Tree Study. Tree Rings K-1 Lesson

MAIN SCIENCE OBJECTIVE

• Learn a tree grows a ring for every year it is alive.
• The layers of a tree help protects it and help it grow (bark, cambium, sapwood, heartwood).
• Use your age to draw rings of a tree.

BOOKS
NON FICTION-

• Tell Me, Tree: All About Trees for Kids by Gail Gibbons.  GREAT family library resource.  This lesson would focus on the "Inside of a Tree" Pages and layers of bark and wood.

FICTION-

• The Growing-Up Tree By Vera Rosenberry  Be aware, this book does touch on the death of an old man as the tree his mother planted on the day of his birth is knocked down in a thunderstorm the same time he takes his last breath. Read it ahead of time to see if you feel comfortable reading it to your kids. It was brief moment of sadness, but a lovely lesson on how life goes on through our family (seedlings & grand kids).
• The Birthday Tree by Paul Fielshman
•  The Family Tree by David McPhail
• The Giving Treeby Shel Silverstein 

ACTIVITY- 
INVESTIGATE REAL TREE RINGS
I am very blessed with a father-in-law who owns a saw mill, so we have a assess to big tree rings. If you do not have this accessibility, any tree branch  that is at least a few inches will do.  We counted the rings on this ring to see how old it was, and saw how there was a layer between the Sapwood and Bark.

TIP: If you are near the holidays and buy a real tree for your family, ask the farmer to cut a small ring off the bottom for your kids to study. Be careful of pine during warmer months (above 45 degrees) because the sap starts unfreezing and you may have a sticky tree ring!

The Lego man is for size reference. :)

We also cut some rings from a few branches (bass and pine), and studied them with the magnifying glasses, guessing how old the branches were.  Some branches had branches growing out of them, which led to fun discoveries of what growth abnormalities look like, and how two branches or trunks can form next to each other. We copied the shapes and different ovals and circles from the tree rings.

ART- "Inside a  Your Name Tree

After reading "Inside of Tree" pages , focusing on the layers of a tree-ring, from "Tell me Tree", each of use drew a tree ring that was our age. My 6 year old drew a tree with 6 rings and I drew one with 30 rings (you will need a big piece of paper for that one;).  We labeled them "Inside a  Your Name Tree".

The center of a tree ring is the heartwood, which makes the tree strong and stand tall, so a small heart was the middle of our tree rings. You can use a paper plate if you'd like, but my boys likes using blank paper so they could make their circles irregular like the branches we had just studied.  .

For older kids, don't forget to draw the layers of the tree, including Cambium and Bark. We also discussed Sapwood because we had just been on a Maple Syrup Field Trip.

 As always, my boys always take my idea and make it better.  After drawing their own tree rings they drew an "Inside of a ___ Tree" for all their cousins who are different ages, therefore different number of rings.

Tree Study. Winter Trees K-1 Lesson

In a continuance of our tree study, here is another lesson that blends some art and science. Original inspiration was from this post. I extended into the seasons on by using one of my favorite picture books. For grades K-3rd

Main Objectives

• Science-Trees change through the seasons.
• Art-Different Winter Tree silhouettes

Activity
Go on a nature walk in the winter and collect branches.  Look at the silhouette of the tree, we called it the "Tree skeleton" and saw how they were mostly made of the letter "V".

We sketched some "tree skeletons"in our nature notebooks, and read a books on shapes of trees in winter and trees in different seasons.

Books

• Main Book- Sky Tree: Seeing Science Through Art by Thomas Locker. This is a beautiful book that goes through the seasons of a tree with words accompanied by gorgeous paintings. I highly recommend it being in your personal library.
• Winter Trees by Leslie Evans
• Picture a Tree by Barbara Reid

Art
Make Tree silhouette with painter's tape, then water colors over the top.  Remove tape when dry.
Materials needed:

• Painter's tape
• white paper
• water colors

Contains affiliate links.  No extra cost to you, I just receive a small percentage of your purchase. 

