The beauty of unit studies is the ability to combine multiple subjects. This famous and historic trees fun study combines nature, history, and geography. Also, look at my other Lapbooks Ideas and my page Best Homeschool Unit Studies. Add in some art and music and it’s a memorable unit study.
So today, I rounded up some fun resources for creating a famous and historic trees nature and history unit study.
First, look at this book we fell in love with which gave us the kick start to our ideas.
Celebritrees Historic & Famous Trees of the World states it’s for grades 2 to 4, but this idea can be used for a super great unit study for multiple ages.
Besides, the history and legend of the famous trees in the book gives plenty of chance for a deep unit study.
Next, add in some of these fun books.
9 Tree Books & Resources for Kids Who Love Reading and Being Read To
You'll love using one of these books as a science reference or to use for art to inspire life science lessons.
Some trees have lived many lifetimes, standing as silent witnesses to history. Some are remarkable for their age and stature; others for their usefulness. A bristlecone pine tree in California has outlived man by almost 4,000 years; a baobab tree in Australia served as a prison for Aboriginal prisoners at the turn of the twentieth century; and a major oak in England was used as a hiding place for Robin Hood and his men (or so the story goes…).
The fourteen trees in this book have earned the title "Celebritrees" for their global fame and significance. Both in fact and in legend, these fascinating trees remind us not only how much pleasure trees bring, but what they can tell us about history.
Spectacular illustrations rendered in oil paint, and a rhyming text that describes a tree’s activities from its roots to its branches, introduce young readers to the amazing activities that go on in a tree. Acorns nibbled by chipmunks, ants scurrying across a trunk, a spider spinning a web, leaves “breathing out air for all to breathe in”—everything adds up to a “busy tree” for all to “come and see.”
This is a fantastic reference book to have on hand for tree studies.
It has great illustrations and covers everything from how a tree “eats and drinks” to types of trees, seeds, how they change in the seasons, why we need them and more
Acclaimed illustrator Julia Rothman combines art and science in this exciting and educational guide to the structure, function, and personality of the natural world.
An introduction to the world of insects, caterpillars, and butterflies including identification information, educational activities, and fun facts.Invites young naturalists to spot wildlife.
Tree Full of Wonder is a vibrant, rhyming, educational and unique picture book showing the unbreakable bond between people and trees. For children ages 3-8. Kids will fall in love with nature and will become Protectors of the Trees.
From the highest branch and leaf down to the complex “wood wide web” of roots, it’s no wonder every part of a tree plays an important role in its own growth and the habitat of the whole forest or woodland. The Magic & Mystery of Trees is a nature book that takes children on a fascinating journey of exploration, showing them just how special these mighty organisms are.
Learn and Play: These figurines provide a fun and educational way to learn about different tree species, promoting environmental awareness and appreciation.
Bringing the world of TREES to your fingertips, FANDEX presents a foolproof field guide. Four visual keys--die-cut leaf, bark pattern, flower, nut or seed, and photo of the full tree--plus descriptions of habitat and more combine to give a complete picture of North America's forest and backyard trees.
In addition, TREES is a cultural history--of the mighty White Oak, California Redwood, Aillanthus, the tree that grows in Brooklyn, and the stately White Ash, as important for the bows of early Native Americans as for the baseball bats of today.
Also, there are plenty of books about the nature of trees and science and even poetry, but we loved learning about the famous trees of the world.
Famous and Historic Trees
Although the book only lists 14 famous and historic trees of the world, you could easily add other features to the search besides the oldest, tallest, or biggest trunk.
Science of Trees
Next, add in a bit of science. How are trees defined? Look below at some of their characteristics.
| Trees usually have a single stem, or trunk. | Trees are woody plants. |
| Trees are at least 15 feet tall. | Trees have a branched-out top called a crown. |
Moreover ,trees clean the air, give shade, cool our house, conserve energy and attract songbirds. Also, trees reduce erosion and conserve energy.
MORE TREE CRAFTS
Furthermore, look at the information on the historic trees.
Learning about the Methuselah Tree
The Methuselah Tree has lived more than 4,600 years. It is a Bristlecone Pine and it’s located in California.
- About the Ancient Bristle Cone Pine
- Read about the Bristle Cone Pine here
- Learn about California history here
Moon Trees
Stuart Roosa was a former U.S. Forest Service worker who orbited in the command module of the Apollo 14 in 1971. He conducted scientific experiments in lunar orbit.
He put hundreds of tree seeds in a packet and took with him to space.
When he got back to earth, the seeds were germinated and are known as “moon trees” and are found all over the U.S. and the world.
Famous Scythe Tree
This next tree is in Waterloo, New York and the Balm-of-Gilead stands as living monument to a young soldier that went off to fight in the American Civil War.
Prison Boab Famous Tree
Another tree is the Prison Boab which is located in Australia.
It is a Baobab tree. It has many names. One is the Upside-Down Tree because it’s branches look like roots and it’s also just named Boab.
The Tule Tree
El Árbol del Tule (The Tule Tree) is located in Santa María del Tule, Mexico.
It is a Montezuma Cypress and it’s estimated to be 1,400 years old.
- Read about the Taxodium mucronatum tree here
- Mexico geography
- Mexico Lapbook
- Learn some facts about Mexico from National Geographic
- Mexico Unit Study and Make a Fun Easy Floral Headband
Chapel Oak Famous Tree
Another famous tree is the the Chapel Oak which is located in Allouville-Bellefosse, France.
It is a huge oak with two chapels inside and a spiral staircase and looks like something out of a fairy tale.
It is one of the biggest and oldest trees in France.
