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Project Outline
Identify your chosen tree. If at all possible it should be big and easily accessible, either in the school grounds or very near by. Either all work on this one tree, or if your school has several different trees, set groups of children to work on these so that you end up with more than one study.
Don't tell the children what the tree is; set them the task of identifying it and finding out its day-to-day and botanical Latin name.
Work on drawing a cross-section of the tree, so that the children have an idea of how it is made up below the bark.
Do a leaf study. Soaking a leaf in washing soda crystals and water and cooking for a few minutes (not advisable in presence of children) will leave you with only the skeleton of the leaf, showing clearly all of the veins and capillaries. Look at these under a microscope.
Set the children the task of working out how to measure the tree. There is a cartoon explanation of an ancient and fun technique on Tim Hunkin's website.
Work out how old the tree is. Is it visible in old pictures of the school? Are there any records of its planting? Can they find a way of working out its age?
Does the tree bear fruit? Nuts? What are the seeds like? Investigate this.
Depending upon the time of year collect leaves from the tree for printing and collage work. Bark rubbing also bears good results.
Use the tree as a stimulus for poetry. Talk about the things it might have witnessed over the years, how it feels in different seasons, whether it is ever climbed, whether its shade is used as a meeting place and so on. Poems to look at include Philip Larkin's 'The Trees', 'The Willow Man' by Juliana Horatio Ewing or 'Loveliest of Trees, The Cherry Now' by A.E.Housman.
Finally, you could construct giant collaged trees as a display piece, adorned with the children's work, the 'fruit' of their labours.
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