Tree Exploration

Children's theories about trees

Sometimes trees are attached to each other.

Trees grow like vegetables, very big.

When big trees come the little trees get cut down by the big trees.

                                  This is the way I imagine that the children see the tree.

 

 

Trees are plants.

How can you tell if a tree is old?

When a tree has been there a long time.

There are old leaves on the tree.
They have big branches.
Young trees have bumps on their bark.
Old trees, their bark comes off.

How do trees drink water?

It rains and the water gets sucked into the soil, then it goes up all the way.

Rain comes from clouds, it dribbles on trees. 
 The soil goes into the trees and then into some little holes, that makes trees grow.

The rain goes into the soil and trees grow big and strong and they are Daddy and Mommy.

 

Why do trees have bark?

Trees have sap.  Bark covers the trees.

Baby monkeys, daddy,mommy, brother and sister have boo boos on their hands.  They use the tree sap for medicine.

 

The children noticed this tree and wondered why it had bricks inside it.

One child said it was a secret passage.

Another said you can climb up it.

As we were walking the children noticed the leaves were different colors. When it is Fall the leaves change colors and after Fall they don't change color.

Trees grow every day and every night.

 

 

Here you see some of the first drawings by the children.  Notice that they do not draw them as they see them but they draw their relationship with them.

How do trees eat?

The food drops into the stems....they are growing....the Summer is hot...the sun comes up and the leaves fall off.

 

Using oil pastels they revealed 
the bark of the tree on the paper.

Colors all over, mixed together.

It looks like a rainbow tree.

We colored it.

The next day the teachers set up the paper to form a tree, for a provocation.  The children begin to play inside the structure.

The children integrate their thinking of trees into their play.  They also seem to relate the trees to family.

The teachers and children will continue this inquiry.   How will the children continue their relationship with the trees on our campus?

As the children were drawing they discussed more of their theories.
 
Some of the children believed that the tree was a girl, (with a princess inside) some said it was a boy.
One boy thought there should be faces on the tree.
A few girls said there was blood inside.


I look forward to seeing the direction the children will take next.  Will they represent trees in other mediums?  Will they write stories?