Who Lives in a Tree?

Fall is a perfect time to explore where the squirrels and birds live within the tree branches. For more activities to get kids outside exploring this fall, visit our Early Childhood Classroom Resources webpage.

Ask the children to describe their homes.

• What materials make up your house?
• What rooms do you have in your house?
• What do you do in your house?
• Where do you eat and sleep?
• To you have a yard to play in?

Explain that animals and plants have homes, too.  Using a tree or picture of a tree, ask:  Have you ever seen an animal using a tree as its home or habitat?  What animals have you seen eating or sleeping in a tree?

Create a ven diagram comparing the children’s houses to animal houses. Make a dictation on chart paper with each child listing an animal or plant they have seen in or on a tree. Talk about the animals on your chart and encourage the children to describe their personal experiences they have had with any of those listed.  As you talk about each animal, ask the children to make the animal’s voice. 

Tree Walk

Go on a tree walk to find examples of animals and plants that depend on trees in your schoolyard or surrounding neighborhood. Look for:

• animals (e.g. squirrels, birds, insects) living in tree holes or nests, hiding from predators, eating tree fruits, perching or nesting in tree branches
• vines climbing up tree trunks to seek and soak up sunlight
• lichens growing on bark
• mushrooms growing on dead or dying trees
• snags or fallen trees providing homes for many animals and plants

Investigate a few trees up close - collect some of the fallen objects. Take pictures of things that are too large to collect or are still attached to the tree.

• look around for fallen bark, fruits, leaves, nuts, seeds or twigs that might show signs of animal or plant life
• look on the ground for animal droppings that show animals live in the tree or eat the tree’s fruits or seeds. Look- don’t touch!
• look on the bark for scratch marks caused by sharp claws or antlers.

Write a class book about animals that live in trees.  Encourage children to choose an animal that they have seen in a tree.  Children can add a page to the book by making a drawing of the animal in the tree and dictating text about how their animal uses the tree (e.g., for a home, for sleeping, eating, protection, etc.) 

Visit the Project Learning Tree website for a printable card you can share with parents to extend learning at home with family and friends.

Reading Connections

Allen, J. and S. Mendez. 2009. Animal Homes. Kingfisher.

Bishop, Nic. 2004. Forest Explorer: A Life-Size Field Guide. Scholastic, Inc.

Brenner, B. 2004. One Small Place in a Tree. HarperCollins Publishers.

Canizares, S. 1997. Who Lives in a Tree? Scholastic, Inc.

Gregoire, E. 2004. Whose House Is This?: A Look at Animal Homes. Capstone Press.

Hoberman, M. A. and B. Fraser. 2007. A House is a House for Me. Penguin Group (USA).

Hutchins, P. 1990. Good-Night, Owl! Aladdin.

Lock, D. 2007. Animals at Home. DK Publishing, Inc.

Lyon, G. 1998. Counting on the Woods. DK Children.

Magellan, M. 1990. Home At Last. Humanics Children's House.

Milbourne, A. 2014. Peek Inside Animal Homes. EDC Publishing.

National Geographic Society. 1987. Animal Architects. National Geographic Society.

Peck, J. and V. Petrone. 2005. Way Up High in a Tall Green Tree. Simon & Schuster Children's Publishing.

Robinson, T. 2000. Tobias, the Quig and the Rumplenut Tree. Winslow Press.

Salas, L. 2006. Do Turtles Sleep in Treetops?: A Book About Animal Homes. Capstone Press.

Schwartz, D. 1999. In a Tree. Gareth Stevens Publications.

Udry, J. 1987. A Tree Is Nice. HarperCollins Publishers.

Van Laan, N. 2000. A Tree for Me. Random House Children's Books.

Ward, J. 2005. Forest Bright, Forest Night. Dawn Publications.

Discovering Trees

Fall is a great time to get outside and explore trees. Before heading outside, ask your students the following:

• Do you have trees at your house?
• Do you like playing in the leaves?
• Do you have a favorite tree?
• Is there one kind of tree or are there many kinds?
• Where are trees located?
• Can you name different types of trees?  
• What colors of leaves do you see on trees?

