Children will investigate how trees create cooler, healthier school spaces by using their senses to compare sunny and shady areas and recording findings with drawings and marks. With families, arborists, landscapers, city forestry staff, TreePeople, the Los Angeles Urban Forestry Equity Collective, and planting partners, they will examine tree health, learn what trees need, and identify where canopy is limited. Through feedback and revision, children will co-design a cooling spot, help plant and care for a tree or sapling, and create maps, models, observation displays, and a class mural for indoor and outdoor display. They will reflect through observation logs, talk-and-draw routines, and feeling checks, then lead a community exhibition to share evidence, explain tree-care ideas, and show how their solution changed the schoolyard.
Learning goals
Children will use their senses to compare sunny and shady school spaces, observe leaves and bark, and describe how trees create cooler places. With adult support, they will investigate where trees are needed by collecting picture-and-mark data, creating observation logs, and revising a class tree map or mural. Children will identify what trees need to stay healthy and collaborate with families, arborists, landscapers, and tree organizations to care for or plant a young tree and design a cooler schoolyard spot. They will display their art indoors or outdoors and communicate one finding, one tree-care action, and one planting idea during a community tree walk showcase.
Standards
[Computer Science Teachers Association] EK-DAT-DI-09 - Investigate a question that can be answered by collecting data in students’ everyday environments.
[Head Start] IT-ATL.7c - (16 to 36 Months) Participates in new experiences, asks questions, and experiments with new things or materials, such as collecting leaves and pinecones in the fall.
[National Core Arts Standards] VA:Pr6.1.PKa - Identify where art is displayed both inside and outside of school.
[Head Start] P-SCI.5a - (36 to 48 Months) With adult support, engages in simple investigations and experiments, such as building a "bridge" out of classroom materials and seeing how many dolls it will hold before it collapses. Records data with teacher assistance, mostly using pictures and marks on a page.
[Head Start] P-SCI.1a - (36 to 48 Months) Uses the five senses to observe objects, materials, organisms, and events. Provides simple verbal or signed descriptions. With adult support, represents observable phenomena, such as draws a picture.
Competencies
Critical Thinking & Problem Solving - Students consider a variety of innovative approaches to address and understand complex questions that are authentic and important to their communities.
Collaboration - Students co-design projects with peers, exercise shared-decision making, strengthen relational agency, resolve conflict, and assume leadership roles.
Effective Communication - Students practice listening to understand, communicating with empathy, and share their learning through exhibiting, presenting and reflecting on their work.
Content Expertise - Students develop key competencies, skills, and dispositions with ample opportunities to apply knowledge and engage in work that matters to them.
Academic Mindset - Students establish a sense of place, identity, and belonging to increase self-efficacy while engaging in critical reflection and action.
Products
Children will create picture-based observation logs with drawings, marks, leaf and bark rubbings, and sun-or-shade symbols from school tree walks. They will revise a class mural and before-and-after tree map using feedback from peers, families, teachers, arborists, landscapers, and local tree organizations. Small groups will build models showing where trees and shade could create cooler school spaces. With adult and community-partner support, the class will help plant and care for a tree or sapling in a selected hot spot, then share the models, artwork, data displays, and outdoor cooling space during a community tree walk.
Launch
Begin with a “Shade Safari” led by families, TreePeople, the Los Angeles Urban Forestry Equity Collective, and a local arborist or landscaper. In small groups, children use their senses to compare sunny and tree-shaded areas, examine leaves and bark, and record hot and cool spots with picture marks, while adults model safe ways to notice tree health. Children add drawings to a class tree map, identify where art is displayed indoors and outdoors, and suggest a place where a healthy new tree or cooling spot could go. Close with partner sharing and a thumbs-up, sideways, or down reflection, then introduce the question, “How can we add more trees where our school needs them most?”
Exhibition
Host a “Save the Trees Celebration Walk” for families, school staff, gardeners, TreePeople, the Los Angeles Urban Forestry Equity Collective, local arborists, city forestry staff, landscapers, and tree-planting groups. Children guide guests to sunny, shady, and newly planted areas, then point out healthy tree parts, what trees need, and where more canopy could cool the school. Guests view the class mural, before-and-after tree map, cooler-schoolyard model, observation drawings, and leaf or bark rubbings. End with simple partner feedback and a thumbs-up, sideways, or down reflection about the planting and celebration.
