'Schools Out'

K E N T O R C H A R D S F O R E V E R Y O N E

P R E S E N T S

A M E D L E Y O F A C T I V I T I E S F O R K S 1 A N D K S 2  

F R A M I N G T H E L A N D S C A P E

C O N T A C T U S A T   M A I L @ K E N T D O W N S . O R G . U K 0 1 3 0 3 8 1 5 1 7 0

Congelow Trust

Kent Orchards

for Everyone

Traditional Orchards Learn about traditional orchards and why they are such important habitats

Teaching Notes: Round, shiny red apples,

deep purple plums, sweet

cherries, crunchy cobnuts

and juicy pears are just some

of the fruits and nuts

produced in our traditional

orchards in Kent. Traditional

orchards are now being

recognised as vital refuges for

wildlife. They often contain a

mosaic of habitats, including

scrub, hedgerows and

grasslands, as well as fruit

trees of varying ages and an

abundance of dead and decaying wood, all of which can support a wide range of plants and

animals.

Traditional Orchards are

becoming more and more

extinct. They are defined

as an orchard with more

than five trees spaced

between 8 – 10 metres

apart. They are managed

so that there is little or no

use of chemicals and

inorganic fertilisers; these

old trees are allowed to

reach the veteran stage;

and grassland is seasonally

grazed with sheep or cut for hay. These traditional orchards are good for both fruit and wildlife

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and will have a huge diversity of insects. Ladybirds and

hoverflies will be attracted to the area and pollinators

like bees and wasps will benefit from the orchard floor

covered with nectar-rich flowers, while many species of

invertebrates, from the common woodlice to the rare

noble chafer beetles, depend on the dead wood left

standing or fallen in orchards.

Autumn is a great time to visit an orchard. In

preparation for the cold months ahead, mammals,

insects, bats and birds feast on fallen fruit. Fungi

like field mushrooms and bracket fungus emerge

on the orchard floor or on tree trunks. Mistletoe,

is often found on apple trees – spread by mistle

thrushes and other birds that feast on its berries.

Wildlife Found in the Traditional Orchard

Hedgehog, badger, fox, field vole, bat, dormouse,

robin, wren, blue tit, bullfinch, chaffinch, great

spotted woodpecker, green woodpecker, fieldfare,

redwing, mistle thrush, noble chafer beetle, orange

tip butterfly, red admiral butterfly, bumblebee,

ladybird, mistletoe, ivy, holly, mistletoe, yellow rattle,

oxeye daisy, cowslip and orchids, birds and butterflies, dragonflies, snails, squirrels and much,

much more. Notice the squirrel’s tail hanging out of a

woodpecker hole, did he move in?

Your Community Orchard

Meet up with your local orchard warden who will take you

on a walk round your community orchard and they will

answer all of your questions. If they are unavailable speak

with a member of the countryside Management

Partnership’s below and they will be able to support you.

http://www.kentorchards.org.uk/

http://www.midkentdowns.org.uk/

http://www.medwayvalley.org/

http://www.nwkcp.org/

http://msep.org.uk/

Congelow Trust

Kent Orchards

for Everyone

School Activity: Framing the Landscape Discover what tales beholds in the

‘Mapping Imagination and the Landscapes of Traditional Orchards; a Sense of Place’

Resources

Sketchbook

Pens, pencils and paints

Camera, smart phone, video camera, all optional Orchard photographs

Paper or other medium to display their artwork

Examples of fruit maps and travel posters

Long twig/stick with string attached at one end

Computer with access to google

Ordinance survey map of the area

Compasses

Risk assessment, First aid kit and mobile phone

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Orchard Textures Framed

Pre-visit (15 mins)

Activity 1

• Discuss the

opportunities

for sketchbook

work on your

chosen orchard

and show

pupils

photographs of

traditional

orchards.

• Look at artists

who have

worked from

nature, e.g.,

David Nash,

Norman Ackroyd, Francis Hatch and Samuel Palmer.

During the visit (30 mins)

Activity 1

• Visit your closest

community orchard.

