Timber!

[Stargrower]

We have a huge conifer in our nursery garden which has become unsafe and is being taken down on Monday.  The children will be able to watch from inside and I think I can say without any doubt that this will captivate a huge amount of interest.  I'm wondering already where we can go with this and wondered if you lovely people have any ideas?  Unfortunately I don't think we'll be left with any of the wood/trunk/branches as they contain a very sticky resin and aren't suitable for play.

[Panders]

Yes the sap thing is a bit of a bind because I could think of lots of things!!!    Could you measure the circumference of the  tree before the lumberjacks or lumberjills get to work and see how old it is and what was happening in the world when it was just a sapling, then once down I'm sure you could have a couple of slices to look at, see if you can see the rings inside.   

[finleysmaid]

building towers of blocks and shouting TIMBER!! identifying trees ans their leaves going on a tree spotting walk (when it's safe) bit of woodwork (watch kathy brodies video this week on ey tv)  collect the resin and use to start a fire. make stick men out of the sticks. or gods eyes if you;ve got some wool. make a saw mill role play area

[Rebecca]

How about trying to get prints of the resin on paper? Or making rubbings of the bark/rings etc with paper and wax crayons? If you do wax crayon rubbings and then paint wash them you get some cool results which would make nice backing paper for a display. Link to 'Stick Man' story and write the sequel 'Stick Man's new home'....