Tree Study. Tree Roots~K-1 Grade Lesson

OBJECTIVE
Learn how a tree uses it's roots to drink and move water up to the leaves.

BOOK
What Do Roots Do?  by Kathleen V. Kudlinski

EXPERIMENT

Investigate how roots "drink" by dipping the edge of a piece of paper towel into water (food coloring optional).  I recomned food coloring because it will help you see the ater climb. The water will climb up the paper towel.

Record what you did using this simple Science Lab Recording Sheet.

ART

Create roots by cutting and gluing yarn. 

Tree Roots Lesson Plan with Printable 

Water Cycle/Weather Unit 1st grade (or Kindergarten)

During MFW 1st grade, we read about water cycle and storms in "Things Outdoors". 

The boys really enjoyed this subject so dug a little more into it though different paths.

Songs:

• Song of Water Cycle to "She'll be coming around the mountain"
• "What's The Weather" in Sign Language 

Media:

Magic School Bus: Gets Wet All Over

• Magic School Bus: Kicks ups a Storm
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=maxLwmDxoV

Art Extensions:

• Water Cycle Printable (after watching You Tube video above)
• Water Cycle on Bulletin Board  (pictured above)
• Materials- tempura Paint, Paper Plate for Sun. and butcher paper for clouds, rain, and water
• Read "Cloud Book" by Tommie De Paola and make Cirrus/cumulus, and Stratus clouds out of cotton balls and glue
• Take book on your next few nature walks and discuss the clouds you see

Bird Beaks and Caterpillar Camouflage

  We used our "beaks" to catch some "caterpillars hiding in the grass". You can do this activity while studying Birds or camouflage.

Aims of Lesson:

• To discuss how birds use their beaks 
• Discuss caterpillars use camouflage to hide from predators

Book Suggestions:

• If you are focusing on different butterflies and caterpillars then use the book A Butterfly Is Patient. because it's entire inside cover is covered in illustration of different colored caterpillars.
  
• If discussing birds the use the book Beaks!

Materials:

• Clothespin for each child 
• Fake grass from Silk Flower Aisle in Dollar Store
• Multi-colored pipe cleaners cut into 1 inch pieces
• Glue and crayons
• paper

Procedure:

1. Look through some books on caterpillars and see their different colors.   Or look through some bird books and read how birds use beaks.
2. After teacher "hides" caterpillars in grass, each kids takes turns catching the caterpillars.
3. Draw the correct camouflage for the caterpillars you find (red flowers for red caterpillars, green caterpillars in grass, etc)

Animal Study- Animal Tracks

Getting my kids excited to learn about animals isn't really that hard.  But way to get them Super excited to pretend to be ANIMAL DETECTIVES.  This lesson can be used from K-3rd grade (see variations during book)

Lesson Introduction
Show pictures of tracks on the computer or in books.  I had some prints of tracks I had found by a pond on a walk at my in-laws house.  Ask the kids to guess what types of animals  they think left the tracks, and tell them they will know by the end of the class.

Picture Book  
"Wild tracks! : A Guide to Nature's Footprints" by Jim Arnosky  

• Younger Children- Focus more on the track pages and talk about sizes and shapes.
• Older Children-You can extend the lesson by going into the differences Canine vs. Feline tracks.

Activity
Use play-dough, plastic forks and spoons to recreate animals tracks on the worksheet.

                     

Free Printable  

Camping with Kids

When packing entertainment  items for our trip I tried to bring toys that would help my boys interact with the camping environment.  We had no video games or screens as a rule. This rule also helps Mommy and Daddy to unplug and really enjoy a true break from reality. The only screen allowed is a cell phone kept in the van for emergency purposes only or when we are hiking for safety. I put all their toys in a big tub from Sam's Club and it goes in a shady spot out of the way of foot traffic near the fire or camp kitchen. The boys were responsible for putting everything before we go to bed.

