Sinclair 2015
Unauthorized use and/or duplication of material from this blog without express and written permission from this blog’s author and owner is strictly prohibited.
Links may be used to www.christina-sinclair.com
Picture Gallery
Field maple
Hornbeam
Acorns
An oak tree
Wildlife can shelter in dense hedgerows
THE SALTY SAM NEWS DESK
This week, Bill and Bob’s mum was a little annoyed.
A few weeks ago, the family had gone away for the weekend to visit family and while they were there they popped down to the corner shop where Bill and Bob’s mum saw a lot of bottles of nail polish in a display bin for a good price.
She thought the colours were nice so bought a few bottles.
But in the days to follow after she had got back home she found that the nail polish was weakening her nails. It was terrible stuff!
She was going to throw it away before it melted any more of her nails away!
But Bill and Bob had an idea.
They had some figures for their model railway that needed painting.
They thought that if they used the nail polish it might save them buying some paint.
There were quite a few colours there for them to paint different colour hair and clothes.
It was worth a try.
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Quick Quiz
All of these words and phrases mean to battle on – maybe despite difficult circumstances.
Can you work out what they are?
To not give up can build character and resilience and get you great rewards.
- T _ _ _ _ _ _ y
- R _ _ _ _ _ e
- P _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ e
- W _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ g the s _ _ _ m
- D _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ s
- P _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ e
- R _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ n
- S _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ s
- F _ _ _ _ _ _ _ e
- D _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ n
lt’s the Weekend!
HOW TO MAKE A SEA CREATURE l SPY GAME
Do you like drawing? Do you like playing games? Here is a really cool game you can make yourself.
This game is played just like battleships.
Firstly, you need to get two sheets of graph paper to draw charts on.
You will need two charts for each player – so two on each sheet.
Divide the sheets into half first.
Put letters along the bottom axis and numbers up the left side of each chart. Put as many as you have room for. Each of the four charts must be the same size.
Then select some sea creatures to put on one of your charts and represent them with a number of squares.
For example:-
1 whale 6 squares by 4
1 shark 5 squares by 4
2 electric eels 5 squares by 1
3 dolphins 5 squares by 3
3 turtles 4 squares by 3
4 jellyfish 4 squares by 2
6 crabs 4 squares by 4
6 seahorses 3 squares by 1
10 fish of just one square
The rectangles can lie vertically or horizontally.
You can draw pictures of the creatures inside the boxes you make if you like.
Your opponent will try and spot them all but with a telescope looking down from a boat they can only see one square at a time.
They will say for example, “C 10”.
If they choose a coordinate that is on a sea creature you have drawn on your chart, you must tell them what kind of creature they have spotted.
If they miss a creature with their choice of coordinate you can say a funny word like, “splosh!”
Mark the squares they call out on your chart with sea creatures drawn on it.
Of course, your chart must be hidden from the person you are playing against – they have to guess where the creatures are.
Then you will choose a coordinate like, say, “F 7”.
Mark off the squares you call out on your other chart (which will start out blank) with crosses.
See who can find all the creatures on their opponent’s chart first.
Please note that the material on this blog is for personal use and for use in classrooms only.
It is a copyright infringement and, therefore, illegal under international law to sell items made with these patterns.
Use of the toys and projects is at your own risk.
©Christina Sinclair Designs 2015
Quick Quiz Answers
- Tenacity
- Resolve
- Persistence
- Weathering the storm
- Doggedness
- Perseverance
- Resolution
- Steadfastness
- Fortitude
- Determination
