Trees in Our Own Backyard and How We Can Help (Part 2 of 2)

Welcome to Change is Simple’s Online Learning Platform!

Overview: Today, we will be continuing to dive into the benefits trees provide us, especially the types of trees around where we live. We will also be learning how to identify trees by their leaves. These activities are for all ages.

Grade Level: K-6

Theme: Natural Systems, Natural Resources

Supervision needed? No

Essential Questions: 

• Why are trees so important?

• What is the scientific process that trees go through to create oxygen?

Materials Needed:

• Pencil

• Paper

• Camera

Standards:

We are going to be covering information from our last post so if you haven’t seen that you can click below and check it out!!!

Activity #1: How are the trees around your house helping you?

For this activity we are going to be taking a look at the trees around your home. As we have talked about this week trees have so many important benefits. So, let’s see how the trees around your house are helping you out! This activity is for all ages and you can be as detailed as you would like. There are examples under each step, but I am not the best artist so you can make yours however you’d like.

Materials:

• Piece of paper

• Something to draw with ( colored pencils, crayons, markers, pen, pencil)

Step 1: Start by drawing your house from a birds eye view

Step 2: Add what is around your house. Are there other buildings close? Are there trees? Is there water or a stream?

Step 3: Now add the trees, (in my picture they look like bushes since it is from a birds eye view)

Step 4: Number each tree, then write a sentence for each on how it is beneficial.

Ex) Disclaimer I don’t have many trees in my back yard…..

1 and 2: These are very large old trees they provide shade for my back yard and the back up my house when the sun is coming up. They also provide home for so many birds….that wake me up every morning

3 and 4: These are also very large trees that are in my neighbors yards. These trees provide some shade for their deck and pool.

Since houses are so close here they act like trees would, helping to shade my house and protect it from the wind.

Activity #2: Identifying the trees around your house by their leaves

On Wednesday we identified trees by their bark. This is a great technique to use in the winter when there are no leaves on the trees. Now that it is almost summer, the leaves have finally popped! So let’s take a look at them!

A Dichotomous Key is the most popular tool to use when identifying a leaf. These keys asks you questions about what the leaf looks like to slowly narrow your option down. Almost every Dichotomous Key starts with the same question which I have put below. Answer the question and then continue to use one of the keys that are listed it identify your trees.

Question #1

Does the tree have Needles (A) or Leaves (B)?

A

B

There are two main types of trees Coniferous and Deciduous.

Deciduous Trees: These are the trees with leaves on them, they lose their leaves every fall and grow back in the spring.

Coniferous Trees: These trees have needles on them, and their needles stay on the tree all year around. They’re also called Evergreen trees.

How we can help!

There is a lot that we can all do while we are at home!

• Make sure to recycle!

• Reuse as much as possible.

• Reduce your consumption of meat.

• Reduce your use of products with palm oil in them.

• Plant a tree whenever and wherever you can!

Send us a photo of yourself doing today's activity or how you help at home! and if you would like, please share your name(s) and where you are from with cisonline@changeissimple.org!

Benefits of Trees and How to ID Them (Part 1 of 2)

Welcome to Change is Simple’s Online Learning Platform!

Overview: Today we are going to be taking a look at the largest living things on earth…..TREES!! Trees provide us with so much and are a very important piece to our environment. Over the next few days, we are going to take a closer look at some different types of trees and how to identify them in a few different ways. These activities are for all ages.

Grade Level: K-6

Theme: Natural Systems, Natural Resources

Supervision needed? No

Essential Questions: 

• Why are trees so important?

• What is the scientific process that trees go through to create oxygen?

Materials Needed:

• Pencil

• Paper

• Camera

Standards:

Check out the video below to learn about why trees are so important and one way to identify trees……there will be some questions to answer from the video, so pay attention!

Why are trees important?

Hopefully, you were paying attention to the video, let’s see if you can answer these questions:

1. Write 2-3 sentences on why trees’ roots are so important.

2. What gas do trees take in and what gas do they provide us? What is that scientific process called?

3. Explain how trees can help you save energy at home.

4. Write 4-5 sentences on how the trees around where you live are helping your environment and you. (ex: shading your house, providing a home for animals, helping the soil around your home)

Activity: Now let’s get to know some trees!

1. Head outside and try to find 5 different trees to identify, bring a piece of paper and something to write with

2. Take some notes on the tree bark that you are identifying, be looking at the Texture, Color, and Pattern. Look below to see some examples.

3. With the notes that you took, use the Bark ID guides below to help you identify the trees

   • If you are located outside of the northeast, just search Bark ID guide for your area to help you out.

4. Take pictures of the unique bark patterns you find and send them in!

5. Research to see if those trees are native to your area?

   • Native trees help local ecosystems and are much more beneficial to your local ecosystem than invasive trees

   • Invasive Species: These are species that are not from the area and has spread because many do not have predators in the new area. Invasive species usually are harmful to ecosystem that they don’t belong in.
     
     

What to look for when Identifying a tree by its bark:

• Texture- Smooth, rough, shaggy

• Color- White, brown, multi-colored

• Patterns- ridges: deep, shallow, horizontal, vertical; scaled, spotted, plain

American Beech

White Pine

Cedar

Sycamore

White Birch

Norway Maple

Tree ID Guides:

Tree Math!!

1. If every minute about 36 football fields worth of trees are cut down, how many football fields worth of trees would be cut down in 8 minutes?

2. A tree grows about 2 feet a year. How long would it take to grow your height?

3. One tree can make 8,300 sheets of paper. The average person uses about 7 trees worth of paper in one year. How many sheets of paper would the average person use in one year?

4. Recycling 1 ton of paper can save 17 trees. Your school uses 6 tons of paper a year, if you recycle half of that paper, how many trees can you save?
   
   
   
   

Did you enjoy today’s activity? Stay tuned Friday we will be talking about another way to identify trees and in the meantime…

Send us a photo of yourself doing today's activity and if you would like, please share your name(s) and where you are from with cisonline@changeissimple.org!

The Lifecycle of a Salmon

Welcome to Change is Simple’s Online Learning Platform!

Overview: Today, we are going to finish our series of lessons related to the importance of fish to our natural environment! This lesson will focus on one of the most important keystone species on the entire planet, the Pacific Salmon! We are going to explore the transformations these amazing animals undergo throughout their complex life-cycle, learn about their incredible migrations and even get crafty!

Grade Level: K-6

Theme: Natural Systems

Supervision needed? No

Essential Questions: 

• What are the different life-cycle stages of a salmon?

• Where do salmon travel and at what stages of their lives?

Materials Needed:

• colored writing utensils

• blank piece of paper

Standards:

PLEASE WATCH THIS VIDEO SO WE CAN GET STARTED!

Now it’s Time for YOU to design your own displays of a Salmons Lifecycle!

Lets get crafty and create a visualization of the incredible changes these fish undergo throughout thier lives

To really see how these fish change, we are going to use pictures to represent each stage of the salmon’s life! If you have a printer, feel free to print and cut out the pictures I created for your chart. If you don’t, even better! you get to create your own! You can use my pictures as a guide. Feel free to add as much or as little detail as you like, just make sure the size and color are accurate!

STEP 1-Add your first Location!

Salmon begin their lifecycles high up in the mountains in fresh water streams and creeks. This habitat provides the safest place for salmon to lay their eggs!

Step 2: Add the first stage of life, Eggs!

Salmon lay anywhere from 2,000 to 6,000 eggs! However, only about 15% of the eggs survive. Eggs are laid amongst the gravel in the stream beds, protecting them from predators, freezing and srong currents. Fertilized eggs develop in the gravel for 3 months!

Step 3: Add the second stage of life, Alevins!

Alevin emerge from their eggs four to six weeks after hatching. They remain in the gravel where the yolk sack under their neck provides them with all the nutrients they need to grow!

Step 4: Add the Second Stage of Life, Fry!

After their egg sacs have been absorbed, young salmon become Fry. Fry swim in search of food. They remain near their place of birth and forage for insects, larvae and other fish eggs to sustain them.

Step 4: Add the next stage of life, Parr!

Parr are juvenile salmon ready to begin their journey from their place of birth. They head downstream guided by gravity and stream flow, destined for estuaries near the ocean!

Step 5: Add your next location, The Estuary

The young salmon’s next home is the estuary! This is where salt water and freshwater mix, usually at the mouths of rivers where they meet the sea. This habitat provides the salmon a safe haven, sheltered from the open sea where they begin their transformation into a salt water fish!

Step 6: Add the next stage of life, Smolt!

Once in the estuary, the salmon becomes a smolt. It undergoes a process known as “smoltification”, where it’s body begins to adapt to salt water. It undergoes changes in body shape, color and physiology (inside it’s body!). In the estuary it feasts on zooplankton, insects, sand-fleas and shrimp! It usually stays in the estuaries 1-3 months.

Step 7: Add the Next Location, the open ocean!

Once the salmon leaves the estuaries, it ventures into the vastness of the open sea! Adult salmon venture deep into the ocean, often traveling up to 2,500 miles from where it hatched!

Step 8: Add the Next Stage of life, Adult

Once the salmon enters the ocean, it is considered an adult. An adult salmon is perfectly adapted to life in the open ocean. They feast on zooplankton, larval crustaceans an small fish! Depending on the species, adult salmon spend anywhere between 4 months to 5 years at sea!

Step 9: Add the Last stage of life, Spawning Adult Salmon

When they are ready to breed, spawning adult salmon head back to the same riverbed where they were born. They stop eating and use all of their strength to get back to their spawning grounds. During this phase, they undergo radical changes yet again, changing body shape and turning a bright red and green color! Once the salmon returns to its stream to spawn, its lifecycle will end.

Step 10: The completed Salmon Lifecycle!

Time to Reflect!

Lets think about this

• Why do salmon spawn in freshwater then venture out into the open ocean?

• How many different phases does the salmon go through during it’s lifecycle?

• Why is the salmon a keystone species both for the ocean AND the forest?

• How far can a salmon travel from where it was hatched?

• What are some ways that humans impact salmon? and how can we help?

Did you enjoy today’s activity? Stay tuned for more, and in the meantime…

Send us a photo of yourself doing today's activity and if you would like, please share your name(s) and where you are from with cisonline@changeissimple.org!

Let’s See those fish pictures!!