Explore Your Environment: K-8 Activity Guide offers educators a wide variety of engaging, hands-on activities, organized into grade bands, K-2, 3-5, and 6-8 about trees and forests, wildlife, water, climate change, stewardship, and more.
Trees & Me has hundreds of ideas for fun outdoor and indoor activities to connect children to nature, trees, and forests. Children explore nature through their senses, experience trees throughout all four seasons, and connect with their community.
Students select individual trees to observe over time, deepening their awareness of tree changes and developing a greater appreciation for their local environment.
In this activity, children search for the shapes and colors that define both our natural and built environments.
Trees come in many shapes and sizes. Students become familiar with tree structure and scale by using different methods to measure them and by making comparisons. They learn the importance of standardized measurements and proper measuring techniques.
Tree species can be identified by looking at several different features: leaves, bark, twigs, flowers, fruit, and seeds. Even the overall shape of a tree can give clues to the tree’s identity.
Students will look for signs of autumn and conduct an investigation to discover why the leaves of deciduous trees change color in the fall.
In early spring, many trees sprout bright green leaves. Where do the leaves come from? How do they form? Students investigate these questions by observing tree buds throughout the year.
Even though students may be very familiar with trees, they may not have thought much about the actual structure of a tree. In this activity, your students will go outdoors or view pictures to take a closer look at trees and their parts.