If you are a kid reading this you have an advantage over adults in the ability to use your imagination. If you are an adult get ready to dust off your imagination and have some fun! Long ago when Europeans landed on American soil, explorers who were also naturalist found a lot of different plant and animal life they had never seen before. I want you to pretend you are from another country and the year is in the 1600 or 1700s. No google, and very few books on new species were available. I want you to find a tree and name it. You can name it Pretty, George, Pancake, whatever you want. I will call mine Gloria.  We are going to figure out how we would be able to find more Gloria trees, with the information we take from this first tree using the 5w's  and an H. Who, what, where, when, why and how.

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Who: well we know it is Gloria, that is a good start!

What: it is a tree.

Where: Where did you find this tree?  A park? Your backyard? In a wilderness area? What other type of plants are around that tree? Other small trees? Grasses? Flowers? Water?

When: Here is were you should put the date and where you are. You can also put the temperature and if it is sunny, cloudy, rainy.

Why: Why does it  grow here? Are there more trees that look this one? Is this tree all by itself? Why do you think that is?

How: Here is where you can make a lot of drawings about your observations. How does it grow? Start from the bottom, are the roots exposed? What do they look like and how do they grow?  How tall is the tree? How wide is the crown (this is the fancy science term for the bushy leafy part up top)? What does the bark look like? Is it smooth, or rough and what color is it?  What do the leaves look like? Feel free to trace one to show how big it is, and what color is is? Doe sit have, flowers or maybe seeds, acorns, or berries? Does it have any nests in it? If not what not? If you were a bird, squirrel, or other tree dwelling species why do you think this would be a good, or not so good place to live?

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ZOOM IN zoom out

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Here is where you can fill your journal page with all sizes of an observation! Pick something you find interesting, lets say a  plant here is what we do:

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  1. Zoom out.  Draw the  whole plant  and you standing next to it. Does the plant come up to you knee? Your                  shoulder?   Over your head?

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  2. Now use binocular eyes to zoom in on one or two parts of the plant. Leaves? Flowers? Fruit? What ever works for you.

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   3. Make sure to make observations about texture, color and smell. Remember to use the prompts, I notice, I           wonder and it reminds me of.

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