K-5 Forest Lessons

Science

Experiencing science phenomena is central to science instruction, and a schoolyard forest is a wonderful opportunity for students to directly experience phenomena in the natural world. We have provided a curated collection of lessons and activities that support life sciences education in three main strands: (1) plant structure and function, (2) ecosystem interconnections, and (3) the carbon cycle. This is just the start! Many other connections will emerge for students and teachers as they engage with trees in a spirit of inquiry.

Plant Structure and Function

Acorn Sink or Float Experiment — KidsGardening
Students collect, observe, and test acorns to find out if they are viable for planting, based on whether the seeds float or sink. 

Build A Tree — Green Schoolyards America
This classic role-play activity helps students learn the structures and functions of tree parts while working as a team.
Grades K-2

Build A Tree — California ReLeaf 
More advanced vocabulary in this classic role-play activity helps students learn about structures and functions of tree parts, while working as a team.
Grades 3-5

Common Leaf Characteristics — KidsGardening
Students learn about plant anatomy while learning to observe, compare, and classify a variety of leaves.
Grades 3-5

Leaf Transpiration (English) and Transpiración de las Hojas (Spanish) — Canopy
This activity can be used as a simple demonstration of transpiration by leaves or can be expanded into a more complex investigation.
Grades 4-5

My Best 'Bud' — Learning withOutdoors 
Students observe twigs and buds on trees while learning dissection and classification skills. 
Grades 3-5

Pine Cone Investigation — Kew Royal Botanic Gardens
Students investigate the effect of temperature on pine cones.
Grades 4-5

Team Observation — John Muir Laws and Emilie Lygren
Student teams use nature journaling prompts to observe the same subject, such as a tree, and collaborate to get a greater depth and variety of observations and questions.
Grades 3-5

The Tree Is Like Me!, PDF page 72 — TreePeople
Students learn about similarities and differences between themselves and trees through this drawing and observation activity. This can be connected to an “All About Me” class activity.
Grades K-2

Ecosystems

Animals All Around? Leaf Litter Exploration — Kiwi Conservation Club
Students explore the leaf litter ecosystem to record invertebrate species they discover.
Grades K-5

Biotic or Abiotic, PDF page 97 — Green Schoolyard Network
Students conduct a survey of their school grounds to learn about living (biotic) and nonliving (abiotic) components and their interrelationships.
Grades 3-5

Camouflage Hide and Seek — Educate Outside
Students color a paper bug or bird to camouflage with the natural environment and hide it for a friend to find outside.
Grades K-2

Cool It — Outdoor Biology Instructional Strategies
Students learn about temperatures in the shade versus sun while playing a “save your lizard” game. 
Grades 3-5

Critter Playground — Learning withOutdoors
Students use materials found on the ground to make a playground for real or imagined bugs and other critters.
Grades K-2

Explore Sun, Shade and Shadows — E Movement
In this movement activity, students play a game moving between hot and cool areas of their schoolyard. This activity can be used to teach about microclimates, tree shade, solar energy, and the passage of time. 
Grades K-2

Food Web Tag, PDF page 129 — The Greening of Detroit
In this version of tag, students act out different trophic levels in an ecosystem. Rounds can be modified to mimic different species and different environmental conditions in a forest.
Grades 3-5

How Cool Is Your Schoolyard?™ — Green Schoolyards America
Students use infrared thermometers to study the microclimates in their schoolyard on hot days, exploring how surface and air temperatures are influenced by the materials in their environment. 
Grades 4-5

Insect Trap (English), Trampa Para Insectos (Spanish), and Insect Trap (Chinese) — Plant Heroes
Students design their own traps to capture insects and other invertebrates that crawl on the ground. These can be used to study insect biology and species diversity in different school ground habitats.
Grades 3-5

Leaf Skeletons — Learning withOutdoors
Students learn about decomposition by observing decomposing leaves, sequencing a variety of leaves, and developing experiments.
Grades K-5

