Remember to visit the Enrich tab for recommended children’s books that support the science concepts covered in this activity.

Students create a model tree costume, which helps them gain a deeper understanding of the form and function of the basic tree parts. This activity serves as an initial exploration into tree growth and provides a foundation for additional observations.

Time Considerations

50 minutes

Materials

• For trunk: paper grocery bag (one per student)
• For crown: fallen leaves, white paper, old crayons, yarn
• For bark: small pieces of bark from a fallen or dead tree; pieces of crushed cinnamon sticks; sawdust, pine shavings, or cedar chips from a pet store; or bark mulch from a garden shop (or white paper and old crayons to make rubbings of bark)
• For roots: yarn or string
• Scissors
• Glue or tape
• Hole puncher (optional)
• Optional: white paper towel; glass of water; and food coloring

Key Vocabulary

tree, trunk, branch, leaves, bark, roots, seed

Getting Ready

• Gather the materials to make the models.
• Cut enough yarn or string into 5-inch (13-cm) lengths so each student will have six. Cut a paper bag vest for each student, following these steps:
  1. Fold grocery bag flat. Place opening of bag toward you, with the bottom facing up. Place a crease in the middle of the bag’s bottom. Lift bottom of flap up and fold at crease so that points “x” meet.
  2. Cut along dashed lines.Open bag, cut off extra flaps.
  3. Cut down middle of one side of vest only. Now you are ready to decorate and wear your vest.

• Plan to model constructing a tree vest along with students, labeling each component (bark, leaf, and so on) on the model vest to reinforce key vocabulary.

Doing the Activity

1. Ask the students to name and describe the parts of a tree. Their list should include at least the terms below. Make a large diagram of a tree on the board. Ask students to help you label the parts of the tree. On one side of the tree, write the names of the parts in English. On the other side of the tree, write them in Spanish. Add additional languages as appropriate for your class.

Parts of Trees:
English	Spanish
tree	arbol
trunk	tronco
branch	rama
leaves	hojas
bark	corteza
roots	raices
seed	semillas

2. Explain to students that they will make a model tree costume using different materials to represent the different tree parts.
3. Using the leaves you gathered, have the students make leaf rubbings with white paper and different colored crayons. To do so, they should place four or five leaves (several types) on a flat surface and put white paper over them. They should use the sides of different crayons to rub across each leaf.
4. Have students cut out each leaf rubbing along its outline and punch a hole in it using a pencil or hole punch. With your help, they should thread a piece of yarn through all the paper leaves and tie the yarn around their heads to make a crown of leaves. Their heads now represent the leafy crowns of trees. Discuss with students how the leaves in the tree’s crown soak up sunshine and make food (sugar) for the tree.
5. Give a pre-cut paper bag vest to each student. Have each student put on a vest; everyone’s body now represents a tree trunk. Discuss how the trunk supports the tree and holds the crown up where the sun can reach it.
6. Tell students to take off their vests and glue bits of bark or crushed cinnamon sticks to the outside of the vest. This represents the bark on the tree’s trunk. If actual bark is not available, students can make rubbings of tree bark and glue these to the outside of their vests. After the glue dries, students may put the vests back on. Discuss how bark protects the tree from rain, cold, insects, disease, and sometimes even fire.
7. Give each student six 5-inch (13-cm) lengths of yarn or string to represent roots. Ask students to tuck the roots into their socks or shoes so their roots dangle onto the ground. Discuss how roots absorb water and nutrients from soil.
8. Optional: You might try demonstrating absorption by twisting a piece of white paper towel and dipping its end into a glass of water colored with dye. You will see colored water travel up the paper towel the way water travels up tree roots.

Remember to visit the Enrich tab for recommended children’s books that support the science concepts covered in this activity.

In this activity, students observe trees and collect data about them. They then draw a picture of a tree and compare and contrast it to the one they drew in the Engage: Picture a Tree activity.

Time Considerations

50 minutes

Materials

• Look at Me! student page
• Drawing paper, crayons or markers
• Student drawing from Engage: Picture a Tree
• Tree for study (see Getting Ready)

Key Vocabulary

trunk, bark, branch, seeds, flowers, fruits, nuts, cones, roots, crown, leaf

Getting Ready

• Locate a tree that students can observe closely. It may be one in the schoolyard or at a nearby park or greenspace, or a live potted tree you bring to the classroom.
• SAFETY NOTE: If you are taking students to an outside site, check for any hazards, such as deep holes, sharp objects, or poisonous or irritating plants.

