CoOL Schoolyards
Teaching with Trees

Teaching with Trees

Trees offer opportunities to engage students in outdoor learning; offer shade to cool the schoolyard; provide food and shelter for wildlife; improve air quality; moderate the climate; remove toxins from soil; and contribute beauty to our world. Yet many school campuses feature more pavement and turf grass than trees or natural areas. The good news is that it's easy to plant a tree - and any campus can become a CoOL Schoolyard!

Each of these teaching resources begins by having students observe a real-world phenomenon in the schoolyard, ask questions about it, and conduct investigations to make sense of the core ideas underlying the phenomenon. 

Tree Activity: Make a Leaf Viewer to Identify Trees

Step 1: Choose a topic ( native trees? non-natives? leaves, flowers, fruits, or nuts? )
Step 2: Select several species to feature - including trees found in the schoolyard
Step 3: Use this Canva template to draw or paste images of leaves around the edges of a piece of 8.5 x 11 card stock. Label the leaf images or drawings with their tree names.
Step 4: Cut out the center of the paper to make a viewer, where a real leaf can be centered and compared to the images, to help identify it. 

Lessons for Grades K - 2

Kindergarten: Get to Know a Tree
     Students will compare similarities and differences among trees.
K, 1st, 2nd Grades: 50 Nifty Trees I Know   
     Students will learn to distinguish differences among trees and identify by genus or species. 
​1st Grade:  What a Tree Needs
    Students will get to know the parts of a tree and what it needs to survive, before planting one. 
2nd Grade: Changing Nature of Nature
​    Students will explore how humans change the environment and plan a schoolyard habitat.​2nd Grade: Growing Up as a Tree
    Students will investigate tree growth and life cycles by planting a seed or seedling. 
​2nd, 7th & HS Env Sci:   Butterfly Gardening with Trees
    Students will observe trees and notice that those with flowers attract pollinators.

Tree Activity: Plant Seedlings in the Schoolyard

Step 1:   Identify a place on campus where shade is needed and a water source is nearby
Step 2:  Choose a tree species that is native to Georgia
Step 3:  Obtain seedling(s) from a yard, a tree nursery, or Georgia Forestry Commission
​Step 3:  Press blade of a shovel or dibble bar into soil; pull handle back to open a v-hole
Step 4:  Plant a seedling in the hole; push tool handle back upright to close the hole
Step 5:  Place mulch around the tree to retain water (Mound mulch around tree with at least 6" of
                 space between mulch mound and trunk. Think of a mulch donut; not a volcano.)
Step 6:  Care for the tree by marking it and watering regularly until it is established

Lessons for Grades 3 - 5

​3rd Grade: There’s No Place Like Home (for a Tree)
    Students will investigate Georgia's eco-regions and discover which trees grow in each area. 
3rd Grade: Too Hot to Handle
    Students will measure temperatures outside and find out how much cooler it is in the shade.
4th Grade: Nothing Succeeds Like Succession 
    Students will explore ecosystem changes including succession and disruptions to succession.
​5th Grade: Which Tree is Which? A Kid-Sized Plant Classification Model
    Students will compare plant similarities and differences to create keys and identify tree species
3rd, 4th, 5th, 6,7,HS: Ghost Forest
    Students will investigate what trees need to live and why the trees on "Driftwood Beach" died. 

Tree Activity: Adopt a Tree

Step 1:  Choose any tree in the schoolyard
Step 2:  Make a sign to "claim" the tree for the class or group
Step 3:  Identify the tree species and learn about it
Step 4:  Visit and observe the tree during every season to see how it changes
Step 5:  Report when the tree blooms, to help scientists with the BudBurst project
​Step 6:  If your tree is in bloom during summer, count and report pollinators that visit it on August 22 or 23, to help  with the Great Southeast Pollinator Census 
​Step 7:   Draw, paint, make rubbings, collect leaves, and write stories about the tree

Lessons for Middle School 

​6th, 7th, 3, 4, 5, HS: Ghost Forest
     Students will investigate the effects of saltwater intrusion and erosion on a seaside forest. 
​7th & 4th:   Butterfly Gardening with Trees​
     Students will observe flowering trees and the butterflies and other pollinators that visit.
7th, HS Bio, HS Env Sci:  Native Tree Planting and Care
    Students will explore native vs introduced trees and determine which native tree to plant.

