# data[].attributes.body
Check here for regular LPS updates including food distribution, learning expectations and opportunities, and district closure information

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Virtual Visit

Our doors are temporarily closed, but we're still here! Join us for live presentations, new videos, and activities to try from home.

Guided Giant Ocean Tank Dive with John Hanzl

Our daily presentations are posted on Facebook every day at 11 am. For even more updates and stories, follow along on Twitter and Instagram, as well!

Latest Video: Book Reading with Sy Montgomery!

Previous Presentations:

At-Home Projects and Activities:

We typically provide these projects and activities as tools for educators, but we are excited to now offer these resources to families, as well. Please note, these activities might need some modifications when doing them at home.

Three activities to
explore how salt mixed with water can alter ice formation.
Try it!

More things to try at home!

Activity Archive

Links to more activities on our site

Additional Educational Resources

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Virtual Visit Our doors are temporarily closed, but we're still here! Join us for live presentations, new videos, and activities to try from home. Guided Giant Ocean Tank Dive with John Hanzl Our daily presentations are posted on Facebook every day at 11 am.

# data[].attributes.body
Fun physical activities and brain breaks. Free!

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Get Your Kids Moving & Practicing Mindfulness with GoNoodle®. Start Watching Now & Get Access to Hundreds of Videos! Active Learning. Healthy Kids. Active Kids. Boost Learning.

# data[].attributes.body
Elementary Art Lessons for Kids

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
36 Elementary Art Lessons for Kids - one for every week of the school year! Perfect for homeschool families, teachers, scout leaders, and parents!

Art is my favorite part of our homeschool week, so to prepare for the upcoming school year, I put together this list of 36 art lessons for kids - one for each week of the school year. These fun and creative art activities are geared for elementary aged children and are adaptable for students in grades K-6. Many of these kids art project ideas are inspired by famous artists throughout history, and all of them are sure to be a ton of educational fun!

Most of these kids art projects require only basic supplies such as tempera paint, watercolors, paint brushes, construction paper, glue, oil pastels, and clay. They're perfect for a single student or an entire classroom full of kids!
Wassily Kandinsky Art Lesson + Circle Collage Jackson Pollock Art Lesson & Activity Piet Mondrian Art Lesson + Activity Pointillism Art for Kids Collaborative Watercolor Painting Winter Cardinal Art Lesson Wayne Thiebaud-Inspired Cupcakes Watercolor Jellyfish Resist DIY Stained Glass Mosaic Tint/Shade Ice Cream Cones Radial Paper Relief Sculpture One-Point Perspective Art Lesson Watercolor Dream Catcher Art Wycinanki Polish Folk Art for Kids Cardboard Circle Weaving City Skyline & Reflection Printmaking
Elementary Art Lessons for Kids
Monet's Pond Art Lesson Mary Cassatt-Inspired Self Portraits Calder-Inspired Paper Sculptures Rain & Rainbow Watercolor Resist Fluid Art Life-Sized Keith Haring Art Optical Illusion Art Sumi-e Brushstroke Mini Books Quilt & Tile-Inspired Art
These fun art projects for kids are sure to bring a ton of creative joy to your home or school room!
Acrylic Paint Sun Prints Georgia O'Keefe Flowers
If you like these kids art projects, don't forget to pin them!