The Nitty Gritty — Life Lab
Students analyze soil samples from the schoolyard forest to determine the soil texture and relative proportions of sand, silt, and clay.
Grades 4-5

Soil Infiltration Tests — Earth Partnership
These experiments use a simple hole dug in the ground or a cut-can infiltrometer to investigate soil water infiltration in natural schoolyard areas. 
Grades 4-5

Water on Various Surfaces —  Boston Schoolyard Initiative
Students experiment with how water interacts with a variety of schoolyard surfaces, such as permeable soil versus impermeable asphalt surfaces. 
Grades 3-5

Who’s Been in the Forest? — Green Schoolyards America
This visual guide supports students in closer observation as they look for signs of bug and animal activity among the trees. 
Grades K-5

Wildlife Inventory — KidsGardening
Students investigate what species live in their schoolyard habitat.
Grades K-5

The Carbon Cycle and Climate Literacy

Understanding the carbon cycle is a key part of understanding the science of climate change. Schoolyard trees are an opportunity to directly explore photosynthesis and carbon uptake and storage by plants. Younger and beginning students can start with basic concepts, such as learning about leaves, photosynthesis, and gas exchange. Older and more advanced students can build on this knowledge to tackle these concepts in greater detail and calculate carbon storage by their schoolyard’s trees. This will help students better understand and value how their schoolyard forest is part of the solution for mitigating carbon emissions. 

Trees and Climate Change — Canopy
This activity guides students in calculating carbon storage in a tree based on its diameter and height. It also includes basic background information on photosynthesis and greenhouse gasses. Please note that this activity depends on the tree being at least 2 meters/6 feet high and 0.25m/25 cm in diameter. 
Grade 5

Photosynthesis Tag, PDF page 136 — Los Angeles Unified School District Office of Outdoor and Environmental Education
Photosynthesis lays the foundation for understanding the carbon cycle in plants and eventually the role of trees in storing carbon from the atmosphere. 
Grades 3-5

Shades of Green, PDF page 26 — Moving the Classroom Outdoors
Students collect green leaves and deepen their observation skills of this part of the plant, which is essential to studying photosynthesis and the carbon cycle. 
Grades K-5

“Science as One Way of Knowing, Not the Only Way

All cultures have a deep history of observing, investigating, and living closely with the natural world that predates modern “science.” Humans have always gathered knowledge about the natural world in ways that are similar to current scientific thinking and in other ways that differ from scientific thinking. The ecological knowledge that is obtained by Indigenous peoples and western science are both valid, with each having roots that are based on philosophical foundations, methods of validation, and communities of respected experts. Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK) refers to an evolving body of knowledge based on hundreds or thousands of years of close observations of ecosystems by Indigenous people.”

— BEETLES, Lawrence Hall of Science

Mathematics

Trees and their parts—leaves, twigs, seeds, and flowers—can be used for applying the mathematical skills of sorting, measuring, classifying, counting, estimating, data collection, and understanding patterns. The sensory nature of these materials can make math lessons appealing to a broader segment of the student population and give them an opportunity to collect real-life data to analyze and represent. Below you will find a curated collection of lessons and activities that use schoolyard forests to support math education.

Counting Spirals — Double Helix
Pine cone spirals, leaf arrangements, and petal numbers—these are a few of the natural objects students can investigate for patterns in the Fibonacci sequence.
Grade 5

Does Your Tree Measure Up? — Learning withOutdoors
Students measure the height of trees using a variety of methods and tools.
Grades 3-5

Get it Sorted! — Learning through Landscapes
Students sort natural items, including leaves, in a variety of ways, using patterns and number lines as possible ways to display data.
Grades K-2

Leaf Math — Learning withOutdoors
Students use leaves for skip counting, sorting, classifying, and fractions.
Grades K-3