Go on a leaf walk around the school or to a local park. Give each child a brown paper bag to gather fall leaves and nuts. Create a “tree mural” with the kids’ collection - draw a very large tree trunk with branches and allow children to decorate branches with their leaf collection.

Decorate your classroom with sponge painted trees - each child draws a tree trunk and branches on a white piece of paper and using odd sponge shapes (dipped into fall colored paint) bounce the sponges onto the tree branches they drew. 

Tree Themed Games

Make Applesauce 

Lay a long jump rope into a circle which will represent the pot.  Tell the children they are the apples. Call a color of an apple and if a child is wearing clothing that color they may jump into the pot. Talk about when you turn up the heat, the apples start to bubble. Pretend to turn the heat up and down.  The children move around faster as the heat goes up and as the apples simmer they children slow down.  You can also pretend to stir the pot so the children move in one direction in a circle.

Tree Trunk Shuffle

Arrange carpet pieces (1 less than the number of students) in a circle. Alternating students are assigned names of Iowa native trees (e.g., hickory, cedar, boxelder, maple, oak, walnut). Call out the name of one or more trees and those students assigned that tree/trees must move to a new carpet square. If you yell out “Tree Trunk Shuffle,” all students must move to a new carpet square.

Leaf Tic-Tac-Toe

Make the tic-tac-toe grid from sticks (or draw it in the dirt). Each player picks five of the same leaf of his or her playing pieces. Now you’re ready to play tic-tac-toe with two different types of leaves instead of Xs and Os. Three of the same leaf in a row wins.

Wildlife is Everywhere!

Wildlife is everywhere- on land, in soil, in water, and in the air. Wildlife scientists study wildlife to learn how they live and interact with the environment. These scientists may focus on one wildlife species or a group of species during their studies. They record observations made with their senses and other tools.

Help your kids become wildlife scientists

Lead our students on a walk in the neighborhood around your school or building or a nearby park to look for wildlife. Tell students that they are using their eyes and ears to watch and listen for any signs of animal life (animal movement, calls, tracks, tunnels, droppings, etc.). Help your students record their observations - drawing pictures of the animals and the places where you found them.

• Where do you see wild animals?
• What are the animals doing?
• How do the animals react?
• What signs of animals do you see?

Encourage your students to pretend they are trying to observe wildlife in different habitats like wildlife scientists do.

• Crawl through a small cave to observe a bat
• Wade through a marsh to get closer to a beaver’s dam
• Hike through woods thick with trees and vines looking for a woodpecker

Talk a walk outside to practice listening for wildlife sounds. Stop often and have children close their eyes. Ask them to raise a finger when they hear a new sound.

• How many new sounds did you hear?
• Can you hear better with your eyes closed?
• Did you hear any sounds made by wildlife?

Field biologists often get down on their hands and knees to "mimic" the tracks they see to help identify the animal and understand what it was doing at that particular moment. Have your students imitate the movements of wildlife.

• Raccoon - students get on their hands and knees and move from one spot to another, investigating the path they take
• Deer - students gather as a group, each looking in a different direction; students walk away then run and jump
• Insect - pairs of students work together to move all the "legs" at the proper time
• Bobcat - students get on their hands and knees and slowly move one leg and arm at a time as they stay as close to the ground as possible

Visit the Growing Up WILD website for a printable card you can share with parents to extend learning at home with family and friends.

Music and Movement Connections

Wildlife Charades 

Cut out pictures of wildlife commonly found in Iowa and put into a hat. One at a time, each student pulls a out a picture from the hat. He/she must act out how that animal moves, looks, or acts in nature, while the other students try to guess what kind of animal it is. There can be no sounds, only actions.

This could also be a group activity. Students could work as teams and together act out the animal while the other team guesses what kind of animal it is.

Nature Boogie

Students work in small groups. Show students pictures of plants and animals commonly found in Iowa. As a group, students chose plants and animals and create a series of dance movements (e.g., horse trot, dog shake, bunny hop, frog leap, cat pounce, snake slither, grapevine). Groups perform their dance for the class. 

