Using the Going Green Song (Animated Music Video), students learn all about ways to reduce, reuse, and recycle and so much more through a catchy video!
Plant a tree, measure a tree, love a tree
Arbor Day is a holiday for planting and caring for trees. Fourth graders learn it started in Nebraska in 1872, when J. Sterling Morton encouraged people to plant trees on the open prairie, and that National Arbor Day is now the last Friday in April (some states pick a different date to match their best planting season). Fourth grade is a great time to dig into why trees matter: they make oxygen, give animals homes, cool cities with shade, and hold soil in place. The click comes when a class measures a real tree and starts wondering how old it is.
Fourth graders can do real science and math with a tree. These moves take Arbor Day outside.
Kick off the week with the going green song and ask kids to listen for every way people can help the planet. List them on chart paper. By Friday, the class picks one to actually do.
Why it works: words set to a repeating melody are easier to recall than the same words spoken (Wallace, 1994).
Try it withGoing Green Song (Animated Music Video)SongsOpen it →Take a tape measure outside and model how to measure a trunk's circumference about four and a half feet up. Groups measure three trees and compare. Kids love learning that a bigger trunk usually means an older tree.
Why it works: showing first, practicing together, then letting kids try alone is the "gradual release" model teachers have relied on for decades (Pearson and Gallagher, 1983).
Kids use tree cut outs to label roots, trunk, branches, leaves and bark, and write each part's job. Ask, "Which part would the tree miss the most?" The debate gets them thinking about how a tree works as a system.
Why it works: kids understand an idea best when they touch it, then draw it, then write it, the order the U.S. Department of Education recommends for elementary math.
Try it withTree Cut OutsActivitiesOpen it →Teacher favorites right now: Going Green Song (Animated Music Video).
National Arbor Day is the last Friday in April. Some states celebrate on a different date that fits their best tree-planting season.
J. Sterling Morton started Arbor Day in Nebraska in 1872. He wanted settlers to plant trees on the treeless prairie, and about a million trees were planted on that first day.
Trees make oxygen, clean the air, give shade, prevent soil from washing away, and provide food and homes for animals. They also give us wood, fruit and paper.
Measure and compare trees, make leaf rubbings, label the parts of a tree, write about why trees matter, or plant a tree or seeds as a class.
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