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
36 Elementary Art Lessons for Kids - one for every week of the school year! Perfect for homeschool families, teachers, scout leaders, and parents! Art is my favorite part of our homeschool week, so to prepare for the upcoming school year, I put together this list of 36 art lessons for kids - one for each week of the school year.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
In response to the great need for at-home learning resources during the COVID-19 emergency, Maine Project Learning Tree offers this rich array of links and activities that "use trees and forests as windows on the world" for all grades, pK-12. All of them are interesting, engaging and aimed at getting kids outdoors. But we must admit that one in particular captures our imagination as we think ahead to a future when the children of today are reflecting and yearning for artifacts of this time in their lives. Activity #21 Adopt-a-Tree encourages learners of any age to adopt a tree of their very own to observe and measure and write and draw about in many ways over time. By "owning" a tree, they create an interesting context for a great body of learning. We wish you well in this journey that is like none any of us has experienced before. And we look forward to hearing from you with your successes, ideas, suggestions and questions. With Warm Regards and Thanks for All You are Doing!
at the additional PLT Activity Videos elsewhere on our website. Maine PLT Facebook page for updated resources including our very own "Nature at Home" video series: demonstrations by Maine PLT facilitators showing PLT activities you can do in your own backyard! plt.org for additional resources and new ones as available. Christine Anderson-Morehouse, Maine PLT Coordinator
Simplified, one-page versions of PLT activities. These blue titles link to the PLT website.

Play detective on your next walk in the woods and discover how plants grow, age, decay, and more. Here is a set of activities you can do in the forest.
HERE'S THE BEST WAY TO FIND PLT ACTIVITY RESOURCES ONLINE:
Get in touch with trees in your local park and use these activities to take a closer look.

Look, listen, and meet your natural neighbors.
IMPORTANT: The full activity list can be found on PLT's activity guide website, including writing, social studies and global issues activities that were not included here.
These activities are great for a rainy day or when you just can't get outside.

Discover ways to green your home - and save money - with these questions and tips.

PLT Activities in the PLT preK-8 Guide

the Activity Descriptions Below or on the national PLT website (link on picture).
an Activity. (Use these indexes to help match your specific needs.)

SEARCH using the following language: "PLT Activity # xx Title" to find many resources, including downloadable student pages, family pages, and various state websites with additional resources for that specific activity.
NOTE: Some listings below do have links to resources.

THEME: DIVERSITY

Activity 1 - The Shape of Things

As humans we depend on all of our senses: touching, tasting, hearing, smelling, and seeing, to gather impressions of our environment. Our brains sort out the diversity of sizes, colors, and shapes that we see. In this Activity, students will focus on the many shapes that are found in both natural and built environments. Download the entire activity from the book or download the one-page Family Activity version.

Join Maine PLT facilitator, Joanne Alex, by video out in the U. Maine Forest where she reads aloud a story about shapes in the human world, then uses a simple, paper "shape necklace" to hunt for shapes in nature. She demonstrates how to create different shapes out of twigs and then she leaves us with a challenge.

Activity 2 - Get in Touch with Trees

By way of trees in the neighborhood and a mystery box, students will explore their sense of touch and discover different shapes and textures in nature.

Activity 3 - Peppermint Beetle

In this Activity students will explore their sense of smell and discover why smell is important to animals, including themselves.

Activity 4 - Sounds Around

Our ears are constantly being bombarded with sound-so much so that we automatically tune out a lot of it. Some sounds are music to our ears, while others can annoy us and even damage the delicate structures in our ears. This Activity helps students tune in to the sounds in their environment and helps them identify and lessen local noise problems. They also learn how different sounds in nature have inspired cultural stories.

Activity 5 - Poet-Tree

Writing and sharing poems gives students an opportunity to express their thoughts, values, and beliefs about the environment and related issues in creative and artistic ways. You can do this Activity in combination with Activity 21, Adopt a Tree, to allow students to explore their adopted tree through poetry. You may also adapt the Activity to explore parts of the environment other than trees and forests, such as art or architecture.

Activity 6 - Picture This!

Students learn about the diversity of life on Earth by looking at different pictures of plants and animals from around the world.

Activity 7 - Habitat Pen Pals

By becoming "habitat pen pals," your students will learn about the diversity of habitats around the world and will write letters from the perspective of organisms living in these habitats.

Activity 8 - The Forest of S.T. Shrew

Through a read aloud, students will take a "shrew's-eye-view" of life in the woods to gain an appreciation for the variety of living things that make forests their homes, and for the variety of habitats within forests.

