Buds Over Time

Materials:

Nature Journal, drawing utensils of choice, and wooded area

Activity:

Visit a forest or tree-filled park and look closely at the branches in early winter. (Sometimes using a handheld microscope or magnifying glass helps the children focus on the minute details.) Carefully observe the branch of a deciduous tree from early to late winter watching for the earliest signs of spring that are often found while snow is still on the ground. Go to the “changes over time” section of your nature journal and label the top “Tree Buds over time” then fill in the date in one of the narrow boxes and return every week or two to make observations on the plant growth.

Younger: 

Ask younger kids questions about what they think will happen next.

Older:

Older kids can collect measurements of growth with a ruler or caliper and write the data with their drawings.

Take it Further:

Do a mini-lesson on the life cycle of a tree using previous tree resources or this cute printable from FiddleSticks Education.

Life Cycle of an English Oak by Fiddle Sticks Education

Make Your Own Nature Journal:

This section allows you to make comparisons side by side as things change over time. Write the title of what you are observing at the top of the page, the date/time in the narrow row above the columns, and your observations within the columns. Easily see change progress over time with side-by-side comparisons.

To make your own: Leaving space at the top of your page for a title, use our ruler to draw two rows fairly close to one another and four lines to create 5 columns coming down from the rows (see example).