Sleep over at Aaranya – The man made Forest

4th graders of IsaiAmbalam have built a pond as they were doing an EBD (Education By Design) project on water harvesting. When Sanjeev presented it in the SAIIER meeting, Saravanan the person who created the Aaranya forest came to Sanjeev and told him it was a nice effort. He also invited us to visit Aaranya forest one day.

We decided to visit the place with 35 children (4,5,6 and 7th graders of IsaiAmbalam). On 31st March we went to Aaranya. It was on Friday. We reached there around 5.00pm. Saravanan gave a little introduction to the place Aaranya and Started walking into the forest and we all followed him with great eagerness. He showed us the rare varieties of the tree like Red Sandalwood, Yellow Silk Cotton, Mullalamaram, Virali , a tree used to make Kajal (I forgot the name of the tree) etc. Also, he showed the flying fox, the wire bridge and the cuts in the ground. Children were very excited about those.

After the walk, we started the bonfire and it went for an hour or more. After having the dinner we all assembled in a room where the children shared what they have learned so far. Then, Saravaran showed a video about Aaranya for few minutes. Followed by that video he also played a video about wildlife. That was fun and informative.

Next morning, we all went to the forest again to fly in the flying fox, to walk in the wire bridge. Children told it was a nice experience ( unfortunately, I missed it ).

A child drew a picture of that place after we came back to school. From left the flying fox, the cuts in the ground, the wire bridge, yellow silk cotton, red sandalwood, mullalamaram, virali, the tree house, the tent where few of us slept in, the bonfire and the mesh room where everyone stayed.