Activity 9 - Planet Diversity

In this Activity, students will pretend they are visitors from outer space, viewing life on Earth for the first time. By describing, in minute detail, all the life they find in a small plot of land, they will become more aware of the diversity and abundance of life on Earth and will better understand its importance.

Activity 10 - Charting Diversity
Free Book Download: Why Would Anyone Cut a Tree Down?
Students will explore the amazing diversity of life on Earth and discover how plants and animals are adapted for survival. This Activity provides a basis for understanding why there are so many different species and the value of biodiversity.

Activity 11 - Can It Be Real?

A beetle that drinks fog. A flower that smells like rotting meat. A fish that "shoots down" its prey. Are these plants and animals for real? In this Activity, your students will discover extraordinary plants and animals, and will gain insight on how they are uniquely adapted to environmental conditions.

Activity 12 - Invasive Species

Throughout history, people have intentionally and unintentionally moved plant and animal species to new environments. Some of these species have proved beneficial, but others invade natural habitats causing environmental, and sometimes economic harm. Students will research invasive species to determine how these species got to their new locations and what characteristics make them so challenging.

Activity 13 - We All Need Trees

Students are often surprised to learn how many different products we get from trees. Use this Activity to help your students learn just how much we depend on trees in our daily lives.

Activity 14 - Renewable or Not

Students often do not know which resources are renewable and which are nonrenewable, or which are recyclable or reusable. In this Activity, students will learn what these terms mean and discover why sustainable use of natural resources is so important.

Activity 15 - A Few of My Favorite Things

Here's a way to give your students a better appreciation for how many natural resources they depend on in their day-to-day lives. By tracing the resources that go into making one item, they will learn how the manufacturing of just one product can have an impact on the environment.

Activity 16 - Pass the Plants, Please

Spaghetti. Fried rice. Tortillas. Vegetable soup. Thanks to plants, these and many other favorite foods are ours to enjoy. This Activity will get your students thinking about just how big a part plants play in our daily diets.

Click here for a Family Activity for Pass the Plants, Please.

THEME: INTER-RELATIONSHIPS

Activity 21 - Adopt A Tree

Students adopt a tree, deepening their awareness of individual trees over time and encouraging a greater understanding and appreciation of their local environment. Click here to download handouts and resources. Visit this Minnesota PLT web page to download a 20+ page Adopt-a-Tree Journal.

Activity 22 - Trees as Habitats

From their leafy branches to their tangled roots, trees provide a habitat for a host of plants and animals. In this Activity, your students will inventory the plants and animals that live in, on, and around trees and discover how plants and animals depend on trees in many ways.

Activity 23 - The Fallen Log

It's amazing how many things live in and on rotting logs. In this Activity, your students will become familiar with some of those organisms by observing fallen logs. They'll gain an understanding of how decomposition takes place and a better appreciation for microhabitats and communities. Visit Maine PLT facilitator Laurie Haines's blog that has a Maine made "Nature at Home!" video of this activity in action plus links to two data sheets, one each for older and one for younger students. Get the one-page Family Activity and other resources on the national PLT website.

Activity 24 - Nature's Recyclers

It's amazing how many organisms live off dead organic material and recycle those materials back into life. In this inquiry-based Activity, your students will devise an experiment to investigate the eating habits of one of these creatures. They will gain both an understanding of how decomposition works and an appreciation for some of nature's less-heralded organisms.

Activity 25 - Birds and Worms

Camouflage is an important survival strategy in the animal kingdom. In this Activity, students will discover the value of protective coloration as they pretend to be birds in search of colored worms or bugs.

Activity 26 - Dynamic Duos

Organisms in an ecosystem depend on each other for food. But they may also depend on each other for protection, transportation, or shelter. In this Activity, students will learn about different types of symbiotic relationships.

Activity 27 - Every Tree for Itself

Try this active simulation to give your students an understanding of the conditions that trees need to live and grow and to help your students learn that trees often must compete for their needs.

Activity 28 - Air Plants

Plants play a part in every breath we take. Use this Activity to help your students understand the process of photosynthesis, and how people depend on this process (and plants) because of the production of oxygen.

