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Each UNIT STUDY includes suggestions of books to READ, ideas to WRITE, crafts to CREATE, more to EXPLORE, snacks to ENJOY and other ways to LEARN about a specific topic!
This is part of a series, THE 12 DAYS OF WINTER UNIT STUDIES. For a thorough explanation of UNIT STUDIES {what they are and what they include} check out THE 12 DAYS OF WINTER UNIT STUDIES. You’ll also find a schedule of when each new UNIT PACK will go live!
Day Five: EVERGREEN TREES
I was raised always having a REAL Christmas TREE. The house I grew up in had a sunken living room and cathedral ceilings that could accommodate a really big TREE. And, my mom took full advantage of that fact. Every year, we picked out the tallest, widest TREE we could find. And by “we” I mean my brother, mom and me. My dad, bless his heart, just sat back and let us pick it out while he tried to figure out the best way to bring the massive thing home and set it up. One year, he had to use ropes attached to the railing in order to keep it standing. And, it still fell over twice during Bible Study! Another year, my mom ended up in the ER because as we were all trying to drag the TREE beast in, she managed to rip off one of her entire fingernails….all the way down to the bed. The easiest year was when my poor dad was in the hospital with an un-TREE–related compound fracture and my mom and I had to hire a service to deliver and set up the tree. I was in college by that time and it still boggles my mind why we waited that long to outsource that process. I guess, if we had though, I wouldn’t have such “fond” memories of our annual Christmas TREE.
No matter if your family puts up a fake or real Christmas TREE {or no TREE at all,} EVERGREEN TREES are probably something that your kids associate with the winter months. So, I thought it would be fun to put together a UNIT STUDY on EVERGREEN TREES!
READ: There are so many sweet fictional books about TREES for Christmas that it was hard to choose my favorite. But, I did manage to narrow it down and select The Little Fir Tree by Margaret Wise Brown. If you’re not familiar with the book, you should be! It’s written by the same author as Goodnight Moon and it’s just as sweet. Like many Christmas stories, this one has a sad situation with a sick little boy, but thankfully it has a happy ending! There are a couple of helpful pages found in the FREE mini Book Companion Pack too.
WRITE: Another of my favorite fiction books about TREES is the Littlest Christmas Tree by R.A. Herman. It’s a bit similar to the book above in the sense that it tries to express the desire of the TREE to be something more. But this story is much shorter and includes a myriad of little animal families and no people. It also has a happy ending, yay! After reading it, your kids can complete one of these two writing activities. Both are found in the FREE Writing Activities Pack: Winter Unit Studies.
{NOTE: If you downloaded the Writing Activities Pack: Winter Unit Studies previous to 12-07-20, you’ll need to download it again to find the most current version.}
CREATE: This MAKE YOUR OWN LITTLE FIR TREE by Emma Owl goes along with The Little Fir Tree and uses only green paper, glue, glitter glue and whatever little baubly things you want to add. It’s super simple!
Another cute TREE craft is this PAPER STRIP FIR TREE by Krokotak which only needs different colored paper, a piece of cardboard for the base and a glue stick. That’s it! And, somehow, even with just those supplies, your kid can create a tree that looks rather artsy, as opposed to the crafty one above! And you can make them all different sizes and shapes if you want to create an entire forest of EVERGREEN TREES.
In case you have a real artist on your hands, here is a much more complicated option: FOLDING FIR TREES. This looks like a wee bit of a nightmare to me but I’m sure some kids would find it fun! And they do look rather cool…..
ENJOY: Other than TREE cut-out cookies, I was not overly hopeful that I would find any cute EVERGREEN TREE snacks. But, look at how cute these are! And soooooooooooooooooooo simple! And, there are a couple of options. THIS one uses snap peas and THIS one uses apple slices! Both use a few pretzel sticks and a piece of cheese so they are also nice and healthy!
EXPLORE: While your kids enjoy their cute EVERGREEN TREE snacks, let them chill to this movie Archie and Zooey’s Cool Facts: Christmas Trees. It’s brand new {released December 1, 2020} and available on Amazon Prime but my library also had it available.
Or there is Albert, an animated movie about a little TREE who goes on a road trip. It’s from Nickelodeon and available on CBS All Access.
Or, head over to You Tube and let them watch this animated retelling of Hans Christian Andersen’s The Fir Tree.
LEARN: Believe it or not, it was rather hard to find a selection of children’s non-fiction books on EVERGREEN TREES. And, as amazing as my public library is, they had NOTHING so I had to order From Cone to Pine Tree by Emma Carlson Berne on Amazon. It ended being worth it, though, because I learned soooooooooooooooooooooo much! Call me clueless, but I had NO IDEA that there are male and female pinecones! None. So, this little gem provided quite the education for me! There are a few pages to accompany this book in the FREE mini BOOK COMPANION PACK {non-fiction}.
The WINTER-THEMED INFORMATIONAL TEXT and WRITING PROMPTS PACK includes a few pages on the subject. It’s not free but you can grab it for FREE with code 12DAYSofWINTERWOLFe.
And, one more fun way to expand learning is this SONG LITERACY PACK. It’s a fun way to learn the classic Christmas carol, O Christmas Tree while working on literacy skills. It’s not free but if you use discount code FreeTreeWOLFe, you’ll pay nothing!
READ MORE: Below are a few more ideas for continuing your UNIT STUDY on EVERGREEN TREES.
Check out the entire series,
12 Days of Winter Unit Studies!
READ~WRITE~CREATE~EXPLORE~ENJOY~LEARN!
I hope this EVERGREEN TREES UNIT STUDY gave you at least a few ideas about how to weave in some education this holiday season!
Be sure to check out the other UNIT STUDIES as they go live. You can find the full schedule, along with the rest of the Homeschooling Fun Through the Holidays Series, HERE!
Next up: HIBERNATION
Much appreciation goes out to my good friend, Jamie Spear! She helped me find these fun books, crafts, snacks and more! Without her, these UNIT STUDIES would have nothing but “read this, print that, and write something!” You can find her on FaceBook, Instagram and Pinterest.
[…] come on the scene! Zetta! This is a sweet, little book written in the same spirit as many of the EVERGREEN TREE books…she just wants to be loved and appreciated by somebody this Christmas season. But, the […]