What is a tree?

How many times have we walked past this tree? 

We know it is unusual. We think that there is a probable explanation but we have places to be and conversations to finish. The moments and questions that adults often relegate to their subconscious are the same moments and questions that tantalize a child.

The children try to make sense of the "line up" tree (the location we gather before going to the classroom)

Peyton: This is actually a castle. It is rounded.

Noah: Maybe we can uncover the spot to open it up (to put the key in). 
Guys, I got it maybe this is a round thing with a stairs inside and a person put a tree around it so somebody might think that it is really a tree. 
If someone pushed the tree part off it then maybe we could see the round part.

Elizabeth: We could get a magic robot to open it. 

Gardiner built a model of the stairs that is inside of the tree.

Dante considers x-raying the tree. This is the only way to see the inside of the tree.

Mary, Anna and I talked about the children's questions and work. Anna suggested that we ask the children to define a tree. 

What does it mean to be a tree? What must a tree have to be a tree?

Dante: You need to have leaves.

Noah: Trees are made of wood.

Annie: There are no bricks.

Tannin: Fruit is a on a tree if it is a fruit tree.

Noah: Branches.

Elizabeth: Roots or on a tree.

Nora: They give a tree food.

Tanner: They make the tree big.

Gardner: They stop the tree from blowing away.

Nora: Trees don’t have leaves if they are dead.

Jesse: In winter, trees don’t have leaves except if it is a pine tree.

Mary: What is a pine tree?

Mathilda: It is a tree that we celebrate at Christmas.

Ian: It is an evergreen tree it is always green until it falls to the ground.

Caleb: It means