I had this idea this spring; have the girls identify trees in our own yard. This brilliant idea was precipitated by my trying to figure out exactly what kind of tree I have in one spot, but I figured it was a great activity for the girls to help out with, and why not learn some tricks for tree identification.
So, off to the library we went today, and came home with a small armload of books on trees. Of course I added a few other tree books in, figuring it made since to read about the role trees play in our ecosystem. (hmmm, wonder if I can throw a math activity in related to trees? anyway ....) We returned home and the girls chose the little tree outside our garage to begin the identification venture. (Lauren is very excited about this, Annika only slightly.)
We each plucked a leaf off the tree and observed its shape and characteristics. We wrote down some of our observations, and also some notes about the bark and general shape of the tree itself. Then we looked through the book to see what kind of tree we have. We also sketched our leaf, noting the vein patterns.
Our verdict? This is (I hope) a Red Maple leaf, from a Red Maple Tree.
Of course, the girls had to get up-close and personal with the tree once we were done identifying it. And here is Lauren showing us her muscle!
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