Earth Day Every Day: Be a Friend to Trees

None of us would be here on Earth if it wasn’t for trees.

We’ve learned about them and looked closely at them, but I also wanted to show the girls why trees are so important.

Disclosure: There are Amazon Affiliate and other affiliate links in this article which means, at no additional cost to you, we could receive compensation for our recommendations. You can read our full disclosure policy on our Disclosure Page for more details.

I found a copy of Be a Friend to Trees by Patricia Lauber at our library and it was the perfect tool to learn about the importance of trees.

While reading the book, we stopped every few pages to talk about trees.

We learned about all the things made from wood and how paper was made.

We learned about the different animals that make their homes in trees as well as the different animals that use trees for food.

We tried to see just how many animals we could think of that used trees for food. And we most certainly can’t forget ourselves. Life just wouldn’t be the same without a crunchy apple to snack on!

We also went on a scavenger hunt to see how many things we could find in our house that we made from trees.

We found our clipboard, the window frames, our coffee table, and a bookcase. And that was all before we got up to walk around! What would we do without trees!

We learned a lot from this lesson. Here are some of the things the girls took away from it:

The world is full of things made from trees.
Trees are an important source of food for many animals (and ourselves).
We need to be kind to trees and not use them all up.
One way we can conserve is to use both side of paper when drawing. (A very important point that the girls are very good about doing.)
It’s important to recycle, so we can make new things out of old things and save a few trees in the process.

The book, Be a Friend to Trees, was a helpful tool in learning about the importance of trees. But, if you don’t have access to the book, the Arbor Day Foundation has some helpful information on their Website. Get the conversation started!