Doing the Activity

1. Explain to students that they are going to take a closer look at a tree and later they will use their observations to draw a new picture of a tree.
2. Give students a copy of the Look at Me! student page. Ask them to describe what they might look for under each part of the student page, using these questions to guide them:
   • Trunk and Branches: What shape is the trunk? Is there only one trunk or do several trunks come out of the ground near the same spot? What shape are the tree’s branches?
   • Bark: What color is the tree’s bark? How does it feel? How does it look?
   • Leaves: What shape is the tree’s leaves? What color are they? How do they feel?
   • Seeds: Are there any seeds, flowers, fruits, nuts, or cones on the tree?
   • Tree Shape: What shape is the tree’s leafy part? (Round, straight, pointy, oval?)
   • Plants or Animals: What other plants or animals live on, in, or under the tree?
3. Show students the tree you located in Getting Ready. Looking at it together, encourage students to notice various details of the tree. Have the children use their bodies to bend and twist like the branches, flutter around like the leaves, stand straight and tall like the trunk, or mimic other characteristics of the tree.
4. Give students time to complete the student page, sketching or writing words for each of the features.
5. Back in the classroom, have students draw a picture of a tree. Encourage them to include as much detail as they can.
6. Hang students’ pairs of drawings (from this activity and Engage: Picture a Tree) around the room. Let students walk around to compare each set of drawings. Is anyone’s second picture very different from their first? What new details, for example, appeared in the second drawing?

Remember to visit the Enrich tab for recommended children’s books that support the science concepts covered in this activity.

In Level A of the Treemendous Science! unit, students will explore trees and collect tree data to develop understandings about how trees grow, the roles trees play in ecological systems, and the ways in which trees and humans interact.

Performance Expectations

Level A is built on the following two Kindergarten Performance Expectations for Life Science and Environmental Science included in the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS):

• K-LS1-1 – From Molecules to Organisms: Structures and Processes. Use observations to describe patterns of what plants and animals (including humans) need to survive.
• K-ESS2-1 – Earth’s Systems. Use and share observations of local weather conditions to describe patterns over time.

Essential Questions

The following essential questions articulate big-picture concepts that allow Level A students to connect knowledge across academic standards, crosscutting concepts, and disciplinary core ideas:

• What patterns do you observe in your tree over time?
• What evidence can you find of how weather impacts your tree?

Learner Outcomes

• Students will analyze tree data, beginning with their own prior experiences and advancing to collecting, recording, and reporting data.
• Students will use observations to describe patterns in the natural world to answer scientific questions.

Science Concepts

Level A activities support student understanding of the following science concepts, which are derived from NGSS’s crosscutting concepts, disciplinary core ideas, and scientific and engineering practices.

• All animals need food in order to live and grow. They obtain their food from plants or from other animals. Plants need water and light to live and grow.
• Weather is the combination of sunlight, wind, snow or rain, and temperature in a particular region at a particular time. People measure these conditions to describe and record the weather and to notice patterns over time.
• People can make observations using the senses of sight, sound, taste, smell, and touch.
• Patterns help us to make predictions.

Assessing Student Learning

The Evaluate tab for Level A includes suggestions for:

• Pre-Assessment, which uses student-generated products from the Engage: Picture a Tree lesson.
• Formative Assessment, which can help you gauge student understanding midway through Level A lessons.
• Final Performance Assessment, which should be conducted after the completion of the lessons, and which includes a rubric for assessing student learning.

Getting Ready

Each Level A activity includes a Getting Ready section, which describes how to prepare for teaching that activity.

For Level A as a whole, we recommend finding an area with several trees on or near the school grounds that your class can visit over the course of the year. Be sure to check the site for any hazards such as deep holes, sharp objects, or poisonous or irritating plants.

See Literature Connections to find other resources for teaching this level.

Time Considerations

Lesson	Time
Engage: Picture a Tree	Getting Ready: 5 Minutes Class Time: 30 Minutes
1: The Closer You Look	Getting Ready: 10 Minutes Class Time: 50 Minutes
2: To Be a Tree	Getting Ready: 25 Minutes Class Time: 50 Minutes
3: Adopt a Tree	Getting Ready: 15 Minutes Class Time: 50 Minutes, then ongoing visits throughout the year

Key Vocabulary

You may use the Key Vocabulary: Level A student page to introduce students to the following vocabulary terms or to review or assess their mastery of these terms. Note that the definitions below are geared for students, while the definitions that “pop up” within the activity text online are geared for the teacher.

Term	Definition
Bark	The outer covering of a tree.
Cone	A hard, woody fruit from a pine or fir tree.
Flower	The part of a plant that makes seeds or fruit.
Leaf	The flat green part of a plant that grows from a stem or branch.
Nut	A small, dry fruit with a hard shell that grows on some trees and other plants.
Roots	The parts of a plant that grow underground.

