My Tree Book

Suggested Grades

3+

Objective

Students will “adopt” a tree and throughout the year will record and examine its characteristics and the changes that it goes through.

Materials

  • a forested area
  • paper for the pages of the book
  • tagboard for the cover of the book

Method

  • Take students out into a forested area and ask them to pick a tree that they like.
  • If this tree will be difficult to find again, tie a piece of yarn (secure it well) onto one of its branches.
  • Make a rubbing of a section of its bark. Use this as an illustration for the title page of the book
  • On this first day, also make some observations and record. eg: My tree is very tall, it has yellow leaves and it has a big chunk of bark taken off of it. Draw a picture of it.
  • If it is a deciduous tree dry and press one of its leaves to add to a page in the book. If its a coniferous tree paste some of its needles to a page in the book.
  • Choose other days to make recordings, maybe once a month. Write the date, something about it that’s changed and draw another picture.
  • Do some actual research on the tree. Find out its name, other areas it grows in, what animals rely on it, etc.. Include these facts in the book.
  • At the end of the year bind all of the pages together.