As part of our continued focus on Earth Day, I thought I would invite my students to spend a little time exploring the many different kinds of trees we have around our play scape.
We began our study of trees by reading the book, “Picture a Tree” by Barbara Reid. This is a beautifully illustrated book about different views and qualities of a tree.
As I read the book, my students often wanted to stop and discuss their own stories or compare to the trees we have around our playscape right there in the moment.
After reading our book, I invited the children to see if they could find a “baby tree” as mentioned in the book. We measured the tree trunk and talked about the height of the tree.
Then we went to see if we could find a grandpa tree and a middle age tree and the children found them right away.
Again, we measured and discussed the attributes of the trees.
I invited the children to seek out a tree of their very own to explore for the day. The children were given a simple chart to mark as they explored their tree.
As the children finished making their chart, then they brought the chart to me and we discussed what they discovered about their tree.
Later in the day, the children were also invited to read a book under their tree.
It is so interesting how much learning can take place underneath a beautiful tree on a lovely spring day!
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