Getting to Know a Tree

Where did you find this tree? What is nearby?

Where can you see it? From your street? A window in your house?
A park? On your way to school? Do you ride by it on your way somewhere?

What does it look like? Does it have leaves on it? How are they shaped? What color are they? What does its bark look like? What are the patterns and colors? Can you see the tree’s roots? Can you see anything resting in its branches?

DESCRIBE IT…
DRAW IT…
MAKE A RUBBING FROM ONE OF ITS LEAVES…
DO SOMETHING NICE FOR IT…
(Leave a gift. Take away some litter. Give it water. Help it get rid of its dead leaves.)

Does the tree make shade with its shadow? Can you see the sky through its branches? Can you wrap your arms around its trunk and touch your hands together on the other side? Can you make it move?

Does your tree make a sound in the wind?
Do its leaves rattle or hiss? Do they sough? (This is a special word to describe the sound of a tree a tree makes in the wind).

Does anything about this tree change from day to day?
Do you notice anyone else looking at this tree? Do you think anyone is taking care of it? Is it losing its leaves? Is anything growing?

Draw your tree each day for a week. Write about it each day (a story, a poem, a song, or just describe what you see). If you can, read a book underneath it. Or stare up at the sky through its branches. After a week, once you think you know it a little bit, give it a name (and tell it
yours!)

Hi students! I want us all to have some practice using this blog before I leave for my forestry project beside the Chesapeake Bay in Maryland. I will be near the city of Baltimore and I'll also be near America's capitol, Washington, D.C. Many years ago, when I was 19, I worked at a sailing school in the Chesapeake Bay. I learned to operate a sailboat that summer and after students would learn skills in the classroom, I would take them out in a small sailboat to practice. You might also be interested to know that my mom and step dad have a boat that they keep in the Chesapeake Bay. Even though I'm familiar with the Bay and some of the towns and cities near it, I have never been in its forests so I'm excited to see a new landscape there!

I'll be staying at a place called the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center (SERC). I will be helping scientists who are experts in the study of forests. I'm going to be their student and I will teach you about the things I will be learning! What I know now is that we will be conducting lots of 'tests' to see if this forest is healthy or if it is in danger? We will be studying the trees, leaves, roots, soil, animals and weather in a area called a hectare (this means a measurement of 10,000 square meters). All of these elements of the forest will provide clues about its health. Can you imagine how weather might affect a tree? What do you think it would mean if there was a drought (this means a period of time when there is no rain and things 'dry up'). Also, what do you think animals could tell us about the heatlh of a forest? Stay tuned....!

I thought you might enjoy seeing some of my photographs from some forests I've visited in 2008. Let me know what you think of my pictures. If you click on 'post comments' you can write your ideas so I can read them. Your classmates and anyone else who visits our blog will be able to read them too!

What do you notice about these forest pictures? Leave your comments!