TITLE:  TREES, TREES, TREES!!!!

AUTHOR:  Vicki Vrooman, Holland Hall Middle School,
         Tulsa, OK

GRADE LEVEL/SUBJECT:  Appropriate for grades 2-5.

OVERVIEW:  The environment is an issue of great importance.  The more
knowledgeable a person is about the world around them, the better
prepared they are to maintain it.

PURPOSE:  The purpose of this activity is designed to increase students'
awareness and knowledge of trees.  They will be involved within the world
around them at home and at school and hopefully will become caretakers
of their environment.

OBJECTIVES:  As a result of this activity, the students will:

1.  Adopt and identify a specific tree of choice.

2.  Take a bark rubbing, draw a picture, read, and research about a
particular tree.

3.  Each student will write an original piece about their tree to include at
least three facts.  It can be a story, poem, song, play, acrostic, etc.

4.  Document changes throughout the year on their adopted tree.

5.  Learn the difference between deciduous and confiferous trees.

RESOURCES/MATERIALS:

Teacher materials:  Several literature books about trees.  Resource books
for identification about trees.  Any other materials you might already have
concerning trees.  Project Learning Tree and Project Wild books are a
great source.

Student materials:  construction paper, paper for the bark rubbing,
crayons, pencil, notebook paper.

ACTIVITIES AND PROCEDURES:

1.  At the end of a class period, with no rationale, ask students to take a
piece of paper and draw a tree or trees.  Don't ask for a particular type of
tree or size, etc.  Give them a good amount of time, at least 15 minutes.
They can keep the paper.

2.  The next class period, take the students on a nature walk.  Walk around
and observe the trees in the area surrounding your school(if possible).  Ask
the students to describe the trees to you.  Ask them to be specific about
what they see.  Notice differences and similarities.  

3.  Return to the classroom and give the students a piece of paper and ask
them to draw a tree or trees.  Give them a good amount of time, at least
15 minutes.  Then have the students compare the two sets of drawings and
discuss what they see.  Were the second drawings more detailed?  Were
they more aware of the shape of the trees, etc.?

4.  Read the book The First Forest by John Gile, The Giving Tree by Shel
Sylverstein and or other pieces of literature about trees.  Discuss some of
the specifics about trees, using vocabulary and identifying parts of the
tree.  Discuss the difference between confiferous and deciduous trees.

5.  Then take the students outside a second time and allow them to adopt a
tree.  The students will take a bark rubbing, a leaf, and draw a picture of
their tree.  When they return to the class the students will use reference
books and each other to try to identify their tree.

6.  When the students have researched a little about their tree, they will
write three facts about their tree in any form they wish.  They can write a
story, a poem, a song, a play, an acrostic, etc.

7.  Take all of the information from each student in the class and put
together a class scrapbook.

TYING IT ALL TOGETHER:

1.  Put the students materials together into a scrapbook.  I put the picture
with the name of the tree, the bark rubbing, and leaf on the first page.
Then I put the original piece the student created on the second page.  I
faced each students work toward each other.

2.  To draw in their parents, ask the students to go home and see if they
happen to have the same type of tree on their property at home.  When they
return with the results, tally everyone's information and graph it.  The
students can compare each of the classes and see if students happened to
choose a particular tree because it was familiar or not.

3.  When the scrapbook is finished allow the children to take the book
home for their families to see and allow their families to write comments
about the book in the back of the book on a comment page.

4.  After the families have viewed the scrapbooks, have them available in
the library for viewing and check out.

5.  You could also have other grades look at the scrapbook and then pair up
students and take the visiting grade on a nature walk and show them your
tree.

6.  You could also make a map of the campus and try to identify where your
tree is on the map.

7.  If you choose to do this activity in the fall, have the students watch
their tree throughout the year and have them document the changes that
occur as the seasons change.  This is fun for the students to see their tree
change.  They learn a lot.

8.  If you feel like this would be too difficult for one student, pair
students together and have them work in groups.