Berkshire Museum
Adopt a Schoolyard Tree
Help young scientists connect with nature and learn about trees with a fun life science lesson. Heading out into the school yard, children choose a tree to adopt, taking measurements, writing descriptions, and drawing sketches of it in...
Curated OER
Selfless Service and The Giving Tree - Building Ethical Conscience
Upper elementary schoolers investigate philanthropy and selflessness by reading a children's book. In this ethics lesson plan, they read The Giving Tree by Shel Silverstein, and research Mahatma Gandhi's troublesome, yet inspiring, life....
Purdue University
Tree Talk
Examining tree rings shows more than just age. The third installment of a five-part Family Nature Program unit has learners examine all parts of trees including tree rings to tell stories about the life of the tree. They then use their...
Curated OER
Puzzle Trees
Elementary artists use a collage and multi-media technique to create textured trees. They study the fall trees, discussing texture and what bare trees look like. They then use a variety of materials to create a textural piece.
Curated OER
Tree Rings
Fourth graders explore tree rings. In this plant biology lesson, 4th graders construct a KWL chart on tree rings and examine real tree rings. Students identify the changes that happened during the tree's life and its actual age. Students...
Curated OER
A Close Encounter of the Tree Kind
Learners study trees in their natural habitat. In this tree activity, students complete a number of outdoor activities to estimate the height of a tree, examine how bark can be a distinguishing tree characteristic, and how to make a bark...
Curated OER
Signs of Change: Tree Rings
Students identify and experiment with dendrochronology (the study of tree rings to answer ecological questions about the recent past) and come up with conclusions as to what possible climatic conditions might affect tree growth in their...
Curated OER
Tree Friends
Students identify their special tree using all senses other than sight. They identify six different internal parts within a cross section of tree trunk
(bark, phloem, xylem, cambium, heartwood, and roots). Students compare and contrast...
Curated OER
Tree Birthdays
Students investigate the growth of trees. In this tree growth lesson, students discover that trees make a ring each year they live. Students use new voabulary such as bark, phloem, and cambuim to talk about tree parts. Students create a...
Curated OER
Living in a Tree
Students explore animals that live in trees. For this nature and biology lesson, students go outdoors and make observations about animals and their unique body parts that help them to live in trees. Students create drawings as they...
Curated OER
Adopt a Tree
First graders describe the characteristics of a tree. In this science lesson, 1st graders create predictions about a book they will be listening to, Have you Seen Trees. Additionally, students describe their trees using their 5 senses....
Curated OER
Producers -- Focus on Trees
Learners examine the needs of trees and plants. In this forest ecosystem lesson students use seedlings to investigate the basic necessities of plants. They discuss the consequences of these basic needs not being met.
Curated OER
Comparing Deciduous and Evergreen Trees
Learners investigate nature by identifying different plants and trees. In this environmental field trip, students participate in a British Columbia expedition in which they identify cedar, pine, hemlock and Douglas fir trees. Learners...
Curated OER
"Me and My Family Tree"
Students explore genealogy by reading a family history book in class. In this family tree lesson, students read the story Me and My Family Tree by Joan Sweeney and discuss their own family history. Students identify what the term...
Curated OER
Tree Cookies
Students identify heartwood, sapwood, and a tree's annual rings, infer from a tree's rings what damage or stress might have occurred in its life, and make a time-line of human history that coincides with a tree's rings.
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...
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
Paper Trees
Students use a brown paper bag to create their own paper trees. They rip the bag at the top to create the branches and then glue pieces of green tissue paper to make the leaves.
Forest Foundation
The Nature of Trees
Young botanists examine the different parts of tress and then draw parallels between the functions of these parts and the function of parts of the human body.
Curated OER
Methuselah Tree
Learners examine how scientists determine the age of living and non-living trees. They simulate the role of a tree-ring scientist, crossdating tree-ring samples and determining which sample is the oldest and the age of the samples.
Curated OER
Our Friends the Trees
Students explore trees and learn about their importance to the environment. In this tree study instructional activity, students work in groups to complete a tree survey, a map for the survey, and several worksheets about the tree topics....
Macmillan Education
Christmas: #SadTree
Christmas trees can be as large and elaborate as the tree in Rockefeller Center, or as small and understated as Charlie Brown's tree in A Charlie Brown Christmas. But where did the tradition of Christmas trees come from? An engaging...
Curated OER
Aging of Trees
Students examine tree rings to determine its age. In this tree ring lesson plan, students examine core tree samples, identify the tree rings, and then determine its age. Students complete a worksheet, deciding which of the two core...
Curated OER
Data-gathering Activities Relating to Trees in Their Environment
Students gather data relating to trees in their environment. In this biology lesson plan, students determine heights of trees and their ages. A canopy map will indicate optimal growing areas for the tree.