To Be a Tree
Ask children: How many arms do you have? How many “arms” does a tree have? How do you use your arms? How does a tree use it’s “arms”? Do you have skin? Does a tree have “skin”? How is your skin different from a tree’s “skin”? Does your skin do the same thing? Do you have feet? Trees have feet too, we call them roots. What do your feet do? What to tree roots do?
Take children outside and have them find a place on the grass at least an arm’s length away from other children. Read “Grow from a seed” to them found on page 81 of Environmental Experiences for Early Childhood, have them act out what they hear as you read it. Encourage children to share their experience when you are done.
Take children on a walk to look for and explore tree parts. Compare tree parts, i.e. some trees have smooth bark while others have rough bark, leaves are different shapes and sizes, some trees are very tall, others are very small. Ask questions and encourage children to share their observations. Try making a class tree journal: http://www.nwf.org/activity-finder/outdoor-activities/tree-journal.aspx
Make tree costumes with paper grocery sacks. Precut sacks as shown on page 79 of Environmental Experiences for Early Childhood, making holes for arms, head and cutting up the front to make a vest. Allow children to decorate their vests by gluing leaves to the vest, and/or making leaf rubbings on the vests. Give children crowns made of leaves and yarn to tuck into their shoes to represent roots, have them act out the parts of trees!
For this and other great ideas use Environmental Experiences for Early Childhood’s “To Be a Tree”!
Book List
Behn, H. and J. Endicott. 1994. Trees. Henry Holt & Company, Inc.
Burnie, D. 2005. Plant. DK Publishing, Inc.
Burns, D. and L. Garrow. 1998. Leaves, Trees and Bark (Take-Along Guide). NorthWord Books for Young Readers.
Canizares, S. and P. Chanko. 1997. Look At This Tree. Scholastic, Inc.
Cassie, B. and M. Burns. 1999. Trees. Scholastic, Inc.
Charman, A. 2003. I Wonder Why Trees Have Leaves and Other Questions about Plants. Houghton Mifflin Company.
DePalma, M.N. 2005. A Grand Old Tree. Scholastic, Inc.
Florian, D. 2010. Poetrees. Simon & Schuster Children’s Publishing.
Gackenbach, D. 1996. Mighty Tree. Harcourt Children's Books.
Gaff, J. 2005. I Wonder Why Pine Trees Have Needles and Other Questions about Forests. Roaring Brook Press.
Gibbons, G. 2002. Tell Me, Tree: All About Trees for Kids. Little, Brown Books for Young Readers.
Goldish, M. 1990. How Plants Get Food. Steck-Vaughn.
Gove, D. and M. H. Mallory. My Mother Talks to Trees. Peachtree Publishers.
Iverson, D. 1999. My Favorite Tree: Terrific Trees of North America. Dawn Publications.
Lavies, B. 1989. Tree Trunk Traffic. Penguin Group (USA), Inc.
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Llewellyn, C. 2004. Tree. T&N Children's Publishing.
Miller, D.S. and S. Schuett. 2003. Are Trees Alive? Walker & Company.
Nayer, J. 1994. A Tree Can Be. Scholastic, Inc.
Pascoe, E. and D. Kuhn. 2003. Ecosystem of a Fallen Tree. Rosen Publishing Group, Inc.
Peck, J. and V. Petrone. 2005. Way Up High in a Tall Green Tree. Simon & Schuster Children's Publishing.
Udry, J.M. and M. Simont. 1987. A Tree is Nice. HarperCollins Publishers.
Van Laan, N. 2000. A Tree for Me. Random House.
Worth, B. 2006. I Can Name 50 Trees Today!: All about Trees. Random House Publishing Group.
Links
NWF: Leaf Prints
NWF: Tree Journalhttp://www.nwf.org/Get-Outside/Be-Out-There/Activities/Observe-and-Explore/Make-a-Tree-Journal.aspx
Enchanted Learning: Leaves and Leaf Anatomy
Leaf Print T-shirts
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