Student Involvement in Planting

In all cases, students and teachers should be involved in the planting process. Trees and shrubs lend themselves to this well. Without question, students from fifth grade on up can dig, plant, and fill bare root stock, and ball and burlap trees. First-graders can do everything after the hole is dug for bare root stock, but need more supervision with ball and burlap and its deeper holes. In all cases, teams and the buddy system work best for trading off on digging, filling, tamping, and carrying water.

Discussion beforehand should inform students 1) where trees grow and why; 2) how wildlife use trees for food and shelter; 3) the species being planted; 4) how to plant these trees; 5) why it's important to tamp soil to remove air pockets; and 6) what the trees will look like in the future.

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