Trees Classroom Theme

Trees are an essential element of our ecosystem. Get ready for Arbor Day by learning about trees, or just refresh your classroom with a sylvan theme. Dress your bulletin board with a Classroom Tree bulletin board set, and use a good tree saying:

• “We’re TREEmendous!”
• “Having a TREEriffic Year!”
• “Our Learning Tree” would be a great slogan for a bulletin board showing all the things students have learned this year. Use the tree’s branches as a graphic organizer.
• “We’re Top of the Trees!”
• “We TREEt Each Other With Kindness”
• “We Love PoeTREE”
• “Turn Over a New Leaf”
• “Leafing Through history”
• “Tree of Knowledge”
• “Branches of Science”
• “Leaves of Learning”

Often, tree identification and study focuses on leaves.

However, as these labeled trees from the Lake Fayetteville Trail show, bare trees have differences, too.

Get up close and personal with some trees to examine the form of the trees,the bark, and other differences. If you don’t have labeled trees nearby, this would be a great time to do some research and identify trees on the school grounds — then label them!

Add a tech lesson to your tree unit by having students add digital pictures to the school website or classroom wikki (you can use my pictures if you want), or make a bulletin board display of your local tree discoveries. Enumerate the trees found on a class walk to get some real-world math practice, and chart your findings.

Online resources for tree studies abound:

• Life of a Tree explores the life cycle of trees.
• A Tree Rings Simulation explores different aspects of tree rings.
• Enchanted Learning has fun tree resources.
• Pine Tree Lesson Plans have fun ideas for pines in particular and trees in general.

The Giving Tree is a favorite kids’ book. Its message isn’t about trees per se, but it can fit into your tree lessons.

The Tree Book for Kids and Their Grownups is an excellent start on identifying trees and getting to know the basic facts about them.

Tall, Tall Tree looks at redwoods in particular.