PLT Conceptual Framework

Lesson	Conceptual Framework Connection
Engage: Picture a Tree	4.1 Populations of organisms exhibit variations in size and structure as a result of adaptations to their habitats.
1: The Closer You Look	4.1 Populations of organisms exhibit variations in size and structure as a result of adaptations to their habitats.
2: To Be a Tree	4.1 Populations of organisms exhibit variations in size and structure as a result of adaptations to their habitats. 4.2 The structure and scale of ecosystems are influenced by environmental factors such as soil type, climate, availability of water, and human activities.
3: Adopt a Tree	2.1 Organisms are interdependent and depend on nonliving components of the Earth. 5.3 Ecosystems change over time through patterns of growth and succession. They are also affected by other phenomena, such as disease, insects, fire, weather, climate, and human intervention.

Standards Connections

See Standards Connections in the Appendices for a list of standards addressed in Treemendous Science! Level A activities.

Student Pages

These Student Pages provide concrete opportunities for guided instruction. Student Pages can be printed out or shared electronically with learners for completion.

 

 

 

 

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Teacher Pages

 

 

Use the following suggestions to assess student understanding and learning at the beginning, middle, and end of the Level A lessons.

Pre-Assessment

Students’ drawings in the Engage: Picture a Tree lesson can serve as a pre-assessment for the unit. Look at their drawings and note the level of detail students provide: Do they recognize different parts of a tree, such as the trunk, branches, and leaves? Or does their tree more closely resemble a lollipop? Do they include other elements in the environment, such as animals, other plants, clouds, or the sun?

Formative Assessment

• Compare students’ drawing of a tree in 1: The Closer You Look to those in the Engage: Picture a Tree lesson.
• Check that students constructed their tree vests in 2: To Be a Tree appropriately.
• Periodically review entries from students’ tree journals, checking for increased level of detail in drawings of observations and appropriate articulation of patterns in tree growth and weather.

Final Performance Assessment

Part 1: To assess students’ understanding of tree parts and what trees need to stay alive, give them a copy of the My Tree and Me student page. Have them draw a picture of their adopted tree in the box indicated, including all the different tree parts they observed (such as trunk, bark, leaves, seeds, and roots). Direct them to add things the tree needs to stay alive (such as sunlight and water). On the other half of the page, have them draw a picture of themselves.

Conduct a short interview with each student as follows, recording their ideas on the worksheet:

• Name the parts of the tree. How does each part help the tree?
• Using the picture of you, describe how you’re like a tree and how you’re different. (Follow-up questions might include: How do you get food and water? What about trees? How do they get what they need to grow?) Record student responses on the worksheet.

Part 2: Use students’ drawing from Step 10 of the Adopt a Tree activity to assess their understanding of the changes in the tree and in weather over time. Meet with individual students and ask them to explain their pictures and to describe the patterns, encouraging them to support their ideas with evidence from their journals.

Use the suggested Performance Assessment Sample Rubric teacher page to score student results.

 

This arrangement of lessons moves students through the stages of exploration, explanation, and elaboration. True to constructivist pedagogy, students move through these phases in a linear fashion as they first begin by testing ideas to develop knowledge, and then modify and refine those ideas as appropriate to answer questions and extend conceptual understanding. PLT recommends moving through each of the following lessons sequentially, to scaffold student learning over time.

In Level A, students move through the lessons below to answer the following Essential Questions:

• What patterns do you observe in your tree over time?
• What evidence can you find of how weather impacts your tree?
• How can you use those observations to predict how weather might impact your tree in the future?

1: The Closer You Look
2: To Be a Tree
3: Adopt a Tree

This activity introduces the unit by having students draw a picture of tree from memory. As they explore trees close up through the other unit activities, they will draw new pictures and compare them with the original pictures they draw.

Time

30 minutes

Materials

• drawing paper
• crayons or markers
• flip chart (optional)

Vocabulary

tree, branch, leaf, trunk, roots

Getting Ready

Gather the materials.

Doing the Activity

1. Have students close their eyes and picture a tree. Encourage them to think about the overall shape of the tree, how the branches are connected, and the texture of the trunk and leaves.
2. Give students drawing paper and crayons or markers, and ask them to draw a picture of their tree from memory. Have them share their pictures in small groups and discuss how their drawings are alike and different. (Consider using collaborative discussion strategies for leading the discussion.)
3. As a whole class, have the small groups share the similarities and differences they found. (You may record their responses on the board or flip chart to help build student vocabulary and word recognition.)
4. Introduce the Treemendous Science! unit by leading a discussion about trees:
   • How did you know what to draw?
   • What do you know about trees?
   • What questions do you have about trees?
   • How could we learn even more about trees?
   • What kinds of information could we gather?
   • How might we go about getting that information?
   • What do you think a scientist might do to learn about trees?
5. Save student pictures for Lesson 1: The Closer You Look.

Remember to visit the Enrich tab for recommended children’s books that support the science concepts covered in this activity.