Sunday, April 28, 2013

I Love Trees {Science Unit}

We have one last science unit coming up before the end of the school year. With Earth Day last week and getting ready to plant flowers for Mother's Day, I thought it would be a great time to spend a few days focusing on protecting our environment through saving trees. This unit will be aligned with the GPS Standard:

S3L2- Students will recognize the effect os pollution and humans on the environment.
B. Identify ways to protect the environment.

I don't want to reinvent the wheel so I have searched the Internet and found several (FREE!) resources that I will be using during this unit:

Since my kiddos love anythins with visuals, these Tree Life Cycle vocab cards by Mrs Teacher Lady will be right up our alley.

Here's a cute little mini book from Twisty Noodle.

I just LOVE The Giving Tree by Shel Silverstein so we'll be focusing on that this week. Here's a great FREE Reader's Theater that we'll use by Buzzing with Ms. B.

I found this video on the life cycle of an apple tree with a cute little song.

We'll also read Dr. Seuss's The Lorax and pull some ides from Amanda Jackson's unit here.
I'll change out our science center and laminate this interactive book from Boardmaker Share for students to do independently by velcroing pictures to the pages.

I always check out 3 Dinosaurs to see if they have a free printable pack. This one will be perfect morning work for my boys.



I threw together this little worksheet and this one using Boardmaker that I may use as a pre/post test. Students can circle their answers with pencils or use a Bingo Marker to place a dot on the answers.

Check out my I Love Trees pinterest board for other ideas. Here are some of my favorite:

1. Draw a tree trunk. Kids write ways we can save trees on construction paper leaves (or sticky notes) and stick on top of trunk to make a tree.
2. Tree KWL chart. (Know- Roots; Want to Know- Trunk; Learned- Leaves)
3. Create tree artwork using recycled items- magazine pages, cereal boxes, candy wrappers, etc.
4. Go on a walking field trip- take clipboards and draw a tree- non-writers use bingo markers to draw.
 5. Plant a tree!


 I hope that you are able to use some of these resources- enjoy!


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