• Give the pupils a twig with

string attached (Map

Stick) and ask them to

collect items as they walk

round the orchard. They

need to think about colour and

texture to depict the route they walked round the

orchard.

• Ask the pupils to draw their impressions of the site in

their sketches and words. Photographs can be taken at

varying angles as well.

• Ask the pupils to focus on details and textures of features in the orchard.

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The textures such as

the bark of the

cherry tree may

remind the

pupils of

exploding

fireworks.

The lichens

of scrunched

wire; just let

their

imagination run

wild!

After the visit (30mins)

Activity 1

• Use the sketched and photo images to create a piece of work inspired by the site in the form

of a map. It can be a collage including other materials that are available.

Digital Resources

http://www.normanackroyd.com

http://www.franceshatch.co.uk/dorset-coast.html https://www.artexpertswebsite.com/pages/artists/palmer.php

http://www.alecfinlay.com/ look for ‘The Orchard’

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Activities

Map Sticks

Time: 15 minutes

Materials: lengths of string, scissors, maybe thread, wool or thin twine, found twigs

Organisation: Map sticks are a way of recording landscapes without pencils and

paper. Here is a way of mapping experiences: encouraging people to think back over

a workshop and chart activities and their personal

responses to them as colours wrapped, found

materials lied, or little models bound onto the

sticks. Rummage, collect thinking all the while,

and bind wood onto a twig adding features as

you go.

Hints:

o Scrape bark off sticks where possible.

o You could always just use natural

sources of colour and stain scraped

wood with mud and juice, bind with

wool and plant fibre.

o For younger groups glue can be run or

double-sided tape along the sticks to

help with the process.

o Encourage people to make their own

minds up about colours to use for

exciting moments and achievements.

They do not need to conform to

stereotypes about the language of

colour. (red = anger, grey = dull!)

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Memories and Thoughts Framed

Pre-visit (15mins)

Activity 2

Discuss the local landscape, orchards and meadows and find out what they might

mean to the pupils. Use images of your local community orchard or an orchard near

you, a meadow or your closest open space be it park of the countryside; remember

that five trees constitute an orchard.

http://webapps.kent.gov.uk/KCC.KLIS.Web.Sites.Public/ViewMap.aspx

Images can be found on www.kentorchards.org.uk

During the visit (30 mins)

Activity 2

• Visit the community

orchard.

• Ask pupils in groups to take

selfies or photos at places

that appeal to them in the

orchard and make a record

either recorded or written

of why.

• Do they have any

memories of the orchard

when they were younger?

Did they play in the

orchard or scrump fruit in

the orchard?

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Notice the cherry orchards planted on the diagonal

• Record what they like about

the orchard now. Ask the

pupils to draw or write what

they think it looked like 100

years ago? What fruit might

have been growing there?

When they used to plant

cherries they planted them on

the diagonal and other fruit on

a square gird. Look at aerial

maps and see if you can pick

out the cherry orchards. Kent

has digitised aerial maps on

google earth and ‘Kent

Landscape Information

Systems’ click on map views

and you can look at the 1946

aerial photography.

http://webapps.kent.gov.uk/KCC.KLIS.Web.Sites.Public/ViewMap.aspx

• Were there orchards where your community orchard now stands and what

biodiversity might have been living in the orchard at the time?

• Discuss how they would imagine it in 100 years’ time? Think about how farmers

have been grubbing out the old traditional orchards for years. Will the biodiversity

be lost, will there be a housing estate on the orchard?

After the visit (30mins)

Activity 2

• Combine the drawings, photos and audio recordings into an audiovisual presentation about

the site, themselves and their links to the area. A PowerPoint presentation or small film or

just a series of large posters could be used.

Digital Resources

http://webapps.kent.gov.uk/KCC.KLIS.Web.Sites.Public/ViewMap.aspx

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Every picture tells a story

Pre-visit ( 15mins)

Activity 3

• Learn how to read a map and the points of the compass. (See Teachers Notes)

http://education.kentdowns.org.uk/downloads/assets/map-reading-teachers-

guide.pdf

• A map can tell a story using the characters in the key of a map; maybe there is a

picnic site there or a

castle indicated on the

map! Ask the pupils to

study the maps of

today and of Edward

Hasted which date

back to the 1800’s.