Leaf Percentages — Educate Outside
This leaf-sorting activity includes fractions, percentages, and decimals. If observing a young sapling that still needs all its leaves, students should do the activity WITHOUT picking leaves.
Grades 4-5 

Tree Math Prompts — Green Schoolyards America
A short handout to inspire teachers about math connections they can make in their schoolyard forest.
Grades 3-5

Tree Shapes — Learning withOutdoors
Students learn about observing and classifying trees from the basic shape of a tree’s silhouette.
Grades K-2

Venn Diagrams for Children — Leaves — Play of the Wild
In this hands-on activity, students use hula hoops and leaves to make Venn diagrams that can include simple to complex botanical concepts.
Grades K-5

The ABC Mat, PDF page 148 (English) and The ABC Mat, PDF page 19 (Chinese) — Naturskolan i Lund
Students use their five senses to find natural items to represent each letter of the alphabet.
Grades K-2

Build a Tree Poem — Longwood Gardens
This activity provides a set of prompts to students observing a tree, reflecting on the tree’s perspective, and developing ideas for a poem. 
Grades 4-5

Descriptive Alliteration Poems — Learning through Landscapes
Students incorporate adjectives and nouns as they write alliterative poems about natural surroundings or natural objects.
Grades 3-5

Guess The Tree — Adjectives — Educate Outside
In this writing and descriptive language activity, a blindfolded partner describes a tree to a writing partner who records the adjectives used. Once the blindfold is off, that same student has the fun challenge of visually finding the tree they were touching and describing. 
Grades 3-5

Letter Art — Educate Outside
Students make words or letters of the alphabet out of loose natural materials.
Grades K-2

Living Books — Learning through Landscapes
Teachers read a story outside, then students recreate a character or scenes from the story using found natural materials.
Grades K-2

Nature Journaling: I Notice, I Wonder, It Reminds Me Of  — John Muir Laws and Emilie Lygren
This excellent set of prompts for developing observation and inquiry skills includes both drawing and writing. This can be used as a once-off activity or can be incorporated into a series of nature journal pages.
Grades K-5

Poetree — Learning through Landscapes
Students create group poems by observing a tree from different perspectives. This can be applied to any form of poetry being studied in the classroom. 
Grades 4-5

Poetry of Place and Moment — John Muir Laws and Emilie Lygren
This activity provides a scaffold for writing poetry, linking observations to internal experiences and thoughts. It can also be part of a nature journaling curriculum.
Grades 4-5

The Sensitive Scavenger — Evergreen
Students create their own multisensory scavenger hunt of the natural habitat at school.
Grades 3-5

Stories — Evergreen
Students create skits, drawing on memories of experiences in their schoolyard forest or other natural areas.
Grades 3-5

The Story of a Tree (English), La Historia de un Árbol (Spanish), The Story of a Tree (Chinese) — Plant Heroes
Students write the imagined story of a tree after making observations, bark rubbings, and a model of a tree. 
Grades 3-5 

Texture Explorer — Educate Outside
Using a guided worksheet, students learn vocabulary for different textures while exploring outdoors. 
Grades K-2

Who Has Been Here? — Evergreen
Students compose riddles for a class book after looking for signs of wildlife among the vegetation.
Grades 3-5

Writing to Observe, Writing to Think — John Muir Laws and Emilie Lygren 
In this nature journaling activity, students use writing as an observation and thinking tool while experimenting with different forms that writing can take, such as labels, sentences, paragraphs, bullet points, or different fonts.
Grades 3-5

Social Science

Schoolyard forests provide easy and powerful ways to connect students to a place. Mapping activities on school grounds, for example, are a way in which teachers can make connections to the geography curriculum. In addition, teachers can make connections to the schoolyard forest when studying topics such as human modifications to the landscape and resource use, local indigenous knowledge and relationships with trees, the current and historic economic value of different tree species, and trees in ancient civilization mythology. We have provided some curated lessons below that focus on students learning outdoors.

