Let's make trees!

I've been brave enough to commit to working with two Head Start centers this year on a monthly basis, working with their children on science and agricultural literacy. Besides the basics of learning where their food comes from, I want these children to understand the incredible diversity of American agriculture and to be excited about science and all the wonderful things just waiting to be discovered by their young minds.

So far this year, I've shared with them about insects and spiders (just in time for Halloween...and let me tell you, I was impressed with what those preschoolers already knew when I got there!). Then we talked about the life cycle of a pumpkin and read some cool pumpkin books (you can't believe what a great job they are doing of growing their pumpkin seeds!). And in November we learned about the different body parts and adaptations of wild turkeys. I'm telling you, these preschoolers are impressive and already knew what a turkey's caruncle was before I was even walked in the door! So I thought they deserved an extra fun treat as Christmas approaches.

We did our December visit on Christmas trees!

We started out by talking about how Christmas trees are grown on farms, how they benefit the environment by absorbing carbon dioxide and releasing fresh oxygen, how they are a renewable resource, how they are recyclable, and how they preserve green space. The National Christmas Tree Association has some great resources on their site with this information as well as a lot of myths debunked about real Christmas trees. For example, did you know there are more than 4,000 Christmas tree recycling programs in the United State alone?

Then we read A Wish to be a Christmas Tree by Colleen Monroe.

This cute tale tells the story of an old tree on a Christmas tree farm that is sad because he was never chosen by a family to be a Christmas tree. He knows now that he's too large to be chosen by a family to be their Christmas trees, but the animals tell him all about the many benefits he provides to them and while he is asleep, they decorate him and make him their own special Christmas tree.

Afterwards, we made our own little Christmas tree snacks. We started with Cool Whip, which I colored with green food coloring in advance. Each child then got their own sugar ice cream cone and "iced" the cone with the Cool Whip to make a tree. We decorated the trees with M&Ms for ornaments and enjoyed a good snack. This is a fun little treat either in the classroom or at home. So enjoy!

Tree-rific math!

This month I'm gearing up for a big lesson on Christmas trees with about 200 preschoolers. Lucky me, right? But as I was out looking for "the perfect idea" for sharing about the role of Christmas trees and Christmas tree farmers with my preschool crowd, I found a cool resource for teaching real-life mathematics to older students using Christmas trees!

Photo from the United States Department of Agriculture
Natural Resource Conservation Service

The lesson comes from the Massachusetts Christmas Tree Association, and they offer an educational package free of charge (you just pay $5 for shipping) called The Annual Cycle of the Tree Farmer. If the rest of the materials are as cool as this fun, hands-on lesson, the $5 shipping fee is a steal!

Students will develop and understanding of area,the size of an acre and spatial relationships as well as learn different strategies for determining land area of irregular polygons in this lesson designed for students in grades 6 and up (adaptations for younger students are included at the end of this lesson).

The assignment revolves around this scenario:

Mr. & Mrs. Rice recently sold their dairy her and want to convert their former pasture land into a tree farm. They have a map of their property that shows the pasture land. Literature from the Massachusetts Cooperative Extension agent about growing evergreen trees suggests that trees can be successfully grown in a 6' x 6' arrangement with trees planted 6' apart in rows that are 6' apart. With this arrangement, 1,200 trees can be planted per acre of pasture land. An acre is a surface are of 43,560 feet.

Side note: I love the name Rice used in the scenario above! The land where our OARDC campus is located originally belonged to the Frederick Rice family. Frederick was a veteran of the Revolutionary War and eventually divided the farm between his two sons Simon and Barnhardt.


Question for students to answer: How many trees can the Rice family plant in their former cow pasture? A map of the property is included in The Annual Cycle of the Tree Farmer package.

Suggestions for teaching:

1. Take the students outside and measure an acre on your school or personal property to help them understand how large an acre actually is. Before going outside, explain that since the square footage of an acre is 43,560 feet, the easiest way to measure out an acre is to create a square or rectangle with an area this size (Area = Length x Width, and in this case the area would be 43,560). Have students experiment in the classroom with calculators to find what combination yields a product of 43,560. Just a few of the possible solutions include: 208.47 x 208.47, 10 x 4,356, 100 x 435.6, 150 x 290.4, etc. Students should discover that the width will always equal the area (43,560 feet) divided by whatever length they choose. The students can then be divided into groups of 4 to go outside, measure and stake out the bounds of their acre using different dimensions for each group. This will help them understand that several different polygons can have the same area (in this case, 1 acre).
2. Divide the students into groups of 3-4 and distribute the maps of the farm showing the pasture land that is to be planted to trees. Focus on 1 pasture and show it on an overhead. Give students 5 minute to discuss with their group possible ways to find the square footage of this pasture, then present their solutions. If using the map included with the Annual Life Cycle of a Tree Farmer, the lengths on that map have been converted to actual lengths using the map scale, where 1 inch = 100 feet. If you don't have the Annual Life Cycle of a Tree Farmer, you can create your own map selecting pasture shapes appropriate to the age level of your students. Perhaps the pasture shape is a trapezoid (calculate the area by dividing it into 2 triangles and a rectangle, then add the areas together) or a series of different shaped rectangles

These are fun, hands-on ways to help students learn about basic mathematical concepts and real-life problem solving. Which is always a good idea when it comes to minimizing the "But why do I have to learn my math?" questions!