Seeds to Trees Pocket Guide connects children to nature through sensory experiences. It encourages exploration and discovery through the lens of trees and forests, exciting children’s imagination and curiosity about the natural world.
The Pocket Guide is designed for adult leaders, educators, and families working with children ages 3–6. It includes four hands-on experiences to do with children in groups up to eight, plus preparation instructions, material and time requirements, and directions for leading each experience. The introduction provides guidance and tips for leading outdoor activities and embracing play and exploration.
At just 4 by 6 inches, the guide is small enough, as the name suggests, to fit into a pocket or backpack. We recognized the need for an easy-to-tote resource when it’s hard to bring a larger book or computer outside. So we repurposed and redesigned some of our most popular Project Learning Tree activities into Seeds to Trees. It’s great for educators, group leaders, and family members to use outdoors with the children in their lives.
Seeds to Trees also provides tested techniques to engage children in all kinds of hands-on learning opportunities, especially outside. So if you need to learn the basics, or reinforce best practices, you’ll find a concise summary of tips.
Based on solid PLT learning concepts, the guide is set up so you can do all the activities or just one or a few, in convenient settings, and with the materials you have at hand. We ensure that kids find the activities fun to do, while you can feel confident that are you are providing solid, age-appropriate information.
What’s Included
Through a Dramatic Play and Read-Aloud, children start by imagining themselves growing from a seed to a tree, in a way that engages all their senses. Children learn by interacting, moving, and playing, and this is a great way to start off facilitating active learning.
Four additional activities, each about 20 minutes, follow that work well with pre-K and kindergarten attention spans.
Activity 1 — Shape Hike
Guide children in finding shapes outside. This is like a game of “I Spy” with a mission. Children explore how natural objects, such as leaves, rocks, or acorns, have different shapes.
Activity 2 — Nature Sounds
Help children focus on the sounds of nature. By listening carefully, a whole new world of sounds is revealed.
Activity 3 — Tree Parts
Encourage children to explore trees. Through their sense of touch, children explore different parts of a tree.
Activity 4 — Trees in Our Lives
Invite children to discover the many benefits we get from trees. Children consider the many products from trees around them, from the places they live to toys to apples.
The activities are easy-to-do, require little preparation, and no special supplies. Adapt the activities to meet the unique needs of the children you work with, the natural environment in your area, and the materials that you have available.
Features
Seeds to Trees provides age-appropriate learning activities about trees and forests, both indoors and outdoors. For example, the activities:
- Embrace hands-on play and discovery
- Utilize props or stories
- Invite children to touch objects produced from forests
- Encourage children to name natural objects and tree parts
- Motivate auditory, visual, and kinesthetic learners by using all the senses when observing nature.
Each activity outlines a key concept and the objectives for the activity; time required to do the activity; the setting (indoors or outdoors); preparation instructions and materials needed.
Steps for leading each activity are grouped into sections: Introduce; Experience; Enhance; and Close.
Each activity also includes a recommendation for a children’s book that complements the activity, as well as suggestions for other PLT early childhood activities to expand on the experience.
The Pocket Guide also includes:
- Suggestions for leading outdoor experiences. For example, create and communicate clear boundaries.
- Tips for how to work with youth of different ages. For example, focus on things children can see or touch.
- Recommendations for working with schools for field tours. For example, speak with the children’s teacher before a visit to ask about the children, any exceptionalities, and what they may already know about the environment.
Project Learning Tree® (PLT) is an established, reputable, award-winning environmental education program designed to help young people learn how to think not what to think about complex and pressing environmental and sustainability issues. Through interactive and engaging activities, suitable for all ages and settings, PLT builds understanding and appreciation of the natural world, advances environmental literacy, and grows stewardship using trees and forests as windows onto the world
