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Find out
about...
with
Barry the
Beetle
Moors Valley
Country Park & Forest
ess
ve
Trees & Leav
There are 138 types of tree you might find in Britain,
which can be separated into two main groups. The
'broadleaves' have wide and flat leaves, and the
'conifers' have cones and thin needle-like leaves. Most
broadleaves lose all their leaves in winter. They are
called deciduous. Most conifers keep their leaves
during winter and lose some leaves gradually all year
round. They are called 'evergreen'.
You can use leaf shapes to help you identify different
trees:
Compound leaves are leaves made up from a number
of leaflets
These can be Palmate or Pinnate
Pinnate
Palmate
Simple leaves are leaves that are not divided into
leaflets
These can be lobed or toothed
Lobed
Toothed
As well as the leaves, you can also look at the shape of
the tree, the bark, buds and flowers, fruit or seeds.
What makes a tree?
Solve each clue then use your answers
to label each part of the tree
I take up water
from the ground and
support the rest of the
tree, anchoring it to
the ground. I am the
I am the arms of
the tree, giving it
support, shape and
character. I am the
I support the tree, transporting
water from the roots to the branches and
leaves and moving sugar from the leaves and
branches to the growing parts of the tree
including the roots. I am the
I surround the
trunk and branches,
protecting the tree like
your skin protects your
body. I am the
I trap the sun’s
energy to make food
and you can use me to
tell what type of tree I
am. I am the
Wiggly, wavy
Can you match each leaf to the tree that it
comes from?
Alder
Oak
Hazel
Maple
Horse
Chestnut
Beech
Scot’s Pine
Rowan
Leaf rubbing
Find a real leaf to match each of these
below and make a rubbing using a
wax crayon in the space provided
Hazel
Beech
Birch
Oak
What tree am I?
Try to match Barry’s descriptions of these
trees with the correct picture.
1.
2.
3.
4.
My leaves are palmate,
usually with 5 lobes that look like
the shape of fingers on a hand. My
seeds are found in pairs that
look a bit like helicopter
blades.
I have simple
leaves with a wavy
lobed edge, and my
seeds are egg-shaped
acorns in cups. I am a
very common
tree in Britain.
My leaves are oval,
pointed, and toothed. The
stalks and leaves are hairy
and my seeds are ovalshaped nuts with a brown
shell, surrounded
by leaf-like cups.
My leaves are oval
and pointed with a wavy
edge. My fruits, called masts,
look like a hairy cup, which
splits to reveal two triangular
seeds.
My bark is smooth.
Bark rubbing
Make a bark rubbing using a wax crayon
Draw branches connecting the trunk to the
words that describe the bark on your tree
Mossy
Rough
Smooth
Bare
Knobbly
Draw
branches to
the words that
best describe
your tree’s
bark (you can
add your own
words too!)
Bumpy
Papery
Flaky
Nature’s Pallette
Find a real leaf to match each of these
colours on an Autumn walk
Now see how many different colours you can collect. Look
carefully for oranges, yellows, white or nearly white, and black, as
well as different shades of green and brown, then stick a small
piece onto the double-sided tape below.
You can use bits of leaves, twigs, bark, pine cones, seeds,
feathers, grass, earth and small pebbles, but please do not pick
flowers or fungi!
Stick double-sided tape here
In winter deciduous
trees lose their leaves to save
water.
Before the leaves fall off,
the green-coloured chemical
inside is broken down. Other
colours in the leaf that were
hidden before can now be
seen.
Autumn seeds
How many of these seeds can you collect
on an autumn walk? Write the name of
each tree in the correct circle
Hazel
Maple
Alder
Scot’s Pine
Rowan
Holly
Oak
Hazel nut
Berries
Alder
cone
Helicopter seeds
Acorn
Berries
Pine
cone
Why not look
for the smallest and
largest acorns you
can find and have a
competition with
your friends?!
Meet a tree
Only by getting really close can you
make friends with a tree!
Equipment:
Location:
all you will need is a blindfold to share between two people.
any area with a variety of different and recognisable trees.
Get the children to find themselves a partner. One child wears the
blindfold to start and the other leads them carefully with hands on their
shoulders, the long and confusing way, to a tree. The blindfolded player
must try to get to know the tree and all its shapes and features, by smell
and touch. They are then led away and the blindfold is removed before
they must try to find the tree again.
Take it in turns and try to make it as hard as possible by spending time
leading your partner round in circles, but do be very careful to avoid
nettles, brambles or holes in the ground. Keep swapping over and trying
different types of tree to see which are the easiest and hardest.
When a tree grows, the trunk
gets a little bit fatter and for
each years growth you can
see a ring inside. So you can
work out a tree’s age when it
was cut down by counting
the number of rings.
Did you know,
you can also
estimate the age of
a tree by measuring
all the way around
the trunk in
centimetres and
diving the number
by 3.
Feely boxes
Test out your sense of touch and explore
the woodland floor with this fun game
Equipment:
Location:
empty egg boxes and some words describing opposite textures.
any area with a variety of natural objects to use
Put two words that describe opposite textures into each egg box e.g.
Hard and soft, light and heavy, wet and dry etc. You can decorate your
egg boxes with paints or felt tips.
Split yourselves into a number of teams and allocate a feely box to each
team. Each team must try to collect natural objects from the surroundings
which can be described by the words found inside the box. You must keep
these words secret from the other teams.
Arrange the items in your box so that all the items described by one word
are on one side of the box and the opposite items are on the other side.
Once everyone has finished collecting, each team should hide their secret
words and swap boxes with another team and try to guess what their
words are.
Prickly
Tickly
Hard
Light
Dry
Heavy
Light
Prickly
Tickly
Hard
Soft
Rough
Smooth
Wet
Dry
Crunchy
Squidgy
These sheets were designed by
Rangers from East Dorset
Countryside Management Service
EAST DORSET
COUNTRYSIDE MANAGEMENT SERVICE
A service brought to you by East Dorset District Council
The Nuts about Nature
logo and characters are
brands of Moors Valley
and remain the property of
East Dorset Countryside
Management Service
Moors
Valley
Country Park and Forest