- Read about the Le Chêne Chapelle (The Chapel Oak)
- The Peculiar Chapel Of Allouville-Bellefosse
- Look at this France Unit Study
Ficus Religiosa or The Bodhi Tree
This is a kind of fig tree in Anuradhapura, Sri Lanka which is sacred to the Buddhists. They believe Buddha gained “bodhi” or enlightenment while sitting under it and meditating.
- You can read about the fig tree here.
- Geography for Kids about Sri Lanka
The Famous and Historic General Sherman Tree
In the Sequoia National Park in California is the General Sherman or a giant sequoia.
The giant sequoias are very special because they are among the oldest and largest living things on earth
. The General Sherman Tree, found in Sequoia National Park, is the largest living thing on earth.
It is 274.9 feet tall, has a circumference (4.5 ft. above the base) of 83.2 feet, a base circumference of 102.6 feet, and a volume of nearly 58,000 cubic feet.
- The largest trees in the world
- The Giant Sequoia curriculum pdf
MORE Famous and Historic Trees of the World
There are other trees to read about like
- Anne Frank’s Chestnut Tree
- Isaac Newton’s Apple Tree (Woolsthorpe, England)
- Dueling Oaks in New Orleans, Louisiana
- The Major Oak, Sherwood Forest, England
- and the Emancipation Oak (Hampton, Virginia).
Study Tree Art
Add some beautiful art to your study about historic trees. Read about Joseph Farrington and his The Oak Tree. Read about Paul Cezanne and his Forest art.
Also read about Georges Seurat and The Morning Walk.
Also, look at Hands-On Literature Nature Study: Simple Tree Craft.
Tree Poetry
Learning and memorizing poetry about trees could also be copywork or to make nature journals.
Loveliest of Trees, The Cherry Now by A. E. Housman
Loveliest of trees, the cherry now
Is hung with bloom along the bough,
And stands about the woodland ride
Wearing white for Eastertide.
Now, of my threescore years and ten,
Twenty will not come again,
And take from seventy springs a score,
It only leaves me fifty more.
And since to look at things in bloom
Fifty springs are little room,
About the woodlands I will go
To see the cherry hung with snow.
Binsey Poplars by Gerard Manley Hopkins
My aspens dear, whose airy cages quelled,
Quelled or quenched in leaves the leaping sun,
All felled, felled, are all felled;
Of a fresh and following folded rank
Not spared, not one
That dandled a sandalled
Shadow that swam or sank
On meadow and river and wind-wandering weed-winding bank.
O if we but knew what we do
When we delve or hew—
Hack and rack the growing green!
Since country is so tender
To touch, her being só slender,
That, like this sleek and seeing ball
But a prick will make no eye at all,
Where we, even where we mean
To mend her we end her,
When we hew or delve:
After-comers cannot guess the beauty been.
Ten or twelve, only ten or twelve
Strokes of havoc únselve
The sweet especial scene,
Rural scene, a rural scene,
Sweet especial rural scene.
The Way through the Woods by Rudyard Kipling
They shut the road through the woods
Seventy years ago.
Weather and rain have undone it again,
And now you would never know
There was once a road through the woods
Before they planted the trees.
It is underneath the coppice and heath,
And the thin anemones.
Only the keeper sees
That, where the ring-dove broods,
And the badgers roll at ease,
There was once a road through the woods.
Yet, if you enter the woods
Of a summer evening late,
When the night-air cools on the trout-ringed pools
Where the otter whistles his mate,
(They fear not men in the woods,
Because they see so few.)
You will hear the beat of a horse’s feet,
And the swish of a skirt in the dew,
Steadily cantering through
The misty solitudes,
As though they perfectly knew
The old lost road through the woods.
But there is no road through the woods.
Famous and Historic Trees of the World Lapbook
Too, I’ve created this fun famous and historic trees lapbook to use with this fun unit study.
Awesome features of my lapbooks.
- Aimed at elementary to high school.
- This is a .pdf instant downloadable product and not a physical product.
- You are paying for the printables, the lapbook.
- My lapbooks are created for multiple ages. I aimed for elementary to high school for this lapbook. One of my reasons for aiming this lapbook for the upper grades is that I use a cursive font for the minibooks filled in with information.
- Most of the minibooks have facts which accompany the minibook and a lot of the minibook are offered two ways. One way where your child uses the facts already provided by the minibook filled in and another way where your child can add his own research and not use the inside pages. Blank pages are provided for your student’s research.
- You can use any reference materials, books, or online resources to complete the lapbook.
- I don’t provide links in the lapbooks for filling out the information. This keeps my prices low for my products, but I do try to provide free links on my site as I can.
- Because I have been a working homeschool mom for more of my journey than not, I need flexibility for using lapbooks. Proving a few facts from the main resource I use is one way I have of saving you time and giving you flexibility in how to use the minibooks.
- Too, some of your kids may be older and you want them to do more research and some of your kids may be reluctant writers so you may want to mix and match pre-filled minibooks with blank minibooks. Flexibility is the key to my lapbooks.
MY GUARANTEE: To treat you like I want to be treated which means I know at times technical problems may cause glitches, so I will do everything possible to make your experience here pleasant. I value your business and value you as a follower. I stand behind my products because they are actual products I use and benefit from too. Though I cannot refund purchases after you have been given access to them, I will do what I can to be sure you are a pleased customer. Read carefully what you get on your digital download. If you have questions, email me FIRST at tina homeschools AT gmail DOT com.
More Tree Facts
Also, you’ll love these resources for studying about each of these varieties of trees.
You’ll love these other studies:
