Use level : 5th grade

Time: Early Fall

Assignment: 5th grade Team study and Individual Project

Division: Lower School Reynolds Library Pathfinder

Procedure: 5^th grade students in different groups in their classrooms are studying trees. In science, students study the parts of a tree, using their textbook, Silver Burdett Ginn’s Science Discovery Works , Grade 5, 1999. All this activity culminates in an individual tree project due in early fall. This pathfinder serves to guide and support this subject study and project completion.

Library Print Sources:

582 is the Dewey classification for trees and their parts. The Reynolds Library checks out its holdings of tree books equally to each fifth grade for student use in the classroom.

582 is also the Howard County Public Library designation for tree materials for home use. The Library catalog can be accessed at www.hclibrary.org and titles may be reserved with a student library card.

Audio-Visual Sources:

Two audiovisual resources supplement the library print materials:

VID 581.1 How What Is a Leaf? National Geographic: 15 minutes.

VID 582.16 Tree Dorling Kindersley: 35 minutes.

Individual students can arrange to screen these videos by making an appointment with the lower school librarian during the school day.

Databases:

Sirs Discoverer Deluxe

Materials rated “moderate” (blue book icon) and “challenging” (red book icon) may be used by fifth graders successfully. Enter words by natural language in the search window, or, for tree subjects, click on the Science icon, then at right, “Plants, Trees, Flowers, and Fungi.” Scan the list of magazine and newspaper articles, references, and 38 websites for use. Check out the many pictures indicated beside each article with a camera icon you can click on, and send to your email account to print.

SIRS gives many sources: periodical, encyclopedia, World Almanac For Kids, biographies, photographs, newspapers, magazine articles and some great recommended websites. All materials can be printed or sent to an email address for printing with pictures, as wished by user.

Remember: you can also access Sirs Discoverer off campus. Go to www.glenelg.org > Quick Links > Inside GCS> Lower School> Library. Click on “Off-Campus Use” and use your ID and Password. On campus? Scroll down below the Catalog icon to the database list. Click on “Sirs Discoverer.”

Also try key terms, like names of trees in:

Grolier Kids Online

World Book Online

Internet Resources:

Tree Websites:

http://www.mdarchives.state.md.us/msa/mdmanual/html/mmtoc.html

Source: Maryland Manual online
Summary: This site features extensive materials to help students learn about trees that grow in Maryland. Just click on

“Maryland At a Glance” > “Trees” > “Native Trees.”

There are some excellent materials here about trees that grow in our area. Students can use the information and photographs to develop their project.

http://www.urbanext.uiuc.edu/trees3/01.html “Dr. Arbor Talks Trees”

Source: University of Illinois Extension

Summary: This site features “Tree Basics,” “Dr.Arbor’s Lab,” “State Tree Gallery,” “Glossary, “and “Resources,” as well as a teacher’s guide.

Dr. Arbor talks out the information for precise tree identification in his Lab, and clicking on the State Tree Gallery’s individual tree ID Tab gives you up-close features for a no-fault identification. As all fifty state trees are represented, this is a time-saving website.

http://www.cnr.vt.edu/dendro/dendrology/fall/biglist_frame.cfm

“Fall Color Trees”

Source: Virginia Tech Forest Biology site

Summary: Alphabetical list of trees in all their fall color. Menu tabs for information about planting and caring for trees in different settings. Email address for help with site.

http://www.oplin.org/tree/index.html “What Tree Is It?”

Source: Ohio Public Library Information Network

Summary: Let’s you identify a tree “By Leaf,” “By Fruit,” and “By Name.” Contains “Background” information, Instructions and a “Quick Start Guide.”

Also provides links to “Ohio’s Big Trees,” “Ohio Division of Forestry” and other Ohio Library databases. Useful and well-planned website leads to color photographs of real trees.

http://nationalzoo.si.edu/ConservationAndScience/MigratoryBirds/default.cfm “Migratory Bird Center” at the National Zoo.

Source: Smithsonian’s National Zoo

Summary: Reminds us all to care about trees for the life they contain and

foster. This site has a slide show of birds, news, and links, plus interactive elements including “Migration Game” and “Name That Nest.”