Trees, trees, trees

I was reading Charlotte Mason's book series on home education and came upon a section about identifying trees in your area.  This lead me to think of an experiment or activity of the such.  So here goes.

Appropriate Age Level
5-10, though younger ones can help collect leaves and learn verbally

Materials Needed
1.) Download or use some sort of tree identifier like so:

     Ohio Tree Identifier 

     Identify 50 Most Common North American Trees 

    Or check out a book on common trees in North America at your local library such as

    Trees of North America

    National Wildlife Federation Field Guide to Trees of North America

2.) 10-20 sheets of paper

3.) Glue or paste 

4.) Pen

Science Learned

Different types of trees

The ability to differentiate how species vary

Activity/Experiment

1.) Choose an area to identify the trees in, whether it be your yard, your block, or a certain section of a local park. 

2.) Collect a leaf or two from each tree. 

3.) After all the leaves have been collected, paste them to the blank pages.

4.) Identify the leaves of the trees by using the identifier or book and write underneath the leaf what each tree is.

5.) Bind your book together somehow, and then use it to go around the same space and have your child point out which tree is which now with his homemade tree identifying book.

Time Allotted

1-3 hours