UNICEF - Teachers Talking

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Teacher Materials

These Trees is an online project that encourages students to become local experts and share that learning with a world wide audience. This project has been especially designed to help teachers and students in remote areas to participate. The following page will provide ideas you can use to guide students as they complete the project. Some articles from the Teachers Talking Web site that you might find useful are listed below. Do not feel you must read these documents in order to particpate; they are provided as additional support.

Values, attitudes, and behaviours: The essential environment

Themes for active learning

Co-operative learning

Moving forward with co-operation

Interpersonal skills for learning

Assessment: Self-assessment and reflective journals

If you are interested, you may see other similar activities in Module 5 of the Multigrade and Bilingual Classes in VietNam.

The Importance of Trees

You could begin by asking students to brainstorm all they know about local trees, and what makes them important. To generate more ideas, you can prompt students to consider the following questions:

How do trees contribute to conditions that support life?

What are examples of trees that provide living places and food for animals?

In what ways have people used trees and their products for different purposes?

How are trees in the area suited to the local habitat?

How do the roots of trees help the soil and landscape?

Choosing a Tree to Analyse

Once students have brainstormed as much as they can, they may work as a class or in smaller groups or pairs for the next activity. Below is a small version of the chart with a larger version available from the Student Page for printing out and filling in. To make the chart into a Web page automatically, use the Interactive Handout. Students should choose a local tree to analyse using the items in the charts.

Name of tree:
Where it grows
Parts of the tree	Features of the tree (Describe these features)
Leaves
Trunk
Bark
Roots
Flowers
Fruit
Seeds
Special features	(List)
Birds, animals or insects that use the tree	(List)
How people use the tree	(Describe)

Comparing learning

Help students look closely, notice details, and make educated guesses based on what they see and know. You can bring in local experts like farmers or scientists to help students. These people should help students think, not provide the answers. Once students have completed their charts, you might want to compare the findings for all or some of the trees they studied.

Name of the tree:	Pine tree	Green dragon cactus
Where it grows	hill, roadside, forest	ground, sand (delta and mid land)
Leaves	pin shaped, long, sharp points	stem looks like a leaf, (like a green dragon)
Trunk	straight, many branches at top	trunk is itself the leaves
Bark	rough, easy to peel, peels sometimes???, brown color	thick, smooth
Root	shallow, expansive	thin and fine
Flowers	none	small, delicate
Fruits	brown color, elliptical, thorny skin with overlapping pieces	red color, elliptical
Seeds	like rice	like black sesame seeds
Special features	planted for liquid, fruit and wood	flower blossom at night, is very fragrant and dies that night
Animals living on it	birds, squirrel, ants, insects, spider, monkey	ants, insects, butterflies
How people use it	shade, wind break, building material	ornamental

Seeing the Poetry in Trees

Many poems have been written inspired by trees. These range from short haiku capturing a moment of life to longer poems reflecting on the purpose of life itself. Poetry can also focus completely on clear descriptive writing and sharp images. A poem can also be fun: think about what kind of person a particular tree would be or use sounds to illustrate the nature of the tree's life. Also consider an extended metaphor poem where each part of the tree represents or symbolises something of the community. For example, the roots might be the crops the farmers grow that link the community to the earth, the bark might be the buildings that offer protection from the weather, etc.

Putting it all Together

Now that students have explored the trees in their area and perhaps expressed themselves in art or poetry, it's time to use the Interactive Handout.

Explore Ideas · Discuss Issues · Take Action

http://www.unicef.org/teachers/
Last revised October, 1999
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