Outdoor Hour Challenge #31

Trees: Introduction

It was probably two years ago that we did our first tree study. We were living in student housing while my husband was in seminary. We went through our small neighborhood gathering leaves to press and identify. I was surprised at how difficult a few of them were to identify. Yet we finally managed to get them all labeled and put into a small book. After this whenever we would take a walk I would quiz the boys on what kinds of trees we passed. Sometimes I would say things like, "Ride your bikes to the sycamore and then stop" or "let's walk to the pecan tree." In this way they memorized some of the more prominent trees that we saw everyday and then when we were away from home they noticed trees that looked different and asked about them.

Once we were away from home and came across the Lace-bark Elm. We didn't know what it was so we named it the tiger bark tree until we could get home to look it up. Now whenever we see it we always remember solving the mystery.
Now we live in a new town and we are looking forward to discovering what trees live in our neighborhood. This week we went out to look at the trees and primarily we talked about the parts of the tree. The boys picked up the names quickly and in turn tested their grandmother to see if she could name the parts.
I think the boys mostly enjoyed climbing the trees and making leaf rubbings in their journals. We also drew a tree and labeled its parts.
Mesquite rubbing