• Study Hasted’s desire

to tell stories in his

paintings through the

way he depicts

landscape features

through shading. Does

each valley remind

them of roots or

branches? Hasted lived

in Kent he was born at

Huntingfield near

Eastling in Kent and then

moved to the Hoo peninsular where Charles dickens came from. He and a group of

landscape mappers mapped Kent. They wrote about the landscape characters of

each village and town including the local manors, the landscape features and

characters of importance within in the locality.

http://britishlibrary.georeferencer.com/map/9HS9cr0mO6XULrOCuvOcYc/201610201402-

AcCIOE/visualize

http://www.bl.uk/onlinegallery/onlineex/ordsurvdraw/e/zoomify82566.html

• Compare Hasted’s maps with today’s ordinance survey maps, one has a key and the

other is based on 3D through shading.

• Think about stories you would like to tell about the habitat features and what

biodiversity exists in your local community orchard in the form of a map.

Biodiversity is all forms of life.

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During the visit (30 mins)

Activity 3

• Every pupil carries their own special map around

with them; in this case it becomes a tree passport.

Ask them to look at their hands and then with a

water soluble pen trace the main lines on the palm

of one of their hands. Do this just before they leave

for the orchard and this becomes their tree passport

lines to their very own special place in the orchard.

• Ask the pupils to find a vantage point in the community orchard to tell their story

map. This point is where their tree passport lines match the branches in the trees

above. It could be small branches or large branches. (See Activities at the end for

more information.)

• Firstly ask the pupils to work out which direction is north.

• Ask them to decide the grid pattern on which the fruit trees are planted is it north

south/east west. For example it could be northwest southeast/northeast southwest,

or does it follow the hedge line. Is there a grid line pattern to the orchard?

• Note the orientation of the orchard using a compass in their sketch book.

• Take photos and make notes and sketches in the sketch book of all of the features

and biodiversity in the orchard at their vantage point for their story/poem/art map.

After the visit (30mins)

Activity 3

• Work your notes and photos into a work of art using the

medium of your choice, it may be a collage or written, it

might be the whole classroom or groups amalgamating their

work. Take a photo of the artwork and ask for it to be placed

on www.kentorchards.org.uk

Digital Resources

http://education.kentdowns.org.uk/downloads/assets/map-reading-teachers-guide.pdf

http://britishlibrary.georeferencer.com/map/9HS9cr0mO6XULrOCuvOcYc/201610201402-

AcCIOE/visualize

http://www.bl.uk/onlinegallery/onlineex/ordsurvdraw/e/zoomify82566.html

www.kentorchards.org.uk

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Activities

Tree Passports

Time: 15 minutes

Materials: handful of water soluble felt pens

Organisation: Everybody scatters into ones or twos.

‘We are young and to the trees around us we live short

human lives. But out here in these orchards there will be a

tree that has been waiting for you for years. A friend you

have never met before, a friend who you can sit beside

and talk to, who may have secrets to share with you. And

we all of us hold a secret key that will help us find that one

special tree…’

Draw in three or four of the lines on your palm and look in

the branches of the trees around you for this pattern to

be repeated. This is demonstrated in the image to the

right. It might be on a large scale among the branches, it

might be found in the smallest twigs at the end of a branch, but somewhere that pattern

will be waiting. The tree that holds your palm pattern is your tree. You may find that you

share your tree with someone else, but trees are large and full of friendship. Trust your

fruit tree to accommodate several people.

If anyone cannot have pen lines drawn in, for whatever reason you can share a moment

with them and show them their pattern, maybe tracing the line with a twig so they can be

sure of what they are looking for.

Culture is a matter of taste and variety

taste is subjective and varies according to soil and climate orchards are a product of classical humanism and vernacular tradition the apple is the greatest product of English culture fruit offers a rounded history an orchard is a wood infused with blossom an orchard is an archive of locality

the only sure security lies in diversity be gentle to the root for the best fruit we prune for form : content follows pruning is training – with a knife fertility cannot be forced at the point of a blade for John Butterworth, author of Apples in Scotland.