Animal Perspectives: Mapping the School Ground, PDF page 67 — Evergreen
Students map the school ground while evaluating it from the perspective of other species. 
Grades 3-5

Create a Schoolyard Site Survey Map, PDF page 115 — U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
This one-pager helps teachers get started thinking about mapping various schoolyard features.
Grades 3-5

Mapping a Study Site — Outdoor Biology Instructional Strategies
Students use symbols to represent different plant species and different natural features as they map their school site.
Grades 4-5

Mapping Your Schoolyard — Earth Partnership
Students work with compasses and grids to measure and map their schoolyard and create scaled drawings.
Grades 4-5

Micro Journey — Learning through Landscapes
Students engage with geography at a miniature scale, mapping a natural area from an ant’s point of view.
Grades K-5 

Sound Maps — Educate Outside 
Students apply listening and spatial skills as they pay attention to the world of sound around them to make a simple map. 
Grades 3-5

Soundscape Maps — John Muir Laws and Emilie Lygren
Students apply mapping skills to the soundscape outdoors. They tune into the sounds around them and map them using directions, symbols, and legends. This activity also helps develop a sense of place through sound. 
Grades 3-5

Autumn Leaf Bunting — Royal Horticultural Society
Students press leaves to make a beautiful display to string outside, in hallways, or in classrooms.
Grades K-5

Colour in Our Outdoor World, PDF page 96 and Los Colores en Nuestro Mundo Exterior, PDF página 32 (Spanish) — Learnscapes AustralAsia
Students build observation skills and color sense as they take paint samplers/color swatches outside to find matching shades of color in the outdoor environment.
Grades K-5

Forest Karaoke: Transcribing Birdsong — John Muir Laws and Emilie Lygren
Students learn to creatively transcribe sounds (from birds or other auditory phenomena) using words, drawing, diagramming, and numbers.
Grades 3-5

Garden Photography — KidsGardening 
Students develop their photography skills by learning more about framing their shot, shifting their perspective, exploring composition, and other photography techniques.
Grades 3-5

Inspirational Tree Mural, PDF page 200 — EcoRise Youth Innovations
Students create a mural inspired by observing and researching trees in their schoolyard.
Grades K-5

Leaf Pounding Journal (English), Diario: Martilleo de Hojas (Spanish), and Leaf Pounding Journal (Chinese) — Plant Heroes
Students collect leaves and petals and use the technique of pounding to create an art piece.
Grades K-5

Leaf Rubbings (English) and Calcos de Hojas (Spanish) — Canopy
Students explore leaf shapes and patterns by making rubbings on paper. 
Grades K-5

Light and Shade, PDF page 141 (English) or Proměny Světla a Stínu, PDF page 21 (Czech) — Karel Komárek Proměny Foundation
Students capture the shadows of a tree and its branches using paper and chalk or pencil. 
Grades K-5

Mandala Suncatchers, PDF page 34 — Chicago Botanic Garden
Students create a mandala from pressed leaves or flowers and clear contact paper to hang in the window.
Grades K-5

Nature Journaling: I Notice, I Wonder, It Reminds Me Of  — John Muir Laws and Emilie Lygren
This excellent set of prompts for developing observation and inquiry skills includes both drawing and writing. This can be used as a once-off activity or can be incorporated into a series of nature journal pages.
Grades K-5

Nature Paint Brushes — PBS Kids
Roots, leaves, and twigs can all be bundled together to make a variety of unusual paint brushes. Students explore these brushes with paint, water, or mud paint. Many extra materials are available after a weeding or pruning day at the school—ask for some to be saved.
Grades K-5 

Painting the Seasons, PDF page 29 — Green Schoolyards America
Students bring the art studio outside to create paintings of trees while observing and recording changes throughout the year. 
Grades K-5

Plant Mandala Journal (English), Diairio de Mandalas de Plantas (Spanish), and Plant Mandala Journal (Chinese) — Plant Heroes
Students create a mandala from natural materials, learn about symmetry, and have an opportunity to engage in mindfulness and reflection. 
Grades K-5

