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The Arbor Day Poster Activity is designed to be inclusive and flexible for many students and classroom types. Educators may host a poster activity at any time of year using one of the Arbor Day themes suggested below and have the option to share student creations on DEC's social media.
How to Participate
Host an Arbor Day Artwork Activity within your classroom, home school, afterschool program, summer camp or other educational program! This activity educates students about urban and community forestry and helps students connect with trees.
Share your student’s artwork on DEC’s social media by submitting photos of posters and completing a poster program form (PDF) to [email protected].
Below are some suggestions of rules, themes, lesson plans, and educational resources to build a tree-centered poster activity or lesson plan. Teachers are encouraged to reach out to DEC’s Urban and Community Forestry program for support with their Arbor Day poster activity.
Guidelines
The guidelines below are intended to help educators structure the activity, but we encourage participants to adjust them to best fit their classroom or program.
Materials
Any variety of media may be used (watercolor, pen and ink, crayon, chalk, markers, etc.) but bright colors are often best. If students make a collage, all items should remain secured to their artwork. Educators may decide to provide a consistent poster size to each student or provide parameters for students to follow.
Content
We suggest having students prominently display the activity theme by writing it as a title or working it into the poster design. Other ideas for structuring this activity include listing a few key facts, drawing a diagram, or some other design to show students' understanding of the activity theme. Alternatively, this could be used as an art activity to help students connect to classroom curriculum. Help students connect with trees and learn the different parts by encouraging the use of leaves, needles, twigs, cones, and bark in the poster.
Evaluation Criteria
Example criteria educators may use to evaluate posters include:
- Poster is reflective of the activity theme.
- Poster message is clearly conveyed by text and artwork.
- Poster shows creativity, originality, and artistic quality.
- Poster shows visual clarity and can be easily read.
- Words are spelled correctly, and information is accurate.
Sample Themes and Activities
The following themes and activities are only suggestions and can be used as a starting point for facilitating the tree poster activity in your classroom. We encourage educators to change and expand upon these themes to better fit your lessons and to promote urban and community forestry education.
Theme 1: Trees are Terrific in Cities and Towns
This theme is designed to increase understanding of the importance of trees in a community.
Theme 2: Healthy Trees, Healthy People
This theme educates students about the benefits of trees that help keep people healthy. Trees near our homes and in our parks help keep people healthy by providing shade, providing healthy foods, improving air quality, encouraging active lives, and encouraging better mental wellbeing. The following lesson plans connect trees and the resources they provide to New York State learning standards.
- What's up with air pollution? (PDF) - from DEC's Conservationist for Kids
- Neighborhood Forests (PDF) - although targeted at Arizona, the activities in this booklet can be used here in the Northeast - just be sure to learn about native species in our range to discuss.
- Forest for Kids (PDF)
- Scientific Observation and Forest Bathing
Theme 3: Trees are Terrific Inside and Out
This theme is designed to increase understanding of how trees grow and function.
Theme 4: Trees are Terrific and Energy Wise
This is designed to increase knowledge about the importance of trees in the production and conservation of energy. Trees provide beauty to our communities and many products that we utilize in our daily lives. But trees also provide a benefit that often goes unnoticed - trees produce and conserve energy. Students will learn how trees produce food energy for people and wildlife, how properly selected and planted trees conserve energy, and much more.
Theme 5: Share Your Tree Story
The Urban and Community Forestry program in Vermont used the theme Share Your Tree Story. They have provided activity guides and linked them to Common Core standards and others. View the activity packet for 2022 provided by Vermont Urban and Community Forestry (PDF).
Additional Resources for Teacher
For general tree-related lesson plan ideas, visit:
Inspire kids to care for trees by:
- Planting a tree at your school for Arbor Day. In spring, participate in DEC's School Seedling program to get free trees for your students.
- teaching them to protect trees by not ripping off bark, leaves or branches.
- learning about invasive species and looking for them together - then encouraging them to share their sightings on iMapInvasives to help researchers.
- celebrating Arbor Day at your school and in your town.
Additional Activities
These activities satisfy NYSED Grade 5 Science Learning Standards #4 & 7, Art Learning Standards #1 & 2, and several Math Learning Standards:
- Tree ID Key
- Residence Plan (PDF)
- Leaf Match (PDF)
- Beetle Word Find (PDF)
- Adopt A Tree (PDF)
- Make Your Own Paper (PDF)
- More activities from Plant Heroes
- Sugar Maple and maple syrup related activities
Articles and books
- Nature's Color Palette (PDF) - Conservationist article about why and how leaves change color.
- The Nature Fix by Florence Williams. This book covers the relationship between the outdoors and health.