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The Travelled Landscape

Pre-visit (15mins)

Activity 4

• Look at a selection of

promotional travel posters for

the Garden of England, Kent

on Google images. Google

‘Kent Train Posters’. Discuss

the messages they are

conveying and what messages

you might wish to convey

today. This post is depicting

the village of Newington near

Sittingbourne in the middle of

the fruit growing area of the ‘Faversham Fruit Belt’

During the visit (30 mins)

Activity 4

• Visit your local community orchard to experience the

ambience of the surroundings.

• Take photographs and do sketches to support the message

the pupils want to promote to visitors to the orchard.

• Focus on traditional orchards or orchards in general but best

focus on the particular community orchard they are visiting.

After the visit (30mins)

Activity 4

• Create the finished poster and present it to the class. How does it make them feel,

do, they want to visit this very special place?

Digital Resources

Google ‘Kent Train Posters’

Congelow Trust

An example of a ‘Listening Map’

Song and Solitude Framed

Pre-visit (15mins)

Activity 5

• Tell the children about a magic spot. A magic spot is where each person finds a quiet

spot which feels very comfortable to them and sits quietly for about 3 minutes and

contemplates events and how they fit into

their bigger picture

• Ask the class to be as quiet as they can,

ask each one of them what they can hear.

Is the sound a high pitch or low pitched

sound, is it a long continuous sound or

short sound. Each sound can be

translated into a shape for example a

small arrow pointing upwards above the

line could donate a sharp high pitch

sound, lots together could be a bird

chirping. A long low dark heavy line could

be the drone of traffic on a motorway. A

training travelling over tracks could be a

zigzag line for the clickety with a larger

zig zag for the clack. For the alarm sound of

a bird it could be a single dot.

• Ask the children to find their magic spot in the school grounds

• Ask the children to have a practice run to interpret the sounds that they can hear

outside their classroom.

During the visit (15 mins)

Activity 5 • Cut a piece of card into four and give one with a pencil to each of the pupils.

• Visit the orchard.

• Ask the pupils to find their magic spot in the orchard and either look at the branches

and see what is happening above or the focus on the grass to see if it is moving or

something is moving around it. But it is very important to keep as quite as possible.

• After three minutes ask them over the next 5 minutes to record on their piece of

paper the sounds they heard in the form of a listening map. Tell them when to start

recording and when to stop.

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Ask the pupils what they heard; was it a bird or a train was it an animal or was it the

wind?

After the visit (30mins)

Activity 5

Ask the pupils to write their name on their ‘Listening Map’.

Ask the pupils to get into groups of about six and ask them to choose and instrument

from the selection the school has.

Take one of the ‘Listening Maps’ and then ask the children to interpret that using the

instruments, e.g. where there is high pitched sounds use a recorder with a high note.

Where there are dots use a drum, and for a continuous sound try playing a lower

long note on the recorder. Where there is a small zigzag note use maracas and so on.

Once they have perfected the one Listening Map ask the pupils to try the rest in the

group and then put them all together.

Once the children have practiced their Listening Map ask each group to run through

them following one after the other to form an ‘Overture of the Orchard’.

At the end of the day the Listening Maps can then be kept in the pupils pockets to

remind them of their visit to the orchard and the marvellous bird song and other

sounds they heard on that day.

Digital Resources for each Activity

http://www.normanackroyd.com

http://www.franceshatch.co.uk/dorset-coast.html https://www.artexpertswebsite.com/pages/artists/palmer.php

http://webapps.kent.gov.uk/KCC.KLIS.Web.Sites.Public/ViewMap.aspx

http://education.kentdowns.org.uk/downloads/assets/map-reading-teachers-guide.pdf

http://britishlibrary.georeferencer.com/map/9HS9cr0mO6XULrOCuvOcYc/201610201402-

AcCIOE/visualize

http://www.bl.uk/onlinegallery/onlineex/ordsurvdraw/e/zoomify82566.html

Congelow Trust

Kent Orchards

for Everyone

Map Reading Discover how to read an ordinance survey map

Teaching Notes: This is an opportunity for the pupils to learn how to use a map and identify various features in the landscape from a map.