Pressed Flower Card — Life Lab
This guide provides suggestions on how to press and dry plant material, which can be used for art projects or herbarium specimens.
Grades K-5

Printing with Leaves — Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive
Students use paint or ink with a variety of leaves to capture shapes and textures on paper.
Grades K-5

Rethinking Drawing a Tree — John Muir Laws
Observing parts of a tree rather than trying to draw the whole tree can be equally valuable and less overwhelming. This two-page visual guide provides a range of strategies for capturing a tree’s essence.
Grades K-5 

The Secret Picture, PDF page 69 (English) and The Secret Picture, PDF page 17 (Chinese) — Naturskolan i Lund
In this partnered activity, students create simple pieces of “secret” art, with the fun twist of practicing communication skills as they keep their backs to each other.
Grades K-5

Signs and Displays — Green Schoolyards America
This tip sheet showcases several possibilities for creating signs for trees while incorporating the arts and language arts as well as science and social studies.
Grades K-5

Sound Investigations: Pitch and Volume — Educate Outside
In the guided worksheets provided, students explore pitch and volume in sounds outdoors.
Grades 3-5

Sound Maps — Educate Outside 
Students apply listening and spatial skills as they pay attention to the world of sound around them to make a simple map. 
Grades 3-5

Soundscape Maps — John Muir Laws and Emilie Lygren
Students apply mapping skills to the soundscape outdoors. They tune into the sounds around them and map them using directions, symbols, and legends. This activity also develops a sense of place through sound. 
Grades 3-5

Tree Faces — Learning through Landscapes
Students use clay to sculpt a face on a tree while incorporating features of the tree. 
Grades K-5

Critter Playground — Learning withOutdoors
Students use materials found on the ground to make a playground for real or imagined bugs and other critters.
Grades K-4

Pine Needle Barber Shop, PDF page 40 — Dr. Ko Senda
In schools with abundant pine needles, students can gather bundles to make dolls and set up a barber shop to trim the pine needle “hair.”
Grades K-2

Using Loose Materials for Play, PDF page 38 (English), Jugar con Materiales Sueltos, PDF página 18 (Spanish), and Using Loose Materials for Play, PDF page 13 (Chinese) — Learning through Landscapes Scotland
A school forest slowly accumulates many loose materials on the ground, such as leaves, twigs, and flowers. These are wonderful materials for imaginary play and the creation of mini-worlds and art work.
Grades K-5

Animal Perspectives: Mapping the School Ground, PDF page 67 — Evergreen
Students map the school while evaluating it from the perspective of other species. This activity can be used to develop social awareness and responsible decision-making skills.
Grades 3-5

Build a Tree — Green Schoolyards America
This classic role-play team activity helps students learn the structures and functions of tree parts and develops social awareness and relationship skills. 
Grades K-2

Build A Tree — California ReLeaf 
Students role-play the different parts and functions of a tree, learning more advanced vocabulary. This team activity develops social awareness and relationship skills.
Grades 3-5

Busy and Calm, PDF page 56  — Karel Komárek Proměny Foundation
Students survey different areas of the school grounds to evaluate how they feel in them, build self-awareness, and develop responsible decision-making. 
Grades K-5

Create a Me Tree: A Self-Reflection Activity — Action for Healthy Kids
This art activity uses tree anatomy as inspiration and metaphor for self-awareness. 
Grades K-5

Forest Bathing — Learning through Landscapes
In this mindfulness activity, students spend time in nature, whether it is the school forest or other natural areas. This helps build self-management and self-awareness skills.
Grades K-5

Meet a Tree — Sharing Nature Worldwide
In this activity, one student leads a blindfolded partner to “meet” a tree and get to know it through the sense of touch. This trust-building activity can be used to develop relationship skills, social awareness, self-management, and self-awareness skills.
Grades K-5

