U.S. Capitol Christmas Tree Activity Collection is a downloadable, password-protected PDF for educators and community leaders that invites learners to investigate concepts related to what is a forest, how we sustain our forests, and our responsibilities towards our forests.

Activities:

• Tree Cookies: Young people explore environmental changes and sustainable forest management using a cross-section of a tree, or “tree cookie.”
• Every Tree for Itself: Young people model how trees compete to meet essential needs.
• Our Federal Forests: Young people learn how forests can be managed to meet a variety of needs by examining national parks or forestland to identify challenges that forest managers face.
• Who Works in This Forest? Young people investigate different forest sector careers to learn what it takes to perform various green jobs.

Developed by Project Learning Tree in partnership with the USDA Forest Service, the activities are designed to be flexible, the activities can be used as stand-alone lessons, or all together as a cohesive unit of instruction using a storyline technique. Visit PLT’s website at plt.org/alignment-to-standards for correlations between PLT activities and your state’s academic standards, NGSS, and Common Core, as well as scouts, 4-H, and other nonformal programs.

About PLT’s Activity Collections

U.S. Capitol Christmas Tree is one in a series of PLT activity collections. Other titles in this themed series for educators are Together for Birds for grades K-2, Sensational Trees for grades K-2, Biodiversity Blitz for grades 3-5, Connecting for Health and Planet for grades 3-5, Trillion of Trees for grades 3-5, Nature of Fire for grades 6-8 and Discover Your Urban Forest for grades 6-8. PLT’s practical, hands-on activities for teachers and nonformal educators, youth group leaders and home schoolers connect youth to nature and the outdoors. Each activity includes background information, preparation instructions, material and time requirements, step-by-step instructions, and assessment suggestions. Our fun and multi-disciplinary activities appeal to a broad range of learners, including students with diverse learning styles and cultural backgrounds. The activities incorporate STEM, reading, writing, and social studies, and teach students how to think, not what to think about environmental issues for developing students’ critical thinking and problem-solving skills.

PLT Professional Development

Did you know? PLT also offers online, blended, and in-person professional development tailored for specific grade levels, academic standards, environmental topics, and formal and nonformal teaching situations. Consistently rated as one of the best professional development events they have ever experienced, most educators attend a PLT training because they were recommended to it by a colleague. Learn more at www.plt.org/trainings/attend-a-training.

If you are a teacher, librarian, or administrator looking to place an order with a purchase order, please contact PLT at PLT@forests.org.