Pupils of Summerhill Prep School had muddy hands and feet and big smiles on their faces after planting trees on Arbor Day last week.
Each year the school plants several trees and puts classes in charge of them.
Pupils assembled to learn more about Arbor Week and the importance of trees. Interesting facts included that one tree produces 117kg of oxygen a year and two supply enough for a family of four.
The speaker also mentioned that people eat more wood than they know as certain KFC, McDonald’s and Kellogg’s products contain wood cellulose. The same component is also used in lipstick and toothpaste.
They then headed out to the sport field where the preschool section had the chance to plant its tree first. The Transvaal gardenia shrub was placed in the ground and the young pupils were summoned to help compact the soil by “dancing” on it.
The rest of the school then split into groups of two grades per tree and had the opportunity to learn about it, plant and
water it.
The grade seven group was placed in charge of a Transvaal red milkwood and had loads of fun carefully planting it.
