Subject: Trees & leaves

Fall Tree craft - have a tree trunk painted onto paper or cut one out of construction paper and then paint the childs hands different fall colors. Have them make their handprints with the many colors for the leaves of the tree.

Tree - Have the children make a tree by gluing toothpicks on a piece of paper. Use a sponge and green tempera paint to add leaves to the top of the tree.

Leaf Match - Use a glue stick to glue leaves plucked from 4-6 different trees on to a poster board. Cover with clear contact paper. Sandwich leaves of the same size and variety between two pieces of clear contact paper. Trim around each leaves leaving a ¼ " sealed edge. Set the board and leaves on a tray. The children match the leaves.

Use plaster of Paris to put a branch in a bucket, children can decorate branch with pine cones, assorted leaves, make their own leaves from paper....

SENSORY SCIENCE Discovering Evergreen Trees On a tray, set out branches from three different kinds of evergreen trees to compare. Provide magnifying glasses for examining. Smell the branches. Point out the differences in needles and pine cones if attached.

Grow a forest Buy several tiny evergreens sold at Christmas time for table decorations. But a dowel in each pot. Place in a sunny window. Mark the heights of the trees on the first day. Keep track every couple of weeks, marking their heights on the dowel..

MATH/SCIENCE Count the rings on a wood round - a slice of the tree.

PLAY DOUGH: (Xmas) Tree cutters - green dough

ART Mural Forest
To make a tree, press a child's hand into green tempera paint. Keeping the fingers & thumb close together, press the hand on a roll piece of white butcher paper, making the tree, leaves and branches. Have the children print their hands as many times as they would like on the same paper to make a forest. Use a brown maker sideways, print the child’s names under their trees to make the trunks.

ART: Easel paint using evergreen branches for brushes.

BOOK: Mr. Willoby’s Christmas Tree Need non-fiction book

IN THE BLOCK AREA: Add evergreen trees ( Cut from 1 inch thick pine board into tall triangular trees in various sizes. Keep the bottoms flat and wide so they are easy to stand up. Sand smooth - can use a non-toxic green stain for a pretty finish. Vinyl forest creatures. Display pictures of forests and logging trucks. Provide a couple of wood trucks to load and unload with the logs - the logs can be cylinders from the block set or logs made from smooth straight branches cut into lengths that fits the trucks.

SENSORY Explorations: Wood shavings in the sand/water table

MANIPULATION: Woodworking: Provide a hand drills for boring holes, and a hammer and large head nails for pounding into pine boards.

Song : Found A Pine Cone Sung to 'Oh, My Darling Clementine'
Found a pine cone, found a pine cone, found a pine cone on the ground.
Oh, I‘m so very lucky - a pine cone to have found.
Picked it up, picked it up, picked it up just like that,
Picked up that pretty pine cone - then I put it in my sack.
Found a pine cone, found a pine cone, found a pine cone on the ground.
Oh, I’m so very lucky - a pine cone to have found.

Fall Tree.....
Give each child ayellow construction paper tree cut out one small cup of red colored water one small cup of orange colored water and an eye dropper The children can practice using their pincher muscles while they create a beautiful fall tree!!! Afterwards we glue on a tree trunk!!

Torn Paper Tree
Have children draw or paint a tree trunk. Provide scraps of red, brown, yellowand orange paper to be torn into small bits and glued on the tree and ground as leaves.

Leaf observation
Collect leaves from a variety of trees. Place them and a magnifying glass on the science table for the children to explore.

Brooms

On stormy days
when the wind is high
Tall trees are brooms
sweeping the sky
They swish their branches
In buckets of rain
And swash and sweep it
blue again.

The children can decorate branch with pine cones, assorted leaves, seeds.

Leaf rubbings- Place a leaf under a sheet of paper and color over the top with crayon until the pattern of the leaf is clear.

Sprout a small tree, seed and plant in the back yard.

Turn the dramatic play area into a greenhouse, provide pots, watering cans etc.

Make a feely box with parts of a tree inside, bark, seeds, flowers, etc.

Learn fun facts about trees--if you look at a tree stump and count the rings that you see you will learn the age of the tree, the bark of the tree is a protective layer for the tree like our skin is for us.

Talk about all of the uses for trees: Paper is made from wood, homes, boats are built from wood, we can burn wood to provide heat for warmth or cooking.

Have tree shaped foods for lunch and dessert: Broccoli, celery stalks/green gumdrops stacked like a pine tree or inverted sugar cones placed on some crushed oreo cookies (for dirt)

TP Trees
Materials: Toilet paper roll, Brown paint, Leaves, construction Paper What to Do: Cut toilet paper roll in half long ways. Paint it brown, Let dry. Glue to Construction paper as a tree trunk then glue real or paper leaves around to make it look like a tree.

Leaf Puzzles...
Make easy puzzles by tracing leaf shapes onto a piece of construction paper. Use preserved leaves from science activity 1 or leaves that you have drawn on construction paper and then cut out. Have the children place the leaf shape onto the appropriate leaf outline.

Large And Small...
Select leaves from nearby trees. Collect a large and small leaf from each tree. Press the leaves between two large books to flatten them. Protect the leaves by preserving them in wax or by placing them between two sheets of clear adhesive paper and trimming to within ¼-inch of the leaf. Place the larger leaves on the table. Place the smaller leaves in a box. Ask the child to select a leaf from the box and match it to its partner on the table.

Let the children make "trees":
You will need:

• toilet paper tubes
• paper plates
• paint

Activities: Take kids on a walk or to a park to look for trees. They can even give the trees big {{{hugs}}}. Have them compare trees by sizes, colors, types of bark, types of foliage.

Here's a poem to go with "tree hugging". :)

Why not hug a tree today
Or pat it on it's bark?
Give a tree a great big squeeze
At home or in the park.

Find the tree you like the best And stand beneath it's shade. Stretch your arms around its trunk And hug until you fade.

Imagine the birds that have lived in your tree, Imagine the squirrel in its nest. A tree is a home to all that come, The perfect place to rest.
So put your arms around your tree, Whether its short or tall. Hug your tree - you'll feel so good, Winter, spring, summer or fall. By: Susan M. Paprocki

Phyllis is a forest ranger,
And she takes care of the trees.
She's a friend to every creature,
From big bears to little bees.

When I go to see the forest,
Phyllis takes me on a walk.
I learn all about the wildlife,
When I listen to her talk.

Organizer. We sanded the wood ahead of time so the children would not get splinters and then let the children sand for the experience. The children glued the tops of baby food jars to the wood. I let them "stain" it with cotton and some tempra paint. When it dried they reattached the bottles to the lids (not an easy task I found out) and it became a small organizer for screws, nuts, bolts, batteries -anything small.

Key Holder. I marked off a two inch area on each piece of wood and let the children cover with pasted on beans. We attached hooks to the area that was not "beaned" and put a wire on the back for hanging. The idea was to hang it close to a door with extra keys.

Bread Cutting Board. I gave each child a piece of wood large enough to hold a loaf of bread. We used "woodsies" small store bought wood shapes, to entirely cover the larger piece. The only instruction the children were given was to make sure each piece touched another piece. When dry, the children used modge podge (it looks like glue but dries with a high shine) to protect it. The parents loved this one.

Name Blocks. One year we had long rectangular wood pieces. I cut them so they were like alphabet blocks and let the children have enough blocks to create their name. They wrote the same letter on each side of the block so no matter which way they put it down it was right.

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