Activity 29 - Rain Reasons

Rainfall, sunlight, and temperature are important factors influencing where plants can grow and, in turn, where animals can live. In this inquiry-based Activity, students will design experiments to see how these climatic factors influence the growth of plants. They will explore how plants are adapted to the local climate and how varying climate conditions have resulted in a variety of forest types in Puerto Rico and Honduras.

Activity 30 - Three Cheers for Trees!

It's easy to take for granted both trees and the many benefits they provide. In this Activity, students picture how their community would be different without trees and think about how much trees add to people's lives.

Activity 31 - Plant a Tree

Never underestimate the power of a tree! Besides giving us an amazing array of paper and wood products, trees provide a host of other benefits-from shading our backyards to assisting in the maintenance of the global climate. Students can express their appreciation of trees by planning and carrying out their own tree-planting project.

Activity 32 - A Forest of Many Uses

Privately and publicly owned forests are often managed to provide many different resources. In this Activity, students will learn how forests are managed to meet a variety of human and environmental needs.

Activity 33 - Forest Consequences

Few issues, if any, have simple solutions and resolving them usually involves compromise. In this Activity, your students will learn about some of the effects that human activities can have on a forest. They will explore some of the trade-offs involved in working out a land use issue.

Activity 34 - Who Works in this Forest?

All kinds of people work in the forest, from foresters to loggers, from scientists to naturalists. Everyone depends on properly managed forests for recreation, essential products, and a healthy environment. This Activity provides students with an overview of forest-related careers.

Activity 35 - Loving It Too Much

National parks are the treasures of any nation. Yet national parks today struggle with serious dilemmas. By looking at problems in America's national parks, students can begin grappling with some tough environ mental issues that affect parks locally and globally.

Activity 40 - Then and Now

If your community is like most others, it's now quite a bit different than it was 100, 50, 25, or even five years ago. By viewing pictures, and interviewing elders, your students will understand how we, as people, affect and alter the environment in which we live.

THEME: SYSTEMS

Activity 41 - How Plants Grow

A plant is a biological system that needs sunlight, water, air, nutrients, and space for functioning and growing. In this inquiry-based Activity, students design experiments to explore what happens when a plant's basic needs are unmet.

Activity 42 - Sunlight and Shades of Green

This Activity introduces students to photosynthesis, the process that enables trees and other green plants to use sunlight to manufacture their own food. Students will test what happens when they block sunlight from the leaves of a tree or shrub, and then they will interpret their findings.

Activity 43 - Have Seeds, Will Travel

A plant is a biological system. Its systems, processes, and components enable it to grow and reproduce. By observing, collecting, and classifying seeds, students are introduced to one aspect of a plant's reproductive system.

Activity 44 - Water Wonders

The water cycle is the system by which Earth's fixed amount of water is collected, purified, and distributed from the environment to living things and back to the environment. Through a game and an experiment, this Activity will introduce students to the various steps of the water cycle and will help them make connections between the water cycle and all living things.

By conducting research and simulating a food web, students will take a close look at a forest ecosystem and discover ways that plants and animals are connected to each other. While this Activity focuses on forests, you can also use it to study other ecosystems, such as oceans, deserts, marshes, or prairies by substituting the appropriate information.

Find a Family Activity and other resources on the National PLT website.

Visit this page for a 2-page handout that students could use to make a food web at home:

Activity 46 - Schoolyard Safari

Every organism requires a place to live that satisfies its basic needs for food, water, shelter, and space. Such a place is called a habitat. In this Activity, students will go on a safari to explore a nearby habitat - the schoolyard - while looking for signs of animals living there.

Activity 47 - Are Vacant Lots Vacant?

Look closely and you will see that a vacant lot is not so vacant! Plants of all kinds thrive in vacant lots, along with a host of animals such as insects, birds, and mammals. In this Activity, a nearby vacant lot, overgrown strip, or a landscaped area will provide a rich laboratory for students to examine elements of an ecosystem.

