How to Begin Tree Study

Teacher’s Story

URING autumn the attention of the children should be attracted to the leaves by their gorgeous colors. It is well to use this interest to cultivate their knowledge of the forms of leaves of trees; but the teaching of the tree species to the young child should be done quite incidentally and guardedly. If the teacher says to the child bringing a leaf, “This is a white oak leaf,” the child will soon quite unconsciously learn that leaf by name. Thus, tree study may be begun in the kindergarten or the primary grades.

1. Let the pupils use their leaves as a color lesson by classifying them according to color, and thus train the eye to discriminate tints and color values.

2. Let them classify the leaves according to form, selecting those which resemble each other.

3. Let each child select a leaf of his own choosing and draw it. This may be done by placing the leaf flat on paper and outlining it with pencil or with colored crayon.

4. Let the pupils select paper of a color similar to the chosen leaf and cut a paper leaf like it.

5. Let each pupil select four leaves which are similar and arrange them on a card in a symmetrical design. This may be done while the leaves are fresh, and the card with leaves may be pressed and thus preserved.

In the fourth grade, begin with the study of a tree which grows near the schoolhouse. In selecting this tree and in speaking of it, impress upon the children that it is a living being, with a life and with needs of its own. I believe so much in making this tree seem an individual, that I would if necessary name it Pocahontas or Martha Washington. First, try to ascertain the age of the tree. Tell an interesting story of who planted it and who were children and attended school in the schoolhouse when the tree was planted. To begin the pupils’ work, let each have a little note-book in which shall be written, sketched or described all that happens to this particular tree for a year. The following words with their meaning should be given in the reading and spelling lessons: Head, bole, trunk, branches, twigs, spray, roots, bark, leaf, petiole, foliage, sap.