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A Birthday Party for Trees
Introduction:
Host a schoolwide birthday party for trees at your JCC preschool in honor of Tu b'Shevat. This fun idea was submitted to us by the Boston-area JCCs. Brainstorm with students about different ways that you can honor trees at your school. We have listed some ideas below.
Tree Birthday Party Ideas
- Trees in our lives
- Brainstorm with children about their experiences with trees (sitting under a tree, climbing on a tree, swinging from a tree, picking fruit from trees, getting shade from a tree on a hot day, etc.).
- Discuss the different objects that we use on a daily basis that are made from trees. After the discussion, bring in a variety of objects- paper, boxes, plastic toys, etc. and have students identify the objects made from trees.
- Discuss the purpose of recycling these products and how that impacts the environment.
- 3-dimensional trees - Create 3-dimensional trees using some of the following materials:
- clay
- playdough
- sticks & tissue paper, cotton balls, felt, pom poms, etc.
- papermache
- Tree Mural - Create a tree mural, containing images of trees. Discuss different textures- go outside and feel the different textures of the parts of the trees- the leaves, roots, bark, etc. Use a variety of collage materials (Sandpaper, cotton balls, tissue paper, etc.) with different textures to create trees on the mural. Allow students to experiment with different materials. Provide students with paints and encourage them to experiment with mixing colors to come up with shades that they want to use to paint their tree.
- Seed Activity -
- Ask each student to bring in seeds from a type of fruit (apples, pears, oranges, cantaloupe, etc.). Have each student show his/her seeds to the class and have the other students try to identify what fruit the seeds came from.
- Dry the seeds on paper towels overnight.
- Cut out a variety of pictures of fruits &/or fruit trees from magazines or have students draw pictures of fruits &/or fruit trees.
- Have students match their seeds to the appropriate pictures or drawings.
- Have students paste the dry seeds next to the picture of the corresponding fruit on a large piece of posterboard. Students can also keep their seeds in plastic bags or cover them with contact paper and then glue or tape the bag/contact paper to the board next to the fruit pictures.
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