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For children

More learning fun

Trees in your park

Many types of tree can be found in your local park. When choosing a suitable park try and find one that is familiar to both you and your friends. Then try and draw a map of your park area. Fill in landmarks such as houses, ponds, paths and so on.

Walking through the wood or park, there may be various kinds of trees and shrubs that you can see.

Try and plot on your map the different types of trees you see. Use a simple key with the map. You can add other items to your map to make it more informative and interesting, for example the location of wild flowers. Here you can use a flower symbol with the first letter of the flower's name inside as a key. If you are not sure of the flower's name you can get information from the local library.

While looking around the trees you may have noticed many types of fungi. Why not add fungi to your map using another symbol?

Warning! Fungi can be dangerous. Do not taste any. It is better to be safe than sorry.

Spring visits

Search the ground around the tree for seedlings, like germinating acorns, horse chestnuts or germinating winged seeds.

Count how many have germinated.

Walk away from the tree and see if you can find any at a distance. How did they get there?

Also look for fruit on and around the tree and draw them. If they are not on the tree you can take them back home for further observation.

Keep a look out for anything of interest.

Summer visits

Look for the flowers on the tree and draw them without removing them from branches.

Autumn / Winter visits

When visiting at this time of year you can draw a picture of a twig as it is found on the tree. You can also make a detailed drawing of the tree buds and show how they occur on the twig.

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