Lá na gCrann - Rang 3 and 4 visit to Marl Bog in Dundrum

‘If Trees Could Talk’ by 4^th classOn a wet, miserable Thursday afternoon, we left the school at 12.30pm and headed to Dundrum. It was ‘Tree Day’ and we were looking forward to exploring the Marl Bog. When we arrived the carpark was full of buses. We were met by Michael Collins the Forest Ranger. The first tree we saw was a douglas fir and Michael showed us the bench that was made in the local sawmill from one of these trees. We saw more trees such as ash, oak, birch, sycamore, chestnut and beech on our way around the duckpond. On our walk we saw a swan. We also stopped to see a sluas gate. This is to control the water in the lake. There were lots of islands in the lake with bridges linking them. Next we meet Seán Breen who showed us lots of stuffed animals that you would find in Irish forests. These animals were  deers, squirrels, otters, ducks, hedgehogs, bats, pheasants, owls, rats, mice,  shrews and other birds. We all thought the bat box was very interesting. This helps people to track bats at night. On our way back to the bus we saw mushrooms, burrows and badger setts. Michael told us trees are not cut down until they are forty years old and they have to remove the ivy from the tree or the tree will die. We collected pinecones, bark, ferns and leaves for our school nature table.

TREE DAY/LÁ NA GCRANN

by Ross Minogue

  On 11^th October, we went on a field trip.  We went to the forest in Dundrum Woods on a bus.  When we were in the bus, we saw fields that were flooded.  They were flooded because the weather was bad.  When we got to Dundrum we met a man who told us about the different types of trees that were there.  We saw lots of pine cones and they were rock solid.  I collected them for our nature table in school.  We saw an oak tree that was two hundred and fifty years old.  It was slanted and very tall.  The man told us that the tree grew from one single acorn.   Then we saw a show explaining which animals you might see in a forest.  The man had a stuffed head of a deer.  He said it was done by a taxidermist.  He then held up lots of animals including a squirrel, a hedge hog and a pheasant for us to see and told us where you might find them.  We saw a swan too.  We saw a beech tree that was a hundred years old.  As we were passing by, the man showed us a silver birch and another tree with its roots sticking out.  They were really big.   We saw lots of interesting things.  I would love to go there again.  On the way back we got to sit in the back seats of the bus.  We were back in school at 2.50pm.