Calculate the Carbon-Capturing Capacity of a Tree

This activity is inspired by Project Learning Tree Southeastern Forest materials and included in EEA's "What's the Matter, Tree?"

Step 1:  Choose a tree in the schoolyard that is level with your location
Step 2:  Move approximately as far away from the tree as the height of the tree
Step 3: Turn your back to the tree, bend over, and look between your legs
Step 4: Move forward or back until you see the top of the tree in view between legs
Step 5: Use a measuring wheel or tape to calculate the distance to the tree
                This distance is the same as the tree's height (represented as h).
Step 6: Measure circumference around the tree in cm, at 137 cm (4.5 ft) above ground 
Step 7: Calculate the tree's diameter by dividing the circumference by pi (3.14)
Step 8: SHORTCUT: Use the Diameter and this chart to estimate Carbon content in kg, OR
Step 9: If tree's diameter is <28cm, multiply 0.0577 x d x d x h = tree's Green Weight or GW
               If tree's diameter is >28 cm, multiply 0.0346 x d x d × h = tree's Green Weight or GW
Step 10: Half of the tree's Green Weight (GW) is the tree's Dry Weight: GW x 0.5 = DW
Step 11: Half of the tree's Dry Weight (DW) is its Carbon content: DW x 0.5 = C, in kg
Step 12: Multiply Carbon kg by 2.204 to convert mass to pounds (lbs), if desired

Compare the Carbon content of a tree to your "Carbon footprint" (emissions) each year. How many trees would it take to absorb (offset) that amount of Carbon? 
Step 1: Assume you are responsible for emitting the equivalent of 13,000 kg Carbon/year
Step 2: 

Lessons for High School

HS Bio & HS Env Sci, 7th: Native Tree Planting and Care
      Students will explore native trees and design a native plant arboretum
HS Env Sci: What’s the Matter, Tree?
    Students will investigate the substance of trees and measure their carbon-sequestration capacity
HS Env Sci, 2nd, 7th:   Butterfly Gardening with Trees
​    Students will observe flowering trees, identify pollinators, and consider their adaptations
HS Bio & Env Sci: Tree Invaders
    Students will research introduced, invasive species that outcompete and harm native trees
HS Bio, Env Sci & AP ES: Succession: a Disturbing Turn of Events
    Students will identify disturbances that reset succession and imagine the future of the schoolyard
HS Bio & Env Sci: What Good is a Tree?
    Students will explore the many different ways that trees are valuable to people and animals.
HS Bio & Env Sc & AP ES: Fire in the Forest
    Students will use computer models to predict spread of forest fires; explore fire-adapted species
HS Env Sci: Street Trees and the Urban Heat Island Effect
    Students will investigate root causes of the heat island effect and the impact of street trees

Tree Activity:  Conduct a BioBlitz to Inventory Schoolyard Trees

Step 1:   Divide the schoolyard into sections for student teams to inventory trees
Step 2:  Take a photo of every tree in section OR inventory a random sampling.
                  Start from a GPS point, use a 37.5 ft string as the radius, and mark a dotted
                  circle with spray paint to represent 0.1 acre; count trees that have 1/2 trunk 
Step 3:  Upload the tree photos to i-Naturalist app or SEEK to verify identity
​Step 4:  Collect relevant data for each tree (e.g. diameter, height, condition, damage)
​Step 5:  Map the locations of inventoried trees
Step 6:  Analyze data to determine where, what type, what size trees are needed. Step 7:  Create a maintenance plan based on conditions of existing trees

LEARN MORE . . .

Be Part of the Georgia Schoolyard Forest Network

Sign Up for the CoOL Schoolyards Challenge

Attend the Outdoor Learning Symposium

Take a 21 Day Challenge to Teach with Trees

Get Certified to Teach Project Learning Tree