Activity 48 - Field, Forest, and Stream

In this inquiry-based Activity students will conduct a field study of three different environments as they focus on sunlight, soil moisture, temperature, wind, water flow, plants, and animals in each environment. By comparing different environments, students will begin to consider how nonliving elements influence living elements in an ecosystem.

Activity 50 - 400-Acre Wood

In this Activity, students will play the role of managers of a 400-acre (162 hectare) piece of public forest. Through this role, students will begin to understand the complex considerations that influence management decisions about forest lands.

Activity 51 - Make Your Own Paper

Students investigate the papermaking process by trying it themselves. Students are thrilled to find that they can make paper and that their product is practical, as well as beautiful. See the PLT website, www.plt.org, to watch a video of the paper-making process used in this Activity. Click here for a sample lesson plan and other resources for this activity.

Activity 54 - I'd Like to Visit a Place Where...

Students will develop an understanding of the value of recreational areas and facilities, and why these areas are established nationally and locally. By working on a service-learning project to improve a local park, students will also learn about the community's system for managing open spaces.

Activity 55 - Planning the Ideal Community

A human community is a system of facilities, services, resources, and human relationships that enable people to live in a particular place. In this Activity, students survey the area around their school to look for the components of the human community in which they live. They then plan an ideal community that meets all the needs of its residents.

Activity 56 - We Can Work It Out

When certain people decide how to use a particular piece of land, the decision can involve and affect many people in many ways. Therefore, groups must establish processes for planning and resolving conflicts about land use. In this simulation, students will develop a plan to address a land-use issue. While this Activity focuses on land use, the process can be adapted to examine other issues in your community.

THEME: STRUCTURE & SCALE

Activity 61 - The Closer You Look

All students, no matter how young, have an idea of what a tree looks like. But many are unfamiliar with the actual structure of a tree. In this Activity, your students will go outdoors or view pictures to take a closer look at trees and their parts.

Activity 62 - To Be A Tree

By making a tree costume using a paper bag and art supplies, your students will gain an awareness of a tree's structure and functions. Visit the National PLT website for a Family Activity page and other resources.

Activity 63 - Tree Factory

By acting out the parts of a tree, students will learn about the structure of a tree. They create a tree factory.

Activity 64 - Looking at Leaves

Are leaves ever hairy? Do they have teeth? In this Activity, your students will take a closer look at leaves and find out more about leaf characteristics and how leaves can be used to identify plants.

Activity 65 - Bursting Buds

In early spring, the tiny, bright green leaves of many trees burst forth. Where do the leaves come from? How do they form? In this Activity, your students will find the answers to these questions on their own by observing tree buds throughout the year.

Activity 66 - Germinating Giants

In this Activity, students sharpen their math skills by comparing their local trees to the world's tallest tree, the coast redwood, and to the tree with the largest seeds, the coconut palm.

Activity 67 - How Big is Your Tree?

Trees come in various shapes and sizes. In this Activity, students will measure trees in different ways and become familiar with the tree's scale and structure. They will also learn the importance of standard units of measure and measuring techniques.

Activity 68 - Name That Tree

Tree species can be identified by looking at several different features: leaves, bark, twigs, flowers, fruit, and seeds. Even the overall shape of a tree can give clues to the tree's identity. In this Activity, your students will learn more about trees through these identifying features. Afterward, they can play an active game that tests their knowledge of different types of trees.

Activity 69 - Forest for the Trees

In this Activity, students will role-play managing a Tree Farm. By using a piece of land as a Tree Farm, they will begin to understand the economic factors that influence management decisions for private forest lands.

Activity 70 - Soil Stories

In this inquiry-based Activity, students will explore differences in soil types and what those differences mean to people and to plants.

Activity 71 - Watch on Wetlands

If a duck can paddle in it, it's a wetland. If a duck can waddle on it, it's not. If only wetlands could be defined as simply as this, wetlands issues and legislation would be less muddy. In this inquiry-based Activity, students will conduct field studies in a local wetland, and learn how land use decisions and legislation affect wetland areas.

