Trees: Teachers

Amazing Tree Facts

Learn amazing facts about trees and fun tree trivia that you can share with your students.

Interesting things to know about trees from American Forests.

Tree Rings tell more than age. Find out about dendrochronology.

Check out this simple, clear explanation of tree anatomy.

Learn more about photosynthesis from one or more of these sites. You may want to check out each of these, as different levels of complexity will be appropriate for different classrooms.

• Biology4kids.com
• Whatisphotosynthesis.net
• Kidsdiscover.com
• Photosynthesiseducation.com
• Arborday.org
• Thekidsgarden.co.uk

Lesson Plans and Resources

Visit the Arbor Day Foundation to get lots of good information about trees. You will find the Kids' Corner to be especially useful with lots of instructional activities. There are printable activity sheets (word search, dot-to-dot, maze) as well as an interactive map of trees around the world, a slide show on the life of a tree, a quiz on leaf identification, and a student-centered presentation of the benefits of trees. Find complete lesson plans and classroom activity guides for teachers at the K-12 Learning Hub.

Penn State University offers teachers a full selection of lesson plans for grades K-5 and grades 6-8 covering a variety of tree and forestry topics.

KidZone Science has a great Trees page with colorful content, printables, diagrams for your SmartBoard, worksheets, and links to tree crafts and coloring pages.

Trees Are Terrific is a fun multi-media lesson from the University of Illinois, designed for primary grades. An accompanying teacher's guide offers additional ideas for expansion. Exploring the Secret Life of Trees is for grades 3-5, also with teacher's guide. These lessons are available in Spanish.

Kids for Trees is a great resource that includes ten lesson plans, videos, worksheets, and student and teacher guides. Download the PDF with printables for your classroom.

Your class may enjoy learning a fun tree poem.

Check out these Tree Unit activities for grades K-1, with printables and art ideas.

Tree Detectives is an outdoor lesson plan for grades 3-6 from the National Wildlife Federation.

Rainforests, Raw Materials and You is a PBS lesson plan for middle school that includes guidelines for student research.

Find lessons on wood and paper products for primary and secondary students.

An Interactive Field Trip

A Walk in the Woods is a virtual field trip to the forest. A teacher's guide and more extensive Nature Notes are included. Also available in Spanish.

PowerPoints to share

• Coniferous Trees
• Forest Ecology
• The Deciduous Forest

From Project Learning Tree

Project Learning Tree has tree-centered classroom activities for grades K-12. Scroll to the bottom for lesson plans organized by grade level.

Introduce your students to Dr. Suess's The Lorax, the defender of trees and sustainable use. Use this teachers' guide with the movie or the book.

Who Speaks For The Trees? includes six complete lesson plans for students in grades 1-8. Topics include identifying products made from trees (for younger students) and managing a tree farm (for older students.)