Also for kid friendly camping mennu, see my post on Family Friendly 4 Day Camping Menu, with Grocery Lists. And for more lists and organization ideas go to Family Camping Packing  Lists




Toy Tub to interact with their surroundings

Clip Board with blank paper is a true must for camping outdoors with kids. You want blank paper so they can draw or journal about they are seeing.  Encourage them to do leaf/bark  rubbings of the trees on your site, or draw the animals they saw on your hike that day.

Pencil Box for each child with markers, crayons, pencils

Maps for each kids of the park you are visiting from front gate, there are usually free at State Parks.  My kids LOVED these and took them wherever we went.  Get several and don't be afraid to let them draw all over them.  My boys found our campsite and drew on the trails we had hiked.

Kids Binoculars for each child.  We got ours for $3 each and I was so excited as they bird watched from our campsite.  We also had an unexpected deer visit 300 yards from our tent and the boys got their binoculars out to see her better!

Bubbles (and don't be afraid to join in)

Water Guns and a 5 gallon bucket, especially if it's summer.  We brought 10 varying sizes of guns that we had leftover from a party and the boys were able to share with friends we met along the way!

Play dough Get some at Dollar Tree and be prepared to throw away at end of trip because it will filled with twigs and rocks :)

Scavenger Hunt/Nature Bingo- Put these on clipboard and you don't need to bring it on a hike per say, but the scavenger hunts be a good way to process at the end of the day.  We went through our bingo and checked off after dinner each night.  when we found them all the boys were given $1 to spend at the camp store. You can make your own or find online. Camping with Gus has many free printables.

Mason jars with holes in top to catch bugs

Bikes and bike helmets. Call ahead to check skill levels and types of biking available.  I love paved curvy trails, whereas my husband loves mountain  biking, and our boys are only ready for straight, paved, and no hills.

Glow sticks for after dark.  You can get 5 glow bracelets at the dollar store and they are very worth it.  They are also a good way to keep track of you kids as they play in the dark looking for for fireflies.

Sand toys for beach 

Wooden Blocks.  These are opened ended with lots of imagination needed they can add pieces of the nature surrounding them, like a twig castle flag or leaves for windows. My husband used old pieces of non treated woods from projects as kindling, so we just let the boys play with them and their pile of blocks got a little smaller every day:)

Sports balls Be careful if you are in a high traffic site. 

Matchbox car/Animals.  These can be played in a dirt track the kids make or on a fort they make out of twigs.

Chalk 

Extra bath shoes and extra pair of tennis shoes. We had to wash a pair of shoes a day almost because they were so filthy from all the fun:)

And the main tip when camping with kids is be OK with your kids getting dirty! All these toys will get them chalky, dirty, sweaty, and much more.  But they will also allow them to experience nature in their own concrete ways. Now that at the end of the day you can put their swimsuit on, suds them up in the shower, and put them to sleep because they are exhausted from all  the fun they had! :)

My dirty boy playing in the sand outside our tent....he even had dirt up his nose. 
 Nothing putting him int he shower in a swimsuit with tons of bubbles couldn't fix:)

Mixing Primary Colors- Preschool Rainy Day

With two boys, we are very tactile here in our lessons. Here are some fun ways we learned how primary colors mix. No color wheels needed, just early hands on learning. As your chidlren get older, you can teach the true circular flat color wheel , but this concrete knowledge will only add in their abstract knowledge of the color wheel.

Red +Blue= Purple

We had already been playing in the water table (bus tub from Sam's filled with water). Decided to fill two small bowls, one with red food coloring and the other with blue food coloring. Then I gave them some medicine syringes to each add colors to the plain water.

Yellow + Blue= Green

We did some finger-paints inside a Ziploc (make sure it is really sealed). Started playing first with the yellow, then after 5 minutes added blue.

Red +Yellow = Orange

As we studied Fire Fighters, we decided to paint some fire. I only gave them red and yellow. Just using finger-paint and brushes, we painted flames and as painted we talked about how they combined.