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homeschool geography

Famous and Historic Trees Fun Nature and History Homeschool Unit Study

February 27, 2021 | 4 Comments
This post may contain affiliate links. For more information, please see my full disclosure policy.

The beauty of unit studies is the ability to combine multiple subjects. This famous and historic trees fun study combines nature, history, and geography. Add in some art and music and it’s a memorable unit study.

Famous and Historic Trees

So today, I rounded up some fun resources for creating a famous and historic trees nature and history unit study.

Famous and Historic Trees Fun Nature and History Homeschool Unit Study

First, look at this book we fell in love with which gave us us the kick start to our ideas.

Celebritrees Historic & Famous Trees of the World states its 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.

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.

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.

Trees clean the air, give shade, cool our house, conserve energy, and attract songbirds. Trees reduce erosion and conserve energy.

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.

  • Methuselah Tree Lesson Plan
  • A Bristlecone Pine Named ‘Methuselah’
  • Here is an outline map of 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.

  • Read about the Moon Trees here.
  • Where on Earth Did NASA Plant Moon Trees
  • Moon Trees Stand as Living Testaments to First Voyages to Moon
  • Making of a Moon Tree Map

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.

  • Scythe Tree
  • Read about the Story of the Scythe tree
  • New York word search
  • Here is a mini unit study too about New York.
  • Why is an Upstate NY historian trying to save a really old tree?
  • Map where some animals live in New York
  • New York Outline Map
  • Read more about the Balm of Gilead

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.

  • Derby Boab ‘Prison Tree’
  • Read here Inventing a Colonial Dark History: The Derby Boab ‘Prison’ Tree
  • Boab Trees YouTube
  • The Boab Prison Tree
  • Read The First Australians
  • Five-Day Australian Mini-Unit
  • Hands-On Geography: Australia Awesome and Deadly Animal Art

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
  • Read more about the Montezuma Baldcypress
  • Learn some facts about Mexico from National Geographic

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. It 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
  • Trees poem
  • Getting to Know France worksheet
  • The Ancient Oak Tree Chapel as Old As France Itself
  • Learn About the Geography of France by Creating A Solar Oven
  • Mighty Oaks from Little Acorns

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
  • Read here about the characteristics of the tree
  • Map of 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.

  • Read about the General Sherman here
  • 12 page lesson plan
  • Our Giant Sequoia Forests 12 page beautiful download
  • The largest trees in the world
  • The Giant Sequoia curriculum pdf

MORE Famous and Historic Trees of the World

There are other trees too 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.

The Oak Tree by Joseph Farrington
Forest by Paul Cezanne

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.

  • Dynamic Famous and Historic Trees Lapbook for Multiple Ages

    $2.75
    Add to cart
Famous and Historic Trees Fun Nature and History Homeschool Unit Study

More Tree Facts

Also, you’ll love these resources for studying about each of these varieties of trees.

  • Where do trees get their mass from YouTube
  • Parts of tree
  • Benefits of trees
  • Download tree diversity sheets with some fun fact cards
  • 680 Tree Fact Sheets

You’ll love these other studies:

  • History of the Texas Cowboy, Cattle Drives, and Chisholm Trail
  • 20 Nature-Inspired Kids’ Novels to Nurture Interest In the Outdoors
  • Above & Below: Pond Unit Study, Hands-on Ideas, & Lapbook.
  • Super Seashore Watching Unit Study and Beach Lapbook.
  • Foraging and Feasting Nature Unit Study and Lapbook.
  • Wildflowers Unit Study & Lapbook.
  • From Egg to Sea Turtle Nature Unit Study & Lapbook.
  • Colorful Winter Bird: Northern Cardinal Lapbook & Unit Study.
  • Free Arctic Ground Squirrel Lapbook & Unit Study Resources

Hugs and love ya

4 CommentsFiled Under: Geography, Geography Based, History Based, Lapbook, Lapbooks, My Unit Studies {Free Printables & Hands-on Ideas}, Nature Based Activities Tagged With: geography, hands-on activities, handsonhomeschooling, history, history resources, homeschool geography, homeschoolgeography, homeschoolscience, lapbook, lapbookresources, life science, nature, nature study, science, sciencecurriculum, trees

18+ Fun and Interactive Ways to Learn Geography With Kids

February 4, 2021 | 2 Comments
This post may contain affiliate links. For more information, please see my full disclosure policy.

