Questions/Discussion of Ideas:
- What is the main idea? Give examples and support your response.
- Discuss the idea of giving all you can and all you have to one you love. What might this look like for a human? Is it good or bad? What are the implications of this?
- God’s perspective: He gave all! Why? What did that look like? What did that do for us?
- Our perspective: What do we give to God? What do we give to others?
- Write a tree poem.
- Write a shape poem using a tree form.
- For older students, write a persuasive essay about why you should or should not give all you have to one you love.
- Rewrite the story or a scene from the story from the tree’s perspective.
- Utilize vocabulary from the book or learn vocabulary relating to trees and plants. We did the later using worksheets from Super Teacher Worksheets. (See our review of them here.)
- Write sentences. You could use vocabulary you choose from the book or write sentences using vocabulary related to trees. We did the later and J used a cutting page from Super Teacher Worksheets relating to plants and trees and their growth.
- A tree unit is a natural outgrowth of from this book.
- Learn the parts of a tree. We used a printable we found online. (The site it was from is no longer a valid address, evidently, so I can’t share that with you.) We glued it to magnet pieces and cut it out. (We used old refrigerator magnets from companies that we get in the mail. I save them for things like this. They are thin and easy to cut with scissors.) Then J matched up the parts of a tree on the white board.
- Learn about the uses of trees. We researched and discussed the many different ways trees can be used – building, furniture, fuel, recreation, hobbies, etc.
- Learn about the growth of trees.
- Visit a museum about trees or your local Forest Service station. We visited a museum that had a small exhibit about trees. If your museum had a large tree section with the rings visible and marked, it is really interesting.
- Talk about the season and how the season affect trees and their growth.
- Learn about different types of trees and leaves. We used a set of posters from the Forest Service to study various trees and leaves, as well as animals that live among the forest trees.
- Learn about managing growing things and resources. Learn more about how the forests are managed.
- Discuss wildfires and forest fires. Discuss their impacts on not only the forest and the animals that live there, but the people, their property, and the larger environmental changes that happen because of forest fires. We viewed pictures of forest fires, including the Little Bear Fire that affected a place near and dear to us a couple of years ago. We have talked about changes because of that fire and what the effects of that were.
- If you visit a museum that has a huge tree ring, you could study the events marked through the rings.
- Study the history of the Forest Service.
- Research one of the National Parks or Monuments. Find out about why someone chose that particular section of natural resources and forests to preserve.
- Use water color crayons to create a picture of a tree.
- Use colored pencils to draw a tree showing the various parts. I found this post from The Inspired Classroom which was super helpful.
- Make a canvas set that shows the various seasons of the year and how they impact a tree. See our project here.
- Memorize Psalm 1. We memorized this passage a while back but we went back and reviewed it several times during this study.
- Matthew 12:33 “Make a tree good and its fruit will be good, or make a tree bad and its fruit will be bad, for a tree is recognized by its fruit.” – Discuss this and how this is seen in real life. Apply this to the lives of the students. Have students create motions and movement to help them memorize this verse. Apply this verse to the Giving Tree and have students give concrete examples of why they chose which kind of tree the Giving Tree was.
- Create a paper tree with the different parts of the story. Attach magnets to the back and use it for retelling the story. You can make your own or print a copy of this one that I made for J.
Giving Tree play pieces page 1
Giving Tree play pieces page 2
- Watch a video of this book. There is one we found on YouTube of Shel Silverstein telling it. It was interesting for the girls to see the author and to hear his voice. It was nothing like we expected. Just do a search on YouTube and it should come up without any trouble.
- Watch a video of the book being told in sign language. Two of the girls are studying sign language so that was a fun thing for us to see. We also watched a video of a young boy and girl with their mother retelling the story. The girls learned a lot of signs from watching these two youngsters. There are many versions of the story on YouTube so find something fun that will appeal to your students.
- Take a field trip to visit a museum that has a big tree section with rings that go back hundreds of years. Or go to a tree farm. Or just go to a forest and walk around, observing all that you can about the trees.
I tried to keep this one shorter so if I did too short of a job on the description for something you want to know more about, leave me a comment and I’ll try to give you more information. Most of all, though, the Giving Tree was a fantastic unit that just kept growing and growing from the interest the girls had in it. Enjoy!