Map Reading North is always facing vertical towards the top of the map as you would read a book. Method:

1. Hold the compass still until the arrow in the centre has stopped moving.

2. Turn around until the arrow is pointing to N on the compass dial.

3. Now you have located north. 4. Place the map below the compass

and line up the blue vertical grid lines on the map with the north compass point. Make sure the north compass point is pointing to the top of the map. Maps are always printed so that north is directly at the top of the page.

5. The map and compass are now aligned in the correct orientation.

6. If you know approximately where you are on the map look around identify a landmark. Locate this landmark on the map it will be in the same direction as you are looking.

7. The compass coordinates can now be read for the direction in which the landmark lies.

8. A map key shows various features which can be found on a map e.g. road type, footpath, church, wood, parking, etc. see some of them below.

Orchard Car Park Church with Nature Footpath Spire Reserve

Map Reading - Yalding. Kent Orchards for Everyone Education Project.

Map Reading - Yalding

Identifying landscape features

Locate a wood on the map and label it ‘woodland’.

Locate a footpath on the map and label it ‘footpath’.

2

Name

Learning where north is on a map

Label the four main compass points: north, south, east and west on the compass on the map. If you can, add the four points in between. Use your compass to help.

The Compass

1.

2.

Reading the key and recognising landscape features on the map

Find two features you can see in the key but cannot find on the map and write the answers in the boxes.

3 Road

Minor Road

Footpath

Bridle Way

Church

Contours

Wood

Orchard

Nature Reserve

Telephone

Parking

or

6075

Key

Congelow Trust

Kent Orchards

for Everyone

School Activity: Framing the Landscape Learning outcomes

Curriculum Links: Art and Design, Geography, History, English,

Programme of Study

Key Stage 1 Art and Design to use a range of materials creatively to design and make products

to use drawing, painting and sculpture to develop and share their ideas, experiences and imagination

to develop a wide range of art and design techniques in using colour, pattern, texture, line, shape, form and space

about the work of a range of artists, craft makers and designers, describing the differences and similarities between different practices and disciplines, and making links to their own work

Geographical skills

and fieldwork

use simple compass directions (north, south, east and west) and locational and directional language [for example, near and far, left and right], to describe the location of features and routes on a map

use aerial photographs and plan perspectives to recognise landmarks and basic human and physical features; devise a simple map; and use and construct basic symbols in a key

use simple fieldwork and observational skills to study the geography of their school and its grounds and the key human and physical features of its surrounding environment

History changes within living memory – where appropriate, these

should be used to reveal aspects of change in national life

Year 2 Writing

Composition

develop positive attitudes towards and stamina for writing by:

writing about real events

writing poetry

writing for different purposes

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Key Stage 2 Art and Design to create sketch books to record their observations and use them to review and revisit ideas

to improve their mastery of art and design techniques, including drawing, painting and sculpture with a range of materials [for example, pencil, charcoal, paint, clay]

about great artists, architects and designers in history

History a local history study

Locational

knowledge

name and locate geographical regions and their identifying human and physical characteristics, key topographical features (including hills, mountains, coasts and rivers), and land-use patterns; and understand how some of these aspects have changed over time

Geographical skills

and fieldwork

use the 8 points of a compass, 4- and 6-figure grid references, symbols and key (including the use of Ordnance Survey maps) to build their knowledge of the United Kingdom and the wider world

use fieldwork to observe, measure record and present the human and physical features in the local area using a range of methods, including sketch maps, plans and graphs, and digital technologies

Year 5 and 6 Reading

Comprehension

maintain positive attitudes to reading and an understanding of what they read by:

preparing poems and plays to read aloud and to perform, showing understanding through intonation, tone and volume so that the meaning is clear to an audience

Thank you to our funders

Congelow Trust