Children don’t learn trees from field guides. They learn by touching bark, collecting seeds, watching squirrels, and wondering why that leaf is shaped that way.

The goal isn’t to make kids memorize species names. It’s to make them notice trees—to look up when they walk outside, to see differences between one tree and another, to understand that these big plants are doing things all the time.

Here are activities that work.

Observation Activities

The Five-Sense Tree Walk

Pick a tree in your yard or neighborhood. Explore it using all five senses:

See: What color is the bark? The leaves? Are there flowers, fruits, or seeds? How tall is it compared to buildings or other trees?

Touch: Feel the bark. Is it smooth or rough? Bumpy or flat? Feel a leaf. Is it thick or thin? Waxy or fuzzy?

Hear: Stand quietly. Do the leaves make sounds in the breeze? Are there birds or insects in the tree?

Smell: Crush a leaf or a piece of bark. Does it have a scent? Some trees (like sassafras or eucalyptus) smell distinctive. Pine sap smells like Christmas.

Taste (carefully): This one’s limited. Never taste anything you’re not certain is safe. But if you know you have a maple, you can taste a drop of sap. If you have mulberries, taste one.

This activity works because it’s not about right answers. There’s no way to fail. Whatever the child notices is correct.

Tree Detectives

Turn identification into a mystery game.

Give kids a “case file” with clues:

“The suspect has leaves with five points”
“The suspect has gray bark with deep cracks”
“The suspect has seeds that spin like helicopters”

Have them search for the matching tree. For younger kids, make the clues easier (“Find a tree with red leaves”). For older kids, add complexity (“Find a tree with compound leaves and thorns”).

This teaches observation without feeling like a lesson.

The Same Tree, Different Days

Adopt a tree near your home and visit it regularly. Keep a journal with:

Date
Weather
What the tree looks like
Anything new (buds, flowers, fruits, color changes, fallen leaves)
Any animals using the tree

Do this across seasons. Kids will see buds swell in spring, flowers appear, leaves mature, colors change, and leaves fall. A year of observations teaches more about trees than any book.

Photograph the same view on each visit. At year’s end, arrange photos in sequence. The transformation is dramatic.

Hands-On Activities

Leaf Rubbings

Materials: Paper, crayons (peeled), fresh leaves

Place a leaf under paper, vein-side up. Rub the crayon across the paper. The leaf’s shape and vein pattern appear.

Try different leaves on the same paper for a comparison sheet. Rubbings make good labels for collections—“Oak” with a rubbing of an oak leaf.

This works because the result is immediate and the technique is simple enough for very young children.

Bark Rubbings

Same technique, different subject. Hold paper against bark and rub with the side of a crayon.

Different trees produce strikingly different patterns. Compare a smooth beech trunk to a deeply furrowed oak. Compare shaggy hickory to papery birch.

Bark rubbings can identify trees on their own. A collection of rubbings becomes a tree fingerprint gallery.

Seed Hunts

In fall, go on a seed hunt. How many different types of tree seeds can you find?

Look for:

Acorns (oaks)
Samaras (maple “helicopters”)
Winged seeds (ash, tulip tree)
Nuts (hickory, walnut)
Berries (holly, dogwood)
Cones (pine, spruce)
Pods (locust, catalpa)

Collect samples (only from the ground—don’t pick from trees). Try to identify which tree each came from. Discuss why seeds look different—some fly, some get eaten by animals, some just fall.

Sprouting Seeds

Collect acorns, maple seeds, or other tree seeds in fall. Store them cold over winter (in the refrigerator or outside in a protected container).

In spring, plant them in pots. Not all will sprout, but some will. Watching a tree begin from a seed creates connection that reading about it can’t match.

Label the pots and track progress. If seedlings survive, they can be planted outdoors. “I grew this tree from a seed” is a memory that lasts.

Measurement Activities

How Tall Is That Tree?

Several methods work, from simple to precise:

The stick method: Find a stick as long as your arm. Hold it vertically at arm’s length. Walk toward or away from the tree until the stick appears the same height as the tree. The distance from you to the tree roughly equals the tree’s height.

The shadow method: On a sunny day, measure your own shadow and your height. Measure the tree’s shadow. If you’re 4 feet tall and your shadow is 6 feet, and the tree’s shadow is 60 feet, the tree is about 40 feet tall.

The clinometer method (for older kids): Make a clinometer from a protractor and string with a weight. Measure the angle to the top of the tree from a known distance. Use trigonometry to calculate height.

How Old Is That Tree?

The growth ring method requires a cut stump or core sample, which we won’t have. But we can estimate:

Circumference method: Measure around the trunk at chest height (about 4.5 feet up). Many trees add about one inch of circumference per year in good conditions. A 50-inch circumference suggests roughly 50 years.

This is approximate—fast-growing trees like poplars grow more; slow-growing trees like oaks less. But it gives kids a sense of scale. A hundred-year-old tree was there when great-grandparents were children.

Measuring Leaves

Collect leaves from several trees. Measure:

Length
Width
Number of lobes (if any)
Number of leaflets (if compound)

Make a chart comparing measurements. Which tree has the biggest leaves? The smallest? The most lobes?

This teaches measuring skills while reinforcing that trees differ in consistent, observable ways.

Crafts and Collections

Leaf Press

Materials: Heavy books or a plant press, newspaper or blotter paper

Collect leaves. Place between sheets of paper. Stack heavy books on top. Wait two weeks.

Pressed leaves can be:

Mounted in a nature journal
Framed as art
Used to make cards
Compared side by side for identification practice

Label each leaf with the tree name, date, and location.

Twig Collection

In winter, when leaves are gone, collect twigs from different trees. Compare:

Bud size and shape
Bud color
Twig thickness
Bark texture on young wood

Mount twigs on cardboard with labels. This becomes a winter identification key.

Nature Journal

Provide a blank notebook for recording tree observations:

Sketches (doesn’t have to be artistic—diagrams work)
Leaf rubbings
Notes about what was seen
Questions about things noticed

The journal becomes personal. A child who keeps one starts seeing trees differently because they’re always looking for something to record.

Games

Tree Bingo

Make bingo cards with tree features:

“Red leaves”
“Peeling bark”
“Seeds with wings”
“Tree with a hollow”
“Needles in bundles”
“Smooth gray bark”

Walk through a park or forest. Mark squares when you find matching features. First to complete a row wins.

Tree Charades

Kids act out tree characteristics while others guess:

A willow (drooping arms)
Leaves falling in autumn
A seed spinning down
Wind blowing through branches
A woodpecker drumming

Name That Tree

Play 20 questions with trees. One person thinks of a tree; others ask yes/no questions to identify it.

This requires kids to think about what distinguishes one tree from another—exactly the thinking needed for identification.

Using the Tree Identifier App

The app works well with kids:

Photo hunts: Challenge kids to get the best photo for identification. What makes a good photo? (Close-up, good light, clear features.) Let them review and improve their technique.

Confirmation checks: When kids think they’ve identified a tree, photograph it to check. The app provides immediate feedback.

Discovery mode: Use the app to identify unfamiliar trees, then research that species together. What does the wood get used for? Do animals eat the fruits? How long does it live?

Collection building: Some versions allow saving identified trees. Building a personal collection motivates continued exploration.

The goal is always engagement, not memorization. A kid who looks at trees with curiosity has learned more than one who can recite species names without caring about what they mean.

Teaching Kids About Trees: Fun Activities