Fall Fitness Day

Help your students stay active this school year participating in the annual Live Healthy Iowa Kids Fall Fitness Day – register today. Live Healthy Iowa Kids will award 25 - $100 mini-grants to support Fall Fitness Day activities at Iowa schools. Applications due September 12!

The activity options are endless for this fun day - check out these fun nature games that will get your students up and moving while learning about nature and wildlife.

Critter Crawl

Students compete as teams in a relay race. The first student in each line moves like the assigned animal to advance to each station. Each student completes the course.

Station 1 – slither like a snake

Station 2 – hop like a bunny

Station 3 – fly like a bird (flap arms)

Station 4 – walk like an elephant (legs straight, arms straight – extended in front)

Station 5 – gallop like a horse

Thumper in the Thicket

Arrange hula hoops across the playing area. Divide students into two groups: rabbits and foxes. Rabbits start on one side of the playing field and the foxes on the opposite side. At a signal the rabbits hop to the safe place (hula hoop) before getting tagged by a fox; there can only be two rabbits per safe place. If tagged by a fox, they become a fox. At the end of each round a safe place (hula hoop) is removed. Continue removing safe places until one remains.

Snake Tag

Designate one student as the snake tamer. Arrange the remaining students into groups of three or four. Each group forms a snake by holding onto the waist of the student in front of them. The student in front is the head of the snake and the student in back is the tail. Snakes must twist and turn to keep from losing their head. The snake tamer tries to catch the tail of one of the snakes and attach to it. If the snake tamer successfully attaches to a snake, the head must come off and become the new snake tamer. 

The Hungry Caterpillar

Scatter small balls or cones across the play area. Divide students into small groups. Each group is a hungry caterpillar searching for food. The first student in each group is the caterpillar’s head and the remaining students are the body. The last student carries a ball bag.

Caterpillars must travel around the play area in single file, holding onto the student in front of them. Each caterpillar must collect as much food (balls) as possible within the time limit (30 sec - 120 sec).

Only the head of the caterpillar can guide the body and only the head can pick up the food (one at a time) and pass it back through the body. The food must be passed to each student down the line (as in relay) to where it is collected in the caterpillar's stomach (ball bag).

Protect Your Harvest

Place 4 hula hoops in each corner of the playing area (make sure there is room around each side of the hula hoops for the students to move around them in a safe manner). Choose 4 students to be squirrels. Place a bucket in the middle with four bean bags. Each squirrel grabs a bean bag from the bucket and places it inside one of the hula hoops. Squirrels must stand outside the hula hoop and guard their nut (bean bag). The rest of the class moves around the hula hoops, trying to steal the nuts. Squirrels try to tag the thieves and stop them from stealing their nut. If a thief is tagged, he/she must move to the next hula hoop. If a thief successfully steals the bean bag without being tagged, he/she becomes the new squirrel. The old squirrel joins the rest of the class and tries to steal the nuts.

Autumn Adventure

Lead students on a walk through a wooded area, schoolyard, local park, or neighborhood sidewalk to look for signs of fall.

• Watch for leaves beginning to change color, and try to match fallen leaves to the leaves still on the trees. 
• Remind students not to pick anything up; they are to be quietly observing at this time only.

Encourage critical thinking by asking:

What do you observe about the leaves in the tree? 

What do you notice about the ground we are sitting on under the tree?

Dig in the leaf litter under the tree as a group. Try to find evidence of last year’s leaves. You might find very small bits of leaves, leaf stems, or leaf skeletons. Talk about how leaves break down into smaller and smaller pieces until they become part of the soil. 

Have the children lie under a tree and watch leaves falling.

• How many different ways can leaves fall?
• How does the wind change the way they fall?

Visit the Project Learning Tree website for a printable card you can share with parents to extend learning at home with family and friends.

Art Activities

Create dried leaf art

Materials: glue; tagboard; crushed or dried leaves; glitter; sand; soil; mixing bowls

Invite the children to crumble the leaves and mix them with the other items. Show them how to paint designs with glue on heavy tagboard and sprinkle the designs with the dried leaf mixtures.

Experiment with leaf stencil

Provide leaf stencils for splatter painting, stenciling, or tracing. Offer paints in the basic fall colors – encourage mixing and blending to create the subtle shades of color that make autumn beautiful.