National Arbor Day is usually the last Friday in April, but trees can be celebrated at any time.  Plant a tree as a way to get children interested.  This can become a living memorial for your family or school.  Children can get invested in the process at any age; many people like to go out and cut down evergreen trees for the holidays, but consider buying a live tree and planting it each year along a border as a living remembrance of time spent together with loved ones.  The most majestic of plants are trees, and they include the largest of all living things.  Think about the benefits of trees.

1. Tree leaves act as filters which help remove dust, fumes and odors from the atmosphere.
2. Trees produce oxygen and take up carbon dioxide gas (CO2) during photosynthesis.  CO2 is a major contributor to global warming, because it holds heat in our atmosphere.
3. Trees can save energy.  Planted on the south side of a home shade trees reduce summer temperatures and lowers the need for air conditioning.  Evergreen windbreaks planted on the north side of a house protect it from winter winds and reduces heating demands.
4. Trees provide food and shelter for wildlife, and their roots hold soil in place, preventing erosion by rain and wind.

Infants: Try to take infants outside every day. Have them lay on a blanket under a shade tree.  Talk about what the child is seeing; like the yellow sunshine, the red birds, and the green trees.  Sing songs and nursery rhymes including Little Miss Muffet from my book Teaching with Heart…

Toddlers: Trees provide a great play area for toddlers, including cover for hiding games like hide and seek, and shade for playing and climbing.  In Asia children are taught to respect trees because they believe in reincarnation and it might be someone’s long lost relative.  Encourage children to “hug a tree,” and thank it for all it does for us.

Preschoolers:  There are two kinds of trees, deciduous trees which lose their leaves in the wintertime, and usually grow to be large shade trees like Oak and Maple, and there are evergreen trees which keep their tough, small and narrow needle like leaves throughout the year.  These evergreens are sometimes called conifers which don’t produce flowers, but carry their seeds in a cone (pinecones).  The Sequoia evergreens in California stand 272 feet high and weigh over 2,000 tons.  The Giant Redwoods stand 362 feet and are at least 3,000 years old.  Take a field trip to a botanical garden, local park or arboretum (A place for studying and exhibiting trees and shrubs for educational and scientific purposes.)  Have children adopt a tree.  Take pictures of a deciduous tree in different seasons.  Start with Summer when it is in full blossom; Fall when the leaves start changing color and begin to fall; Winter when all the leaves are gone, and Spring when it starts to bud and leaves start to grow again.

One generation plants the trees, and another gets the shade. (Chinese Proverb)