National Wildlife Federation
What is DBH?
When measuring the circumference of a tree, does it matter how high you place the measuring tape? Most scholars have never considered this question, but scientists know that measurement techniques must be standardized. The 13th lesson in...
Curated OER
Where the City Meets the Tree: Urban Forestry
Define the term "urban forestry"; discuss several problems facing urban forests today and both government and public efforts centered on developing and maintaining sustainable urban forests. Develop a feasible action plan for alternative...
Curated OER
How Can Clear of Tress Destroy a Community?
Fifth graders brainstorm the relationship between trees and humans to determine how humans benefit from trees and how they benefit from us. They discuss oxygen/carbon dioxide exchange, soil stablization, animal habitat, shade, medicine...
Rainforest Alliance
Colombia Biodiversity
How diverse is the rainforest? How much more diverse is a rain forest than a temperate forest? Explore these focus questions in a lesson that explores the plants, animals, and insects in forests. After listening to a reading about...
Curated OER
Death and Recovery
Mount St. Helens erupted on May 18, 1980, devastating plant and animal life for miles around. Two activities are included in this lesson plan. In one, learners evaluate tree rings to determine the age of a tree and the year of a volcano....
Curated OER
Forest Ecosystem
Young scholars take a field trip and explore a temperate rainforest. In this rainforest lesson plan, students discuss many items they see on their journey and experiment with different tree leaves.
Curated OER
Forest Food Webs
Students consider the interdependency of life in a temperate forest by studying selected organisms from an Asian temperate forest and creating a food web.
Chicago Botanic Garden
Impacts of Climate on Forest Succession
Part two in a series of four explores the effects of climate on succession or the changing of plant species in a forest. Groups review how to identify trees and then spend a day in the field collecting extensive data on trees to...
Curated OER
Save the Lofty Trees
Save the Lofty Trees, by Leslie Mills, provides the text for a study of the roles of animals and humans in the forest. Richly detailed, the plan offers two approaches to the play: as a scenario for children to imagine what actions would...
Rainforest Alliance
Forests of Guatemala
With 90 percent of its land area covered in forests, Suriname, a country in South America, contains the largest percentage of forests throughout the world. Here is an activity that brings classmates together to learn about the...
Curated OER
Boom and Bust in the Ozark Forests
Here is a hard-hitting, cross-curricular lesson on the effects that the deforestation of the Ozark forests in the 19th century had on the people, animals, and ecosystems of the area. The Dr. Seuss book The Lorax is used as a way of...
Outside Education
Who Lives in a Tree?
Young scientists journey outside to observe what animals live in nearby tress. They identify the animal, take note of special features that help the animal in this habitat, and then illustrate their findings.
Curated OER
Build a Forest
Learners discuss various types of trees. In this forest structure instructional activity, students cut out pictures of a wide variety of trees and paste the pictures onto index cards. Learners identify each tree and present information...
Curated OER
Forest Products in the Classroom
Students make recycled paper as they discuss products we get from trees.
Curated OER
Harvesting of Trees: Library Media Center Resources
Students research harvesting of trees in the United States and write a summary. In this informative activity students state whether they agree or disagree with an article and write a summary on why.
Curated OER
Forests/Natural Resource Management II
Students write about the importance of trees. In this natural resources lesson, students look at deforestation occurring across the globe and present what they learned to the class. As closure, all students write a poem about the...
Curated OER
What's a Tree Worth?
Students calculate the board footage of a tree. In this forestry instructional activity, students use a Biltmore tree scale stick to calculate the number of board feet that would be produced. They quantify the economic value of a tree...
Curated OER
Graphing the Diversity of a Forest
Second graders work in groups to identify what types of trees create which types of leaves In this plant life lesson plan, 2nd graders analyze a set of leaves and identify the tree it came from while graphing the data in a science...
Curated OER
Get to Know Trees
Students recognize the characteristics of trees by using their five senses. In this trees instructional activity, students observe and record the characteristics of trees on a field trip. Students then are blindfolded and use their...
Curated OER
What Lives in the Forest?
Students investigate nearby forests and record their interactions with trees as well as wild life. In this ecology lesson, students read the book, In the Woods: Who's Been Here?, and attend class observational field trips through their...
Curated OER
Our School - Our Trees
Sixth graders observe school ground trees planted nearly 3 decades ago. For this ecology instructional activity, 6th graders examine a group of trees planted near their campus and measure the diameter, circumference and growth of the...
Curated OER
What Tree is That?
Students examine leaves and the trees in their neighborhood that they came from. In this ecology lesson, students read the book, I Can Name 50 Trees Today, and discuss how a tree goes from a forest to a wood shop. Students find a tree...
Curated OER
Introduction to Urban & Community Forestry: Why Do We Need Trees?
Twelfth graders construct a timeline to show changes and trends in the future of urban and community forestry. In this forestry lesson, 12th graders discuss the importance of trees. They read a timeline and add future events to show...
Curated OER
The Many Uses of Trees
Young scholars list all the ways humans use trees and tree by products. In this lesson young scholars watch a video, discuss the impact trees have on humans, and research common products made from trees. The young scholars use their...