Through our Biology lessons, KS1 have been investigating the differences between deciduous and evergreen trees. We went onto the school field to observe the leaves and trees closely. We also had many examples of different leaves brought into school to help us with our learning. Our findings were:
Evergreen trees have spikey, dark green and waxy leaves.-Oliver
If there are no leaves on the tree in Winter, it will be deciduous!-Kit
Is that why you see holly at Christmas? It’s evergreen and you can get it in Winter.-Pheobe
To stay safe as Scientists: we were very careful when handling spikey clippings. We also washed our hands after touching them.
We wanted to gather and record simple data, so we took our tree classification sheet and set out onto the field again (hooray for the dry grass!)
We can identify the tree by looking at it’s leaves. The children were thrilled to independently identify the young horse chestnut trees. We are hoping to harvest conkers from them next Autumn. The limiting factor was that our classification sheet only had 9 different types of trees on it. These Scientists wanted to accurately name every tree and every bush.
Help at home: could you help your child to identify the trees, bushes and plants in your garden or local area? The woodland trust is a good place to start. It has an A-Z of British Trees.