...As Lovely as a Tree...

Hello Everyone!
We had a  "tree"mendous day today!  We are finishing up our natural resources unit and today turned out to be all about trees!  We started off with our Think Outside the Box Thursday Morning Warm up. I gave the kids some little leaves and twigs.  They had to glue them on to their paper and create something different.

I am always amazed at the creativity in my littles!!

  We read several books about trees, brainstormed why trees are considered a natural resource, and created some summary list trees out of paint chip strips. Glue or tape a stick to the bottom and voila! Some pretty special little trees!!  

Save the Trees!!!

We then had the opportunity to go outside to enjoy and study the trees around us.  We took paper and crayons out to take some rubbings. We of course talked about protecting trees for so many reasons. We are so lucky to have some beautiful trees around our school. 

We also talked about replacing any trees that are cut down or damaged by weather or fire. We found a great example of a new tree. 

What a great day of learning!

If you are interested in our unit on Natural resources (I think I shared one last year as well) here are a few pics.

mystery picture

 

And you can get your free 30 page printable download HERE! CLICK!
Well, I can't believe tomorrow's Friday already!! The days are flying by!!! Hold on tight, we're coming in for a landing very soon!!  I hope the view until then is as great as it was today!!!
Thanks for stopping by!!
Joyfully!
Nancy

"tree" mendous week!

Hello Everyone!
We had a "tree"mendous week learning, observing, investigating, celebrating everything tree!  After reading a ton of literature, both fiction and nonfiction, about trees, we put our new learning to work.  We combined our author study, poetry, and social studies unit on natural resources and created some great little poems about trees. Shel Silverstein has some great poems, "Treehouse," and "Man Eating Plant" and of course his beloved book "The Giving Tree"  that we used as inspiration. We brainstormed all the things we get from trees, and created a free verse poem.  We published them on a tree made from a crumpled brown lunch sack, and a tree crown made from green const. paper.

We also enjoyed working together with the sweet class next door to create a giant tree made out of magazines that would have probably ended up in the landfill.  We rescued them and cut out all the green and brown that we could find.  All the kids working together to create this collage was an added beneficial lesson!!

On Friday we celebrated trees by going outside, finding a great tree and taking a rubbing of it's bark.  We discussed  that a tree is a plant and the trunk is like the stem.  The bark is the tree's protection as well as home to many animals.  We should never peel the bark off a tree.

Two of my little cuties won trees in a drawing our environmental committee held on arbor day!!

What a "TREE"mendous week!!  Hope you had one as well!!

Thanks for stopping by to take a little peek through our little window on wonder!!

Till next time!

Joyfully!

Nancy