Living Schoolyard Month: Try these Schoolyard Forest Activities!

Join us in celebrating Living Schoolyard Month by appreciating the role trees play in providing shade, beauty, and endless opportunities for learning and exploration in schoolyards! 

Below, you will find a list of curated tree-related activities and lesson plans for all ages from our Living Schoolyard Activity Guide and from the educator resources section of our Schoolyard Forest System Resource Library.

From our Living Schoolyard Activity Guide:

© AYESHA ERCELAWN

Painting the Seasons, PDF page 29 — Green Schoolyards America
Bring your art studio outside and create paintings of trees while observing and recording changes through the year. 
Grades pre-K-12

“Sense-Sational” Tree Tour, PDF page 58 — Canopy
Students use their senses to get to know trees in the schoolyard. 
Grades preK, K-2

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 can be combined with the classic All About Me activity.
Grades preK, K-2

Adopt-a-Tree, PDF page 113 — Prairie Crossing Charter School
Classes choose a tree that they will visit and observe throughout the year, looking for changes over time. By adding complexity in recording tasks, this activity can be appropriate for a range of ages.
Grades preK-12

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 3-12

From the Schoolyard Forest System Resource Library:

© AYESHA ERCELAWN

Infographic for a Field Guide — John Muir Laws and Emilie Lygren
This activity combines writing, drawing, and data. Students combine observations of a tree with later research to create an infographic—a great way to build science communication skills and the language arts! 
Grades 6-12

Nature Journaling: I Notice, I Wonder, It Reminds Me Of — John Muir Laws and Emilie Lygren
This is an excellent set of practices for developing observation and inquiry skills. This routine can be used as a once-off activity or can be incorporated into a series of nature journal pages. 
Grades K-12

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. 
Grades 5-12

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-8

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-12