In this activity, students sharpen their math skills by comparing their local trees to the world’s tallest tree, the coast redwood, and to the tree with the largest seeds, the coconut palm.
This is one of 96 activities that can be found in PLT’s PreK-8 Environmental Education Activity Guide. To get the activity, attend a training either in person or online and receive PLT’s PreK-8 Guide. Below are some supporting resources for this activity.
Download the copyright-free student pages that are included with this activity:
Tale of Two Trees (PDF)
Giant Comparisons (PDF)
French: Conte de Deux Arbres (PDF)
French: Comparaisons Géantes (PDF)
Spanish Student Page(s):
Cuento de Dos Arboles (PDF)
Comparacion de Gigantes (PDF)
Expand your students’ learning and imaginations. Help students meet their reading goals, while building upon concepts learned in this activity, with the following children’s book recommendations:
The following tools and resources may be used to enhance the activity.
Michigan State University Department of Forestry Forest Carbon and Climate Program (FCCP) has produced a Tree Measurement Video Series. This collection of free educational videos demonstrates various tree measurements and how to convert these field measurements into carbon measurements.
A free app that can be downloaded onto Apple devices (SmartMeasure for Android). EasyMeasure uses the height of the camera lens and its tilt angle to calculate the distance to objects of your choice. Simply aim your mobile device at any object, and this app displays the distance towards that object on top of the camera image. Upgrades can be used to also calculate object height.
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