A Special New Tree

A Special New Tree Organiser’s Card About the activity This activity is designed to get children thinking about different types of trees and their different characteristics. The White Cliffs Countryside Project is planting a new tree at Samphire Hoe. However, they’re not sure which tree to plant and need a little help deciding. Lots of local residents have different ideas of what they would like from a tree. Through this activity you will support your group to: • Research different kinds of trees and their characteristics • Do a survey to find out what tree characteristics their friends and family like • Write a letter to The White Cliffs Countryside Project to recommend a tree based on their research. Kit list • Access to the internet • Plain paper to draw up the survey • Tree guides to identify a range of trees and describe their characteristics • Clipboards • Pencils What to do 1. Introduce the activity using the ‘letter’ from the White Cliffs Countryside Project. 2. Give out activity cards and equipment to the children. 3. Explain that they will be conducting a survey to find out which characteristics different people like in trees. They will then need to do some research, using the tree guides or the website links on the activity card, to find out different characteristics of different trees, to decide which tree would be best suited. 4. Encourage children to discuss their ideas. Prompt questions: • What questions will they ask in their survey? • Who will they ask? • How will they record their results? • How will they make sure they get a range of opinions? 5. Support children to conduct their surveys and make their own records of their results. They could use the data they collect to make a table or a graph. 6. Ask the children to present their findings to the rest of the group, they can be as creative in their presentation as they want.

Things to talk about Children may not know the names of trees. You can help them by providing access to simple identification guides. You can obtain a simple tree identification guide from www.opalexplorenature.org/crest Take it further Encourage the children to use a range of different ways to find out which tree might be best. If they use the survey on the ACTIVITY CARD, encourage them to add, change or delete questions, and think about who to ask. Encourage the children to make their own records, such as a table or a block graph. Keywords • Survey • Ecology • Evergreen • Native • Habitat Watch out! Remind children not to approach strangers to get them to complete the survey, unless they are accompanied by a responsible adult.