Kids know all sorts of things about trees - every kid knows that trees have bark and leaves and grow from seeds. But, do your students know that some trees are famous?! Let’s learn about famous trees with this fun-filled class.
During the six week class, your students will each make their own book about famous trees! To make the books, fold 3 pieces of construction paper together, and staple. The students can decorate the covers themselves. Each week, the students will draw pictures of the famous tree they learned about, so at the end of the course they will have 7 pages of tree drawings.
Week One
This week your class will learn about the famous coast redwood trees, which mainly grow along a strip of coastline from Central California to Southern Oregon.
Required materials for this week’s class are Redwoods by Jason Chin and a map of the United States.
Explain to your students that today your class will learn about the coast redwood trees that grow along a strip of coastline from central California to Southern Oregon. Indicate to them on your map of the U.S. where the coast redwoods grow.
Tell your students to listen carefully so they can answer these questions after listening to Redwoods: How long can one redwood live? (answer: 2,000 years.) How big is a redwood seed? (answer: the size of a tomato seed.) How is a redwood tree like the space shuttle? (answer: the Redwood’s thick bark shields it from fire like the tiles on the space shuttle.)
Read your students Redwoods. Ask them if they heard the answers to the above questions.
Have a class discussion with your students about the book. What did they find most interesting? How did the boy use his imagination when reading about redwoods? Can your students imagine themselves climbing a giant redwood like the scientists in the book?
Show your students this National Geographic YouTube video about redwood conservation: https://youtu.be/wW9w6eCQQkU
If you still have time at the end of class, have the kids decorate the covers of their Famous Trees book and draw pictures of coast redwoods on the first page
Week Two
This week your class will learn about the largest trees on earth, the famous sequoia trees of the Sierra Nevada. (Redwoods are the tallest trees on earth, and sequoias are the largest trees by volume.)
Required materials for this week’s class are The Sequoia Lives On by Joanna Cooke and a map of the United States.
Explain to your class that last week you learned about large trees called redwoods, and this week you will learn about another enormous tree called the sequoia. Tell them to listen carefully while your read the book to see if they can spot differences between the sequoia and what they already know about the redwood.
Show your class on the map of the U.S. where the sequoia grow in the Sierra Nevada of California.
Read your class The Sequoia Lives On.
Did your students notice differences between the sequoia and the redwood? Here is an explanation of the differences between these giant trees from the National Park Service: https://www.nps.gov/parkhistory/online_books/cook/sec2.htm
Have the students draw pictures of sequoias in their tree books.
Week Three
In the first two weeks, your students learned about giant trees that grow in North America. This week, your class will learn about the diminutive bonsai, an art form associated with Japan. The Peace Tree From Hiroshima tells the true story of an ancient bonsai that survived the Hiroshima bombing. Your students are very young, so you don’t need to provide them with any more explanation about the atomic bombing of Hiroshima than is given in the book.
How amazing that a little bonsai tree that started growing in 1625 is now world famous!
Required materials for this week are The Peace Tree From Hiroshima The Little Bonsai With a Big Story by Sandra Moore and a world map
WEEK FOUR
This week you will read your class The Great Kapok by Lynne Cherry.
Show your students the map at the front of the book. Point out the area where the Amazon Rainforest is located and explain that you will read a story about a type of tree that lives there, the kapok.
Read the story.
Discuss the story with your students. The Great Kapok is only one tree, but it is important to many birds and animals. Why do the creatures come and talk to the man while he is asleep? Why does the child from the Yanomamo tribe ask the sleeping man to look at them with “new eyes?”
Have your students draw a picture of the Great Kapok and some of its rainforest friends in their tree books. While the children are drawing, you can play traditional music from the region, if you have it.
WEEK FIVE
This week your students will learn about trees they are likely to encounter in North America. These trees are not famous like celebrities, they’re famous because people recognize them.
For this class you will need Tell Me, Tree by Gail Gibbons, some leaves you have gathered from your neighborhood, and some blank paper for leaf rubbings.
This week, you’ll read the book a little differently. You’ll start on the very last page of Tell Me, Tree. Read your class the interesting facts about trees. You can turn the information into a question and answer. For example, “Who can guess the largest living things in the world?” (answer: trees!) “How long do you think the plant Ginkgo biloba has existed?” (answer: 350 million years.)
Turn to the front of the book. Explain to your students that so far you’ve been learning about trees that are so famous they’re almost celebrities. Today you’ll learn about the everyday types of trees that are famous because lots of people know them.
Read the class Tell Me, Tree.
Have a class discussion about the book. Do your students recognize any of the trees from your own area?
Each student can pick their favorite type of tree from the book and draw it in their tree book.
If you have time left in class, your students can make leaf rubbings using the leaves you have brought in, as described toward the end of the book. Alternatively, the class could go outside and make bark rubbings.
WEEK SIX
Up until now, all of the famous trees your students have learned about have been real. This week, they will learn about a famous fictional tree. The Giving Tree by Shel Silverstein has delighted generations of children.
For this class you will need The Giving Tree by Shel Silverstein.
Explain to your class that this week you will be learning about a famous fictional tree. Take a few moments to discuss the difference between fiction and nonfiction. Some of our books have been pure nonfiction, such as The Peace Tree From Hiroshima. Some of our books have had elements of fiction and non-fiction. For instance, the story about the boy in Redwoods is mostly fiction because of course the boy didn’t really travel back in time, but it also has many true facts about redwoods. This week’s book is totally fiction.
Read your class The Giving Tree.
The Giving Tree teaches an important lesson about giving. Have a class discussion about all the ways The Giving Tree gave to the boy throughout their lives. Ask your students to describe ways in which people in their lives give to them, and ways in which the students give to others.
Have your students draw The Giving Tree in their tree book. If they want, they can write down examples of ways their loved ones give to them. For instance, “Mommy gives me the last cookie.” Alternatively, they can draw pictures to illustrate the giving.
