HOW IT WORKS
Early in September, students introduce themselves and explore who they are as individuals and as members of a classroom community. They use graphic organizers to compare and contrast themselves to classmates and teachers. This frames the first theme of the social studies curriculum (“Myself and Others”) and provides a springboard into science. As they discuss similarities, students find that they are all living! This view then broadens to plants and animals. In journals, they observe and describe the changes occurring in plants and animals right in the schoolyard. They collect and examine seeds, leaves, and bark from trees. They design a bulletin board depicting each student as a seed, and make predictions (in booklets, drawings, and writings) about how planted seeds will grow and change during the year and beyond. Digital portraits are taken and incorporated onto the board. Seed-germination activities give hands-on experience.

Next, Lois Ehlert’s Red Leaf, Yellow Leaf illustrates the life cycle of a plant via literature. The leaf collection is used to research the names of local trees using guides in the science center. Children also gather around the computer in small groups to use the Internet for information about trees. This transitions into a math lesson focusing on shapes to sort and identify leaves. Students learn the common names of at least three local trees and teach them to family members. Autumn leaf collecting is used to create leaf-print shirts with red, orange, and brown acrylic paint. Children print the word “fall” or “autumn” on their shirts using alphabet letter sponges and wear them on a trip to the Brooklyn Botanic Garden. They learn the Raffi song “Roots and Shoots Everywhere,” which says that children are the “roots and shoots” of our world, and dance to it after making costumes using leaf-printing techniques and oversized t-shirts. A springtime trip to Central Park illustrates the relationships between living and non-living things in the environment (Urban Park Ranger Ecology Program). Throughout the year, activities are documented and become a Microsoft Power-Point presentation titled Schoolyard Trees and Me! 

THE STUDENTS
The participants were twenty-five enthusiastic bilingual multicultural kindergarten students at P.S. 20 in the Lower East Side of Manhattan. This program can easily adapt to all grade levels. Younger children will require more guidance and assistance with tools and supplies.

THE STAFF
Aurora Olivieri is in her sixth year of teaching elementary school. She has a Master’s Degree in Education and a Bachelor of Science degree in Biology. She was recently awarded a Local Learning Fellowship from City Lore. Elizabeth Dickerson, a paraprofessional who works with her, has fifteen years of experience and has taught dance and cheerleading in after-school programs for the past seven years. She also tutors students using a variety of computer programs designed to advance reading ability.

WHAT YOU NEED
To complete this program you need a computer, a digital camera to document the children’s activities, tree identification books, T-shirts, acrylic non-toxic fabric paint, sponge alphabet letters, the “Let’s Play” CD by Raffi, a CD and cassette player with headphones, and classroom literature about seeds, trees, and the ecology.

OVERALL VALUE
Schoolyard Trees and Me! enables children to attain valuable concepts that embrace many curricular areas. Students see themselves as part of the scheme of the living world and gain pride by teaching others. Throughout the year, learning is a community activity, so the children grew socially and intellectually.