Lesson 5: Trees

Explain to your child that an evergreen tree remains green all year long. Look at pictures of evergreen trees on the Internet. If you have an evergreen tree near your house, take your child outside to examine its needles. Ask him to describe the difference between evergreen needles and leaves. Tell your child that evergreens can be found in arctic and desert regions, as well as in the forest. Because the leaves (needles) are narrow, snow falls right off them. The leaves also have a waxy coating that keeps the tree from freezing in the winter. This is why evergreen trees do not change colors in the winter.

Ask the following questions as your child is observing the evergreen tree.

On the sheet, "Evergreens and Deciduous Trees," let your child draw the bough of an evergreen tree in the first box. Then ask him to write three sentences to describe the bough he illustrated. In the second box, let him draw a picture of a limb from a deciduous tree in his yard or neighborhood. Next, let him write three descriptive sentences for the limb. In the box between the pictures, he can write two ways they are similar and two ways they are different.

Help your child identify at least five or six types of trees that can be found on your street. (This activity could also be done at a local park). Next, encourage him to record the trees' names on the chart provided on the sheet, "Tree Graph." Ask him to make a tally for each time he finds the different types of trees. When he finishes, he can create a bar graph at the bottom, showing the different types of trees on the street.

Encourage him to think about how to label the x and y axes (types of trees on the x axis and number of trees on the y axis). Then ask him to decide what his intervals should be on the graph, based on the tally marks he recorded for the different types of trees. The intervals on the graph should reflect the number of types of trees your child observed.

Trees follow the same life cycle as other plants. Since trees are woody plants, they do not die every year; they can live for hundreds of years.

On the first page of "Tree Life Cycle," your child will find a picture of a tree at different stages in its life cycle. Let your child paste the pictures in order on the life cycle wheel found on the second page and name each phase using the descriptions provided.