Plant Mandala Journal (English), Diairio de Mandalas de Plantas (Spanish), and Plant Mandala Journal (Chinese) — Plant Heroes
Students practice mindfulness while creating a mandala from natural materials.
Grades K-5

The Secret Picture, PDF page 69 (English) and The Secret Picture, PDF page 17 (Chinese) — Naturskolan i Lund
In this partnered activity, students create simple pieces of “secret” art, with the fun twist of practicing communication skills as they keep their backs to each other. In this communication exercise, they practice social awareness and relationship skills while improving mathematical and spatial vocabulary.
Grades K-5

Sit Spot — John Muir Laws and Emilie Lygren
This nature journaling activity gives students the opportunity to notice their own experience in nature, while slowing down, developing mindfulness, and constructing their own narrative. It builds self-awareness and self-management skills.
Grades 4-5

Team Observation — John Muir Laws and Emilie Lygren
Students use the practices of nature journaling to observe the same subject, such as a tree, and collaborate to get a greater depth and variety of observations. This team-building activity can be used to develop relationship skills and social awareness.
Grades 3-5

The Tree Is Like Me!, PDF page 72 — TreePeople
Students learn about similarities and differences between themselves and their adopted tree through this drawing and observation activity. This self-awareness and perspective-taking activity can be combined with the classic “All About Me” activity.
Grades K-2 

Tree Faces — Learning through Landscapes
Students use clay to sculpt a face on a tree while incorporating features of the tree. This can be used to build self-awareness and social awareness.
Grades K-5

Physical Education

Kinesthetic learning is a great addition to the educational toolkit. Involving students in stewardship tasks such as watering, weeding, and mulching keep young bodies active, bending, and stretching in a variety of ways. Read more in Stewardship Tasks with Students. We have also included some classic outdoor games below that have been adapted to teach scientific concepts. A creative collaboration between academic and physical education teachers could result in many more lessons tailored to each school’s curriculum needs. 

Food Web Tag, PDF page 129 — The Greening of Detroit
In this version of tag, students act out different trophic levels in an ecosystem. Rounds can be modified to mimic different species and different environmental conditions in a forest.
Grades 3-5

How Bad is Your Bark? — Save the Redwoods/Caritas Creek
In this team-building game, students playing the “bark” have to protect “cambium” students from fire or insects.
Grades 3-5

Plant the Tree — Prime Coaching Sport
In this short warm-up game, students have to bring the most “trees”/bean bags to their team’s side of the playing area. 
Grades K-5  

Photosynthesis Tag, PDF page 136 — Los Angeles Unified School District Office of Outdoor and Environmental Education
In this tag game, students learn about photosynthesis—the foundation for understanding the carbon cycle in plants and eventually the role of trees in storing carbon from the atmosphere. 
Grades 3-5

Seed Dispersal — Green Schoolyards America
This outdoor role-play game has students moving around the yard using their body in a variety of ways while learning about the diversity of adaptations by plants for dispersing their seeds.
Grades 3-5

Soccer Squirrels in the Trees — MrGym
In this adaptation of a soccer game, students work on dribbling skills with “acorn” soccer balls while pretending to be squirrels. They also learn about limited resources.
Grades 2-5

Squirrels in the Trees — MrGym 
In this running game, groups of students pretend to be trees while the “squirrels” have to run between a limited number of trees.
Grades K-5

Tree Pose — Bluearth
This classic yoga pose can be included in a yoga routine. Tree pose improves balance, core strength, and concentration.
Grades K-5

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Schoolyard Forest System℠

The Schoolyard Forest System℠ Resource Library is a set of practical tools for schools and districts working to increase tree canopy on public school grounds to shade and protect PreK-12 students from extreme heat and rising temperatures due to climate change. Funding for the first phase of this initiative was provided by a grant administered by the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (CAL FIRE) Urban and Community Forestry Program, and private philanthropy.