Etikett: Environment

Tree Bark and Leaf Tracing

Publicerat i Biology, Experiments at Home, Experiments/practicals for science lessons, NatureMärkt , , , , Lämna en kommentar

Collecting and pressing leaves from different trees is a popular autumn activity. It is a great way to help children learn about different types of trees. This activity takes the idea one step further by encouraging children to explore and compare the bark of different trees too.

Here is what you need:

  1. Wax crayons
  2. White paper
  3. Tape
  4. A few different types of trees to investigate in a nearby forest or park

What to do:

  1. Find an area with between three and six different types of trees to explore.
  2. Choose one tree to investigate first.
  3. Look closely at the tree’s bark. Is it smooth or rough? Does it have lots of cracks? Older children can write down what they notice.
  4. Hold a piece of paper firmly against the tree trunk with one hand. Use a wax crayon to colour over the paper and make a rubbing of the bark. Leave enough empty space on the paper to make a rubbing of a leaf later. It may be easier to work in pairs. One child can hold the paper against the tree while the other makes the rubbing.
  5. Write the name of the tree on your bark rubbing.
  6. Find a leaf from the same tree. Look carefully at it. What shape is it? What colour is it? Older children can write down what they notice.
  7. Keep the leaf safely with its bark rubbing so that you do not mix it up with leaves from other trees.
  8. Move on to the next tree. Make sure it is a different type of tree from the one you have just investigated. (My preschooler and I explored four different types of trees before they lost interest, but older children may enjoy investigating more.)
  9. Take your bark rubbings and collected leaves home with you.
  10. Once you are back inside, take out your bark rubbings and leaves.
  11. For each tree, place the leaf underneath the empty space you left on the paper.
  12. Use a wax crayon to make a rubbing of the leaf next to the bark rubbing.
  13. If you still have some empty space on the paper, you can use tape to attach the real leaf as well.
  14. Older children can compare the different types of trees they have investigated. They could share their notes and use them to complete a comparison table.

What can children learn?

I also used this activity to talk to my preschooler about the job that tree bark does. Bark protects a tree, a little like our skin protects our bodies.

We also talked about how different the bark of each type of tree can look. For example, the rowan tree had very smooth bark that almost looked like our skin. The pine tree, on the other hand, had much rougher bark with deep cracks.

My preschooler had already learned a lot about the different shapes of leaves, so I used this activity as a chance to focus more on bark. However, you can easily use the activity to explore both leaves and bark. It is a wonderful way to encourage children to look closely at the trees around them and discover how different each one can be.

Table to fill in for older children

Tree nameBark observationsLeaf observations

Wildlife Feeding Traces: What to Look For

Publicerat i Biology, Experiments at Home, Experiments/practicals for science lessons, Nature, Science Reading ExercisesMärkt , , , , , Lämna en kommentar

When taking a walk in the forest in early spring you can find many feeding traces of different animals. Join us in exploring some of them.

1 Traces left on trees

Deer, rabbits and hares all feast on the bark of trees during the winter months when grass and other plants do not grow well. But they leave different clues on trees that help us tell them apart.

Deer are quite tall, so they can reach higher parts of a tree. When deer eat, they often tear the bark with their mouths. This can leave rough, jagged edges on the tree. You might also see damage higher up, about as tall as your chest or even above your head. In addition, roe deer and red deer normally pull of strips of bark, while fallow deer are more content to nibble.

The image below shows a tree which had some of its bark most likely stripped of by a roe deer during winter. The dark colour shows that the tree has begun to heal in this part.

Rabbits and hares are much smaller than deer, so they can only reach low parts of a tree. They have very sharp front teeth, and they nibble neatly. This means the bark or twigs they eat often look cleanly cut, almost like they were snipped with tiny scissors. The damage is usually close to the ground.

This image shows the damage in the bark close to the ground which means that it may have been eaten by a rabbit or hare.

In summary, if the tree is damaged high up with rough edges, it was likely a deer. If the damage is low down with neat, tidy bites, it was probably a rabbit or a hare.

2 Traces left by wild boar

Wild boar leave very noticeable signs when they search for food in the forest.

They use their strong snouts to dig in the ground. This is called “rooting.” When they do this, they turn over the soil looking for roots, insects, worms, and bulbs. The ground can look messy, with patches of earth all churned up, almost like it has been ploughed.

You might also see small holes and uneven ground where they have been digging. Sometimes large areas are disturbed, not just one spot.

Wild boar can also leave footprints. Their tracks look a bit like a deer’s, but they are rounder and wider. If the ground is soft, you may see many of these prints together.

So, if you see torn-up soil, lots of digging marks, and hoof prints in the forest, a wild boar has probably been there looking for food.

The image below shows a small area in a forest where wild boar have rooted for food.

3 Traces left on gnawed cones

In the forest, you can often find eaten spruce cones on the ground. By looking closely, you can tell which animal has been feeding on them.

A squirrel leaves quite a tidy cone behind. It holds the cone and nibbles off the scales one by one. When it is finished, mostly the middle part, called the core, is left. Squirrels normally leave some scales at the tip of the cone where they have been holding it. The image below shows a cone left by a squirrel under a tree. You can even see some scales around it on the ground.

A wood mouse eats in a different way. It strips the cone of every last scale and only the clean core is left, which may almost just look like a stick which can be seen in the image below.

Birds like woodpeckers and nuthatches have a special way of eating cones. They often wedge the cone into a crack in the bark of a tree to hold it still. Then they peck at it to get the seeds out. The cone may look pecked and broken, with rough marks. Sometimes you can even find the place in the tree where the cone was held, called a “cone anvil.”

So, a clean, stripped core is likely from a wood mouse, a cone with scales left at the top from a squirrel and a pecked cone, often near a tree crack, from a bird like a woodpecker or nuthatch.