Eighteen fun and interactive ways to learn geography with kids is more than learning to label a map. After all, nothing about labeling a map ever worked in enticing a kid to want to know more about the world around him.

Making geography come alive is key to making it stick. Too, some kids are craft loving, others not so much.

18+ Fun and Interactive Ways to Learn Geography With Kids

The point is having a large trunk so to speak to pull ideas out of works.

Fun and Interactive Ways to Learn Geography With Kids

Look at these 18 fun and interactive ways to learn geography with kids which work for a variety of ages.

  • 1) Unit studies are a favorite of mine. Focusing on an artist from a certain area, the food, inventions, and music can be a very comprehensive geography study. We did this with our Turkey country unit study.
  • 2) This next way is so much fun. It’s Google Lit Trips. Download Google Earth Pro for free. Look at this Google Document to see how to use it. From the site: What is a Google Lit Trip? Lit Trips are downloadable files that mark the journeys of characters from famous literature on the surface of Google Earth.
  • 3) Do a postcard exchange from friends around the world. You can do this in any of the facebook groups you’re in if it’s allowed. Kids love receiving postcards from all over the world. I allow it in my closed homeschool facebook group if you post.
  • 4) Sugar dough, peanut butter, or salt dough maps are great fun for any age. Of course you can make this an edible map. Here is our edible peanut butter dough map studying about Lewis and Clark and salt dough map while studying about Marco Polo.

Geography with Kids

Also, adding in an adventure whether you drive or take a virtual trip or two makes a difference.

  • 5) You don’t have to go far to enjoy geography. Just going out doors or to a state park where you can learn about the flora or fauna of an area is something kids love. Nature, science, and geography are subjects that fit together naturally.
  • 6) Google Earth. Just pick a place and roam the streets. Kids love this.

Another fun way to learn about other places is to use fun picture books. You’ll love this roundup.

In addition, games ( 7 to 10) are one of the BEST ways to learn geography.

Learn Geography With Kids

Where in the World Is Carmen Sandiego (11) is a great series too. The series comes in paper back, on pc, a board game if you can find one and currently is on Netflix.

The Basement Workshop Store

Another idea to make geography fun for kids is to make a travel brochure (12). You’ll love the fun one here on Crayola.

Also, host a co-op with another family or two (13).

You know kids love looking for an opportunity to get together; a mini-geography co-op is a great way to feed their need to interact while learning a useful topic.

Sharing teaching is another reason why a mini-co-op is fun. You can assign countries to each family and have them do a presentation together. This allows each child to share what he loves about geography.

As you can see kids get an added benefit of public speaking in a smaller setting. Writing is naturally incorporated and becomes fun since it’s meaningful.

Other natural ways are focusing on art(14), dressing up like the costumes of each country(15), cooking recipes is a big hit always(16), creating a cookbook for each country or state(17) and Minecraft(18).

Creating worlds in Minecraft is another fun way to create a place or even to learn about coordinates. Coordinates in Minecraft are precursor lessons to to longitude and latitude. See my post Hands-on Geography: Longitude/Latitude Mapmaking Activity

And one more fun one (19), grab a map from the dollar store and add landmarks on it, track your vacations and add to it, add rivers or other fun tidbits on it. It’s a fun keepsake too.

These are just a few ways to bring geography with kids to life. You’ll love these other posts below with great tips.

18+ Fun and Interactive Ways to Learn Geography With Kids

What do you like to do to make geography fun?

