Our kindergarten class is beginning a science unit called Trees. We will be observing and comparing the trees in our schoolyard. We will also be caring for a live tree in the classroom and planting it in a few weeks. Your child may come home with lots of information and questions about trees and their parts.

You can join in the tree study by taking your child for walks in your neighborhood to observe trees and other plants and to compare how they are alike and how they are different. For example, see if you can find two trees of the same kind. How were you able to tell they were the same kind? Which trees lose their leaves in the fall and which keep them all year? Look closely at the leaves. What shape are they? Do the trees have buds, flowers, fruit, or seeds? By making this close examination of trees, you might notice things about trees that you never thought about before.