Marina Levitina Heritage in Schools Workshop
On the 12th of March, we had a workshop with herbalist Marina Levitina from Heritage in Schools. Marina lives and works in a newly formed Lough Grainey Nature Sanctuary, near Flagmount in East Clare. She loves plants, the dandelion being her favourite, and it is her mission to inspire children and adults to reconnect with nature in these busy times.
We started the day in the Senior Room by asking each child to name their favourite flowers and trees. Marlon loves oak trees as they can grow into many different shapes. Killian loves the ash tree as we get hurleys from it! Béibhinn loved the hawthorn tree, Ellie loves the willow tree because you can climb them and Orlaith loves the cacao tree even though we don't find that in the wild in Ireland!
We visualised how the trees, plants and flowers are different to us. Alex suggested that they are different because they don't have abilities for self defense mechanisms, but after further discussions, we thought of plants like the Venus Fly Trap and Mimosa plant which closes up when it's touched. Interesting discussion! Then we discussed our similarities- we need earth, water and food to live.
Marina showed a powerpoint about our similarities. We imagined oxygen as being blue in colour and carbon dioxide as being red. We breathed in 'blue' and breathed out 'red' CO2. Marina had placed a pot with a hawthorn plant (which we called Jasmine) and a dandelion (called Jimmy!) and we imagined the plants breathing out what we need to breathe in and vice versa. It made us more aware of the fact that we are so closely connected with nature. We heard that leaves have little openings, like mouths, called stomata which they breathe through. We saw how plants react to light and actually saw Jimmy the dandelion react to the light in our classroom during the morning!We were delighted to see him move towards the light and open his petals during our talk. We heard that plants respond to touch, they can smell another plant and can even communicate with each other!We heard how scientists found that roots are connected under the forest floor and the trees send information to each other, the mother tree sends nutrients to the younger tree, just like humans!Then, we heard the plant playing music, really! Just look!!!
Later that morning, we went out to show Marina our flowering hedgerow that we planted some weeks before. She was delighted with our work in the Bee Loud Glade- Buzzing project and was encouraged to see how engaged our children were with the issues facing climate change and their understanding of actions needed to help. Diarmuid had a nice chat with one of our trees!
To warm us up after our very cold walk, Marina made herbal tea from Elder flower. It was a very interesting taste, lots of us liked it, some were unsure and a few of us thought it was nice to try but we wouldn't be getting a refill!!
Later, with the Middle and Junior Room we had a dance to respond to music and visualised ourselves as being tiny seeds growing up through the soil. Fionn Carr told us he loves daffodils, Lily's favourite flower is..... yes, the Lily, and Ella loves lavender because it smells nice, rose because it is her middle name and bluebells because they remind her of spring!We all got a thread and made a wish or said a prayer as we hung them on the branches.
We heard a lovely story and best of all, Marina connected a machine to the leaves of the dandelion and we all could hear the music from the flower!We never heard anything like it before and we are sure that we won't forget Marina's workshop the next time we see dandelions outside!Thank you Marina, Jimmy the dandelion and Jasmine the Hawthorn, we hope to see you soon in Lough Grainey Nature Sanctuary!
Click on the link below to see Marina's website.
Thank you again Marina, we had a great day and now we know how a dandelion sounds!!Keep singing!!
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