  • STEM and Geography: How to Build an Ancient Viking Ship
  • Hands-on Geography Mesopotamia: Fun Salt Dough Map
  • 100 BEST Books for Kids from all 50 States (Easy Geography)
  • 5 Ways to Raise a Natural Geography-Lover
  • Hands-On Geography Activity: Make a Pangaea Puzzle
  • Hands-On Geography: Australia Awesome and Deadly Animal Art
  • 35 Hands-on Geography Activities to do in 15 Minutes or Less
  • 5 Steps to Choosing Geography Living Books Your Children Will Love
  • First Grade Homeschool Curriculum for History and Geography
  • 3 Reasons Hands-on Geography is Important in Middle and High School Homeschool
  • Homemade Compass. Simple Geography Projects Equals Huge Wow Factors

Hugs and love ya,

2 CommentsFiled Under: Geography, Geography Based, Hands-On Activities Tagged With: geography, hands-on, hands-on activities, handsonhomeschooling, homeschool geography, homeschoolgeography

5 Ways to Raise a Natural Geography Lover Easily

January 18, 2018 | 1 Comment
This post may contain affiliate links. For more information, please see my full disclosure policy.

Kids have a natural inborn inquisitiveness for how the earth is made and the different cultures they see around them.

Somewhere between that and the first day of formal Kindergarten, they can lose their curiosity if we direct them straight to a textbook.

Raise a Natural Geography Lover

One myth I need to slay before I go on is that geography is just about labeling/coloring maps.

Although maps are a huge part of geography, unless your child is fixated on coloring at the moment, merely coloring a map will not infuse a love for learning.

Look at my tips here 11 AWESOME Ways to Learn Geography (Other Than Labeling a Map) and then look at these 5 ways to raise a natural geography-lover.

ONE.
TAKE GEOGRAPHY OUTSIDE

Geography is a subject that is best taught using the outdoors or taking it outside as you can.

There are things that you just can’t explain in a geography textbook.

How a pinecone feels, the texture of a bird’s nest carefully crafted with just a beak, and the smell of the flowers from a Southern Magnolia tree that grew in our backyard couldn’t be appreciated from a book.

Even if you don’t, like me, have a naturally formed mountain in your backyard, being outside with nature helps to pique your child’s eagerness to understand geography features.

A trip to the park to study the trees and why certain ones grow in your area helps a child to understand the geography of where he lives.

When we lived on the Texas Gulf Coast, we saw many tall reeds in our neighborhood.

Understanding how plant life was affected by our nearness to the ocean helped my sons understand the part that geography plays in plant life.

Geography and science are interlinked. Many times it’s impossible to separate the two subjects and you shouldn’t.

Look at these 7 Super Easy and Free Nature Lapbooks Guaranteed to Beat Boredom and to create a natural love for geography.

Let geography flow into science and vice versa.

Fun Geoscavenge Geology Scavenger Hunt!

Here is a fun activity to connect the two concepts. Grab this form for a Geoscavenge – A Rock and Mineral Hunt: Day 6 Hands-on Learning.

TWO.
DO GEOGRAPHY ACTIVITIES, NOT JUST READ ABOUT IT

Nothing kills curiosity more than just reading about something and not being able to experience it.

It reminds me of what my husband told me that his family would do sometimes. They would drive to a vacation spot that they waited half the year to see.

After arriving, they would only look at the mountains or whatever it is from their car, turn around, and start driving home.

I can’t even imagine the disappointment of not being able to get out and explore!

Geography should be both an academic study and a hands-on investigation.

Too, hands-on geography shouldn’t be abandoned when your child gets to the older grades.

Hands-on geography is not just for the younger grades, but we tend to skip hands-on learning in the older grades just when our children are demonstrating self-teaching and independence.

Contrary to popular myths, hands-on learning in middle and high school can be rigorous because a young teen is now learning for intrinsic value.

What does this means? It means that learning about geography becomes a natural part of his everyday life. It goes from labeling maps to making learning concrete.

Hands-on learning is paramount at each level of a child’s development and geography is no exception.

Look at Homemade Compass. Simple Geography Projects Equals Huge Wow Factors for an easy activity for older kids.

Homemade Compass - Simple Geography Project With a Wow Factor

THREE.
INCLUDE OTHERS WHEN DOING GEOGRAPHY

Although I wasn’t always eager to meet with other families to study geography because I assumed it would be stressful, my boys beamed when we did.

Not only did they love meeting with other kids, but they loved learning from another teacher. I learned several things about the way my sons learned while they interacted with another homeschool teacher mom.

