Tree Study

Tree Study Activities:

NOTE: I follow the interest of the students, but basically do all of the following activities depending on grade level appropriateness. For younger students, like grade 1-3, I focus more on the changing of seasons and animals that live near trees. For older students, like grade 4-6, I focus more on the math activities and the importance of trees in local ecosystems.

Starting your tree study:

Activity 1: What trees are in your schoolyard or community?

Start right away in September by getting your students to notice and identify the species of trees in your schoolyard or community. I use a key that was made by Waterloo District School Board (link: https://schools.wrdsb.ca/environmental-education/files/2020/10/Monster-Trees-ID-v2.pdf)

You could use other keys if you have them. I also take pictures of the trees every month to show seasonal changes and to help identify them if they are not part of the key. Some of our schoolyard trees are not native species, so it is a great discussion about invasive species and non-native species as well when we identify them.

Students will also need to know parts of the tree to help them identify them, so you can also teach them about leaf shapes, stems arrangements, and bark types. I also like to do leaf and bark rubbings of the trees at this point while they are identifying them to help them identify leaf parts and bark types.

Students can also map out the location of trees in the yard or community and speculate why they are there. They can also identify areas of the yard or community where trees might be planted to help with shade and increase biodiversity.

Activity 2: Math and Trees!

In these activities, students use math to calculate and estimate measurements related to the trees on the yard or in the community.

Part 1: Leaf estimation

A fun activity is to ask students to count how many leaves are on one of the trees. They will laugh and say they can't! If you ask them how they would go about doing that, they will probably give you some surprisingly good estimation strategies, such as picking one section and counting how many are there and then multiplying it by the number of sections on the tree.

Part 2: Measuring tree height

You can also ask them to measure how high their tree is and they will also say that they can't! But one method we tried and that works is measuring height using their thumb (watch the video link for the method here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xd4W-YpprAM). There are other methods you could try too - let me know if you find another good one!

Part 3: Measuring tree age

Without having to cut a tree and count its rings, or using a tree bore to count rings, you can use a surprisingly easy method which is measuring the circumference of the tree - see this link for details: https://www.treehugger.com/estimating-forest-trees-age-1343321.

Activity 3: Putting it all together!

Students chose a tree in the schoolyard or community that they would learn about during the school year. First they identified their tree. Then, they took a picture of themselves with their tree in the fall. They did a leaf rubbing and a bark rubbing of their tree. They also did all 3 math activities with the tree they chose. They also researched interesting facts about their species of tree and which animals would live near and on their tree. The culminating activity was to make a poster of their tree study which included all of the above information on it in order to put up in the school to teach other students about the trees in the yard. Some great projects were the result!