Activity 73 - Waste Watchers

Energy seems easy to use, but obtaining it is often not easy on the environment. When we reduce the amount of energy we use, we decrease the pollution that results from producing that energy. In this Activity, your students conduct an audit of the energy they use in their own homes and create an action plan to reduce energy use.

THEME: PATTERNS OF CHANGE

Activity 76 - Tree Cookies

One way to learn about tree growth is to look at annual rings. Tree rings show patterns of change in the tree's life as well as changes in the area where it grows. In this Activity, students will trace environmental and historical changes using a cross section of a tree, or "tree cookie."

Visit the National PLT website for many resources including activity handouts and links.

Watch Maine PLT facilitator Anita Smith in the China Schools Forest explaining how to be a Tree Detective, using what we learn from her about the rings and markings on stumps and logs to figure out what the lives of trees might have been like.

Here's an explanation of how tree rings are formed and how they are studied ("Dendrochronology").

This simulation game lets you build "Tree Cookies " by adding yearly rings under wet or dry conditions, asking you to match the patterns on a tree cookie in the picture.

Activity 77 - Trees in Trouble

Like humans, trees can become weak and unhealthy, suffer injury, and die. People have learned to read the symptoms of unhealthy trees to help them. In this Activity, students will examine trees for signs of damage or poor health. They will also conduct a series of experiments to determine the conditions that may cause plants to become unhealthy.

Activity 78 - Signs of Fall

In temperate regions, people can observe the annual change of seasons. In this Activity, students will look for signs of autumn. They will also try an experiment to discover why leaves of deciduous trees change color in the fall.

Activity 79 - Tree Lifecycle

In this Activity, students will discover that trees have a lifecycle that is similar to that of other living things. They will investigate a tree's role in the ecosystem at each stage of its life.

Activity 80 - Nothing Succeeds Like Succession

Succession is a natural pattern of change that takes place over time in a forest or other ecosystem. In this Activity, students will read a story about succession, and investigate the connection between plants, animals, and successional stages in a local ecosystem.

Activity 81 - Living with Fire

Students learn about the three elements a fire needs to burn and find out how an understanding of this "fire triangle" can be used to both prevent and manage wildland fires.

Activity 87 - Earth Manners

Children are naturally curious about their environment. They should be encouraged to explore the out-of-doors, while having respect for living things and their habitats. In this Activity students will develop a set of guidelines for exploring and enjoying nature.

Activity 89 - Trees for Many Reasons

By reading fables such as The Lorax by Dr. Seuss or The Man Who Planted Trees by Jean Giono, students can examine the importance of conserving natural resources.

Activity 91 - In the Good Old Days

Human attitudes and values, and therefore behavior, with regard to the environment can change over the course of generations. In this Activity, students express their own views about forests, and then read excerpts from the writings of different authors who have influenced people's thinking about the environment.

Activity 92 - A Look at Lifestyles

By examining the historical attitudes of American Indians and American pioneers toward the environment and natural resources, students can reflect on their own lifestyles, and identify trade-offs between simple subsistence and the modern technology-based living.
HERE'S THE BEST WAY TO FIND ACTIVITY RESOURCES ONLINE!
Activity 93 - Paper Civilizations

Humans have always had a strong need to record the events of their lives. From cave painting to writing paper, humans have preserved their history in many ways. In this Activity, students create a mural about the history of papermaking and discover how it has changed over time.

Activity 95 - Did You Notice?

In this Activity, students will study changes in their local environment over short and long periods and will identify patterns of change.

Activity 96 - Improve Your Place

Each living thing has a habitat-a place to live that suits its needs. For human beings, the community they live in is their habitat. In this Activity, students are encouraged to plan and carry out a service-learning project that focuses on making positive environmental changes in their community.

PLT For Early Childhood Environmental Experiences

READ the Activity Descriptions below
CHOOSE an Activity
GOOGLE SEARCH using this language "PLT Activity # xx Title" to find many resources, including downloadable student pages, family pages, and various state websites with additional resources for that specific activity
NOTE: Some listings below do have links to resources.

Exploring Nature with Five Senses

Activity 1 - The Shape of Things

In these experiences, children will search for the shapes and colors that define both our natural and built environments. Download the entire activity or a one-page "Family Activity" version of this activity.

Join Maine PLT facilitator, Joanne Alex, by video out in the U. Maine Forest where she reads aloud a story about shapes in the human world, then uses a simple, paper "shape necklace" to hunt for shapes in nature. She demonstrates how to create different shapes out of twigs and then she leaves us with a challenge.

Activity 2 - Sounds Around

Through these experiences, children explore the sounds of nature and imitate the sounds using their own voices and instruments they make in class.

Activity 3 - Get in Touch with Trees

In these experiences, children will explore trees and their parts by using the sense of touch. They may feel rough bark, spongy moss, sharp thorns, and sticky sap.

Activity 4 - We All Need Trees

Trees are filled with aromatic woods, savory spices, smelly twigs or yummy fruits. In these experiences, children will explore trees using their noses and mouths!

Experiencing Trees Through the Seasons

Activity 5 - Signs of Fall

Through these experiences, children will explore the signs of autumn and will play with falling, changing, and dancing leaves.

Activity 6 - Evergreens in Winter

Evergreen trees offer a sensory overload! Through these experiences, children will touch, smell, see, hear, and taste the season of winter. Many of these experiences can be used year-round in areas with or without snow.

Activity 7 - Bursting Buds

In most areas of the United States, spring is a time of growth for trees and other plants. These experiences help children explore twigs, buds, and tree flowers while they celebrate the coming of spring.

Activity 8 - Adopt a Tree

Tree species can be identified by looking at their bark, flowers, fruits, leaves, seeds, and twigs. Through these experiences, children will compare trees and decide which combination of features they like most.

Meeting Neighborhood Trees
Download a free copy of the full activity.
Activity 9 - To be a Tree

Trees are a lot like people-with limbs, trunks, and skin. Through these experiences, children make a tree costume and explore the parts of a tree.

Activity 10 - Trees as Habitats

From their leafy branches to their tangled roots, trees provide habitats for a diverse variety of plants and animals. through these experiences, children discover how plants and animals depend on trees by taking a walk, acting out a story, and investigating tree parts.

Activity 11 - Three Cheers for Trees

Each day trees provide many benefits for all people. Through these experiences, children will explore the many products and benefits that trees provide.

Conduct a forest health check-up of a local forest area by examining vital signs indicators, then evaluate the ecological services provided by trees and forests.

Curriculum guides include the Pre K-8 Environmental Education Activity Guide as well as secondary modules for middle and high school as well as post-secondary audiences. A sample of activities includes: "Adopt a Tree", "Tale of the Sun", "Tree Cookies".

available in PLT's Exploring Environmental Issues series. They include:
For secondary educators, five secondary modules Focus on Risk; Focus on Forests; Municipal Solid Waste; Forests of the World; and Places We Live.

Project Learning Tree's early childhood education guide, Environmental Experiences for Early Childhood , was developed especially for educators of children ages 3-7.

PLT in Maine is sponsored by the Maine TREE Foundation. Visit www.plt.org for more information about Project Learning Tree's National Programs, or contact Christine Anderson-Morehouse, Maine PLT Coordinator for more information about PLT workshops in Maine.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
In response to the great need for at-home learning resources during the COVID-19 emergency, Maine Project Learning Tree offers this rich array of links and activities that "use trees and forests as windows on the world" for all grades, pK-12. All of them are interesting, engaging and aimed at getting kids outdoors.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
At Starfall, children have fun while they learn. Educational games, movies, books, songs, and more for 1st, 2nd, and 3rd grade learners.

# data[].attributes.body
RAZ Kids! All kids have an account set up with me already. Click "Kids Login" and they should know what to do from there.