Homeschool moms who teach well are gifts. Homeschool moms don’t have to teach some really deep topic, but they have a way of bringing learning alive even using the tiniest fact or activity.

For example, while learning about the people and geography of Japan, one homeschool mom and her son taught my boys how to make an origami frog that hopped.

My sons were thrilled and played with that frog for hours while reading and using the atlas about Japan.

Learning geography with others doesn’t have to be complicated. Just do it with one other family and keep it simple and stress free.

Hands-on geography with other homeschoolers equals fun!

(something about blowing up volcanoes with others just makes learning about geography fun too)

FOUR.
COOK TO LEARN ABOUT GEOGRAPHY

There is nothing more natural than having fun cooking and learning a real-life skill in the process.

Kids love to eat normally and have an adventurous spirit when it comes to trying out new foods or snacks.

In the beginning, I would cook a meal from a country, but learned that my boys had just as much fun even if it was just a snack.

Whether you have time for a full meal on the menu or time enough to prepare just a bite for a snack, your kids will remember this part of geography.

As they associate food and culture from different parts of the world, their appreciation for geography grows.

Looked at a few things we have made when studying about certain areas.

  • Make pan au chocolat when studying about France.
  • Make celtic cakes when studying ancient civilizations.
  • Make baklava when studying about Ancient Greece.
  • Make victory soup when studying about the countries of World War II.
  • Make Cherokee pan bread when studying the states in the Southeastern United States.
  • Make soups from South America.
  • Make chili when doing a state study on Texas.
  • Make negrinho when doing a study about Brazil.

FIVE.
LEARN GEOGRAPHY THROUGH ART

Another way to incorporate natural geography fun is to do art. Too, an unexpected benefit is that art can one of those subjects that is hard to get in.

When you study about a country while do art or a craft, learning sticks.

For example, when we used Geography Through Art for part of our learning it helped my boys remember about not only basic geography of the earth but about countries.
Look at this idea Hands-On Geography Activity: Make a Pangaea Puzzle which is in the book.

Hands-On Geography: Australia Awesome and Deadly Animal Art

And look at Hands-On Geography: Australia Awesome and Deadly Animal Art which is fun.

Hands-on Homeschool Geography

Teaching geography naturally doesn’t mean you have to avoid curriculum. It does mean curriculum should follow our approach not the other way around.

For years, I have used North Star Geography because it fits the way I feel geography should be done in the older grades which is hands-on. 

When I lived overseas, I grabbed the digital version because I wanted to take it with me everywhere and because the boys could keep it on their device. I printed it as we needed it.

But North Star Geography has many hands-on ideas for older kids along with a helpful teacher’s guide. We have made our own atlas using their curriculum. I know you’ll love it.

It’s so easy to fall into the trap of just teaching geography without using hands-on ideas but it also kills a child’s natural love for the world around him.

5 Ways to Raise a Natural Geography Lover Easily

You’ll love these other tips!

  • Hands-on Geography: Longitude/Latitude Mapmaking Activity
  • Edible Rock Cycle Fudge and Hands-on Rock Activities
  • 35 Hands-on Geography Activities to do in 15 Minutes or Less
  • 100 BEST Books for Kids from all 50 States (Easy Geography)
  • History of the Texas Cowboy, Cattle Drives, and Chisholm Trail
  • How to Make a Kids’ Fun Ceremonial African Tribal Mask
  • Hands-on Geography Mesopotamia: Fun Salt Dough Map

Hugs and love ya,

5 Ways to Raise a Natural Geography-Lover. Kids have a natural inborn inquisitiveness for how the earth is made and the different cultures they see around them. Teach geography naturally. Look at these 5 ways to teach geography naturally. Click here to see how!
5 Ways to Raise a Natural Geography-Lover. Kids have a natural inborn inquisitiveness for how the earth is made and the different cultures they see around them. Teach geography naturally. Look at these 5 ways to teach geography naturally. Click here to see how!

1 CommentFiled Under: Geography, Hands-On Activities Tagged With: geography, hands-on, hands-on activities, handson, handsonhomeschooling, highschoolgeography, homeschool geography, homeschoolgeography

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