Optometree

Want to sharpen your focus and see trees through a new lens?

Images from Wikimedia Commons and http://cagardenweb.ucdavis.edu/?repository=10369

Try on these spectacles as you observe your next tree:

• 20 Questions: If your tree could talk back, write down all of the curious questions you would ask it.
• Artiste: Sketch the leaves, the bark, the buds, and the twigs.
• Barkville: Focus on the bark. Imagine the bark is a town or city. Who lives here? How do they get around? Do they ever interact? What's the landscape like?
• Scavenger Clues: Write down as many specific clues as you can about your tree. Make some of them tricky and hard to spot. Then switch with a partner and try to find each other's trees.
• Similes: Write down all of your observations in the form of similes and comparisons. (e.g. Its bark is as ________ as a __________. Its leaves have more lines than a ________________.)
• Sound Studio: Close your eyes and just focus on the sounds around your tree. Then open them and try to identify which species is causing which sounds.
• Things are Looking Up: Lie on your back beneath the tree and stare straight up. Write all the new things you notice.
• Travel Agent: Observe your tree and everything else that interacts with it. Then design a travel brochure to get others (e.g. people, birds, insects, etc.) to visit your tree.
• Tree Taboo: Describe each part of your tree, but you're not allowed to use the following words: tree, leaf/leaves, branches, trunk, roots, twigs, green, brown, tall, short.