On May 11, the MCFSC participated in the annual Earth Week activities at the Idyllwild School. This year we worked with K-2 grade students since our fall program was for middle school students. We started by reading tree rings for age and events recorded by the tree (fire, loss of branches, etc.) and rainfall. We also looked for bark beetle and blue stain fungus evidence on the tree rings.

Our next activity was a game called "Every Tree for Itself" in which kids identified what the requirements are for a healthy tree (sun, water and food). In the first round the students stood three feet apart each on a square of paper, and we scattered small squares of paper (yellow=sun, blue=water, green=food) around them. They had 15-20 seconds to pick up as many squares as they could without moving their feet. Then each child who was missing a color (essential ingredient for health) sat down because their tree died. Then the kids stood in groups of 4-5 and did the same thing. In this case many more trees are missing an essential ingredient for health because they were crowded together. To conclude we talked about what happens to trees when there are too many trees too close together, and what they can do at their homes to help the trees become healthy. The activity took about 30-40 minutes

This activity along with many other resources for environmental education were provided by Project Learning Tree (a national program) which conducts workshops. In California it is sponsored through the Calif. Dept. of Forestry and Fire Protection, and Fire Safe Council members are eligible to take their free workshops and get teaching materials on relevant topics.