Arbor Day in the Classroom

Incorporate Arbor Day throughout your school curriculum. Click on the chalkboards to expand suggested activities for each area of study.

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  • Study the ecosystem of one particular tree.
  • Learn to identify trees in your community. Students can use a tree key or create their own. Take a nature walk to practice this new skill. Check out What Tree is That?™ tree identification guide.
  • Study the structure of a tree, how it functions, and what benefits a tree provides.
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  • Learn about the history of Arbor Day.
  • Study the importance of trees in different cultures.
  • Correlate the history of the United States or your community to one tree’s growth rings.
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  • Learn how to measure a tree’s height, crown, spread, and diameter. Directions are avialable at the Community Tree Contest.
  • Younger children can count the rings on a tree stump.
  • Seek out a pattern of numbers in nature.
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  • Participate in the Arbor Day Foundation’s National Poster Contest for fifth grade.
  • Collect leaves, put tempera paint on them and make leaf prints.
  • Create bark rubbings and trade rubbings and see if students can identify each other’s tree.
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  • Tree shapes often aid in tree identification. Students can pretend to be a certain type of tree: a weeping willow or redwood, etc.
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  • Write an Arbor Day poem, song, or skit and perform it for the school.
  • Create a description of a tree found on the school grounds. Then see if other students can find it using the description.
  • Write letters to community tree planters thanking them for their efforts.
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  • Create dishes using spices and other foods that are produced by trees.
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  • Produce a play recreating the history of Arbor Day.
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  • Play Who Wants to be a Treellionaire? or Tree-vial Pursuit and discover which class or group of students can answer the most tree-related questions.
  • Plant trees on your school grounds and learn how to maintain them.
  • Participate in a community Arbor Day celebration.

• Materials and downloads for educators.
• Arbor Day National Poster Contest for Fifth Graders.
• When is Arbor Day?