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Community Forest

Seeing the Forest AND the Trees

http://blandy.virginia.edu/our-foundation

A Tree Fund project and partnership between the Foundation of the State Arboretum and Clarke County Public Schools. Third grade classes visited the Arboretum three times throughout the 2014-2015 year and Arboretum staff visited the schools three times. Over that time, we built a year-long tree-focused curriculum that can be used in the classroom and outside in the schoolyard. The project also included two days of teacher professional development where teacher and Blandy educators collaborated to create rich learning experiences for students.

LESSON PLANS

The following lessons were developed by Blandy Education staff for the project.

Some activities were developed for use at Blandy; others were developed for use at the schools and include both classroom and outdoor activities. Click Here for a list of Virginia Standards of Learning covered by these lessons.

September Visit

Tree ID by Leaf Students study leaves using observation tools and a simply key to identify common trees.	American Chestnuts Explore the science and history of America's native Chestnut and examine leaves of native, hybrid, and Chinese chestnuts.
Investigation Station Estimating and using tools to measure tree height

December Visit

Schoolyard Trees in Winter Examine trees in the schoolyard to learn about the role of trees as habitats.	Math Schoolyard Trees Students measure height, perimeter, branch lengths of schoolyard trees then compare and contrast the differences in trees.
Making Bird Feeders Reuse tree products to make a winter time bird feeder.

January Visit

Seed to Superlatives Students develop measuring and comparison skills as they examine tree seeds, seedlings and mature trees.	Evergreen Tree ID Use a dicot key to identify evergreen trees and develop observation skills.
Build a Tree Journal Create a title page for students' tree journals, identifying title page and table of contents.

February Visit

Seeds in Different Soils Design and conduct an experiment to investigate if plants germinate and grow differently in several soil types.	Using a Tree Guide Develop use of non-fiction texts to find information on Virginia trees.
Water Cycle Journey Students simulate movement of water through a kinesthetic water cycle game.	Grapes of Class Students examine different states of matter and practice measuring skills.

April Visit

Forest Layers Develop observation, classification, and analysis skills while investigating a native ecosystem.	How the Forest Grows Using tree guides and measuring tools, students examine tree growth.
Decomposition Explore diversity of decomposing logs by measuring and analyzing organisms.

May

In May, our year-long adventure culminated with planting 32 trees at the Clarke County high school!

Before Tree Planting..... After Tree Planting!