Teaching Sequence

Work through this resource material in the following sequence:

35 minutes	Part B: How Do Trees Interact With The Elements?
60 minutes	Part C: Tree Day Poster
10 minutes	Reflection

Part A: Activating Prior Knowledge

Step 1.

Begin this lesson by sharing the following image with students and inviting them to complete a SEE THINK FEEL WONDER activity around the image (also available on the Student Worksheet):

Invite students to share some of their observations, feelings and questions about this image. Through your discussion, lead students to the idea that trees give us lots of things, such as physical products like wood, a healthier environment, and opportunities for relaxation and enjoyment.

Step 2.

Pose the following question to students and invite them to work in pairs to discuss and record their answers to the following question (students should discuss their ideas in their pairs; however, each student should record their own ideas in their own words). Students can record their ideas on the Student Worksheet, using bullet points to record key ideas:

How do we interact with trees?

Suggest to students that a useful way of approaching this question is to imagine a world where there are no trees - what wouldn’t you have and what would you miss? What would the world be like without fresh air and fresh water? What would it be like without healthy soil for our food to grow in?

Once students have recorded some of their ideas, you could invite them to share thoughts with the class. Use this discussion as an opportunity to explain to students that we need trees for so many things in our lives. Because of this, it is important to understand trees and what they need so that we can look after them.

Part B: How Do Trees Interact With The Elements?

Step 1.

Students will now look at how trees interact with the world around them to understand more about what trees need to thrive and survive. A useful approach here is to think about the elements and how trees interact with the elements.

Read the following to students:

In the environment, there are living things and there are elements (non-living things) that affect the environment. Some living things are trees and other plants, fungi, animals, and people (these are known as biotic factors). The elements are equally as important as the living things, for they provide the foundation for the living things. In this lesson, you will focus on some of the elements and will look at how these interact with trees. The elements you will look at include water, light, fire, air and the earth/soil.

Step 2.

Break the class into five mixed-ability groups and assign each group with a number from 1 to 5. You can then assign one of the following elements things based on each groups number:

Water
Light
Fire
Air
Earth/soil

Each group will need to research how trees interact with the element they have been assigned. Groups can use the following questions to guide their research (also available on the Student Worksheet):

How do trees need this element?
How does this element need trees?
How does this element affect trees?
How does this element interact with the leaves/roots/seeds?

Differentiation:

Year 5 differentiation: What adaptations do trees have to support their relationship with this element? Students might require further explanation as to what is meant by adaptations in this context. Encourage students to think about what part of the tree interacts with the element they are researching, e.g. roots interact with the soil and water, leaves with the air and light, and what features of that part of the tree might make it well-suited to interacting with that element. Encourage students to consider the size and shape of a particular part of the tree and why this might be the case. For example,
- Tree roots spread often spread out widely around the tree base to allow it to soak up water faster when there is rainfall (this is especially true for trees growing in dry environments). Tree roots are long and have many thinner roots branching out from larger roots to take up more space and soak up more water.
- Leaves are found at the top of the tree so that they are closest to the sun's light. Many leaves are wide and flat to provide more surface to absorb the sun's light (students may not be familiar with photosynthesis, so it might be useful to use the analogy of solar panels on a roof).
Year 6 Differentiation: How might human-induced changes to this element affect trees? Many of the sources of information used by students to complete this task will address this question but, if not, you may wish to guide students towards resources exploring the effects of deforestation and climate change on trees.

Students could use some of the following resources to start their research:

Allow students time to conduct their research and record their answers on the Student Worksheets. Each student will need to record their own answers on their own Student Worksheet.

Step 3.

Once students have completed their research, you will need to divide the class into new groups, where each group is composed of a student from group 1 (water), group 2 (light), group 3 (fire), group 4 (air) and group 5 (earth).

Working in these new groups, students should share what they have learned about how trees interact with elements but share the answers to the research questions. The teacher can move between the groups, ensuring that the conversation flows and that all students have a chance to share their work.

The aim here is for all students to understand the many ways that trees interact with elements.

Part C: Tree Day Poster

Step 1.

Explain to students that each year in Australia, Planet Ark holds National Tree Day and Schools Tree Day to raise awareness about the value of trees and also to get involved in planting and caring for trees.

Students will now work independently or collaboratively to create their own Tree Day poster. This poster aims to describe how trees interact with elements. You could do this by:

Option 1. Working together as a class to design and create a large poster that incorporates all the information about trees and their interactions with the elements
Option 2. Working individually or in groups to create a poster that describes the interactions between trees and the group's element focused on in Part B.
Option 3. Working individually to identify a favourite or significant tree at their school or in their community and create a poster about this tree describing all these interactions this tree has with elements. This poster could incorporate photos and specific details about the trees (for older students, photos of adaptations and potential human impacts).

Depending on students' age and ability, you could also include information about how humans can care for trees by caring for the elements.

If you and your students are keen, you could submit student posters to the Schools Tree Day competition. Find out everything you need to know here: https://treeday.planetark.org/competition/

Reflection

Invite students to work independently to respond to the following (also available on the Student Worksheet):

Three things I found out about trees from this lesson that I find interesting:
Two questions I have about trees:
One hope for trees in the future:

Teacher Reflection

Take this opportunity to reflect on your own teaching:

What did you learn about your teaching practice today?
What worked well?
What didn't work so well?
What would you share?
Where to next?
How are you going to get there?

Schools Tree Day - How Trees Interact With The Elements

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