Monday, July 27, 2009

Tremendous Trees!

We have been reading a wonderful book called The Tremendous Tree Book by Barbara Brenner & May Garelick. This book celebrates how marvelous trees are and it presents basic facts about trees, how they grow, and how much they benefit our world. We went on a leaf walk this morning to gather leaves from trees near our house. When we returned home we matched the leaves to a leaf matching page in our book to identify what type of tree the leaves came from. Grace made hammered leaf prints from several of the leaves we collected on our leaf walk. She placed leaves in between two sheets of paper and used a hammer to make the leaf prints appear on the paper! While Grace was making her leaf prints I set up a bin filled with water for Jack to explore. I placed several of the leaves we gathered from our walk into the bin. Jack had a great time splashing the leaf water, touching the wet leaves, and making the leaves sink and float using his hands.
We made a leaf poster from the four most common types of trees near our home - oak, maple, birch, and pine (pine needles are actually leaves). Grace is able to identify these four types trees simply by looking at the shape of their leaves!

3 comments:

Proud husband and daddy said...

You're the best Mommy Rebecca!

Our kids are blessed to have such wonderful learning experiences.

Love,
Daddy

loving nature, said...

You ARE the Best Mommy, Rebecca!

What a terrific lesson in science and nature. I have read that the "Tremendous Tree" is an amazing book. Jack & Grace will have to share it with us when we visit next. I love Grace's hammered leaf prints and Jack's leaf bin.

I forgot that pine needles are actually leaves. Thank you for the reminder, I love learning new things!

It is so wonderful to see our world through Jack's and Grace's eyes. I Love You, Maddy

Anonymous said...

Rebecca, you thought up so many activities for this study of trees. It's like a mini unit.
I love how you incorporate all the senses and how the learning is openended for so many of the activities that you plan. Grace and Jack are totally engrossed. What better compliment could be accorded to a teacher/mom? Kudos!

XOXOXO,
Memere

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