“Trees are poems that the earth writes upon the sky.”
-Khalil Gibran
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During outdoor play children are drawn to the trees in the school yard. They love to feel bark with their hands and wrap their arms around the trunk. They collect artifacts for exploration including sticks and leaves and search for insects in the bark’s crevices. Trees offer so many rich opportunities for wonder and discovery as children notice how they change with the weather and seasons.
To help supplement my book Tree Math (available from Amazon and Indigo) here are five easy, free printables that can be used to support children’s work in nature!
Encourage children to spend time in nature and observe the tree they like best. Ask them to consider what it is they appreciate about this tree? Children can then sketch the tree on this page and compare their tree with others.
2. My Tree and the Four Seasons
Over time children can observe the same tree and draw what they notice changing during the four seasons. This page can be kept over time and added to as the months change. Children can also draw on it at one sitting and hypothesize what the tree might look like in each season, especially after conducting research about how trees adapt to the weather.
Children can use a variety of materials to measure how big around a tree’s trunk is (e.g., measuring tape, hand spans, links) and record it on this tracking page. Drawing a picture can help explain their math thinking.
Exploring the texture of bark appeals to many children who enjoy sensory experiences. Children can use magnifying glasses to examine the patterns in bark up close, or place a paper on top of the bark and use crayons to create a rubbing. Children can then describe what they see and compare their rubbings to others.
Encourage children to explore many trees in the school yard and neighbourhood. Ask children to observe what living things they observe on and in the trees (e.g., birds, insects, mould) and record their observations on the tracking paper. They can hypothesize how the tree might be a home for many living things at the same time.
