Seedlings at Schools: if you go down to the woods today...

It was a bright blue day and the sun shone from an aquamarine sky as we travelled across the roaring roads, through the old silent churchyard, beside the bending, bubbling river and across the wobbly bridge to get to the edge of the deep woods.

Then onwards, quietly and carefully, up through the winding path between dying bluebells and into the centre of the faerie kingdom. All the while keeping our eyes and ears open for any signs of the little people or their magical creatures.

The valiant souls from Year 1 at Ashlands Primary School in Ilkley had reached their base camp and were now resting after their arduous trek. We sat and rested in the dappled light of the woodland floor and listened to stories about how the magical creatures had been forced to move and had come to Ilkley to find new homes and start new lives. The children all agreed that this was very sad and wanted to help the creatures settle into their new wood.

They decided to build some new homes for the animals and started to construct fantastic houses made out of wood, stone and other natural materials.

After much hard work the job was done and the creatures moved in to live happily ever after.

So if you are ever in the deep woods in Ilkley watch out for the homes made for our magical creatures and if the houses look a bit weatherworn and are falling down please spend a couple of moments rebuilding them so they can live on in peace and harmony and protect our wood for evermore.

The Seedlings at Schools project is part of Bettys ongoing Trees for Life work. Ian Johnson, Education Officer at Groundwork, has been busy teaching children about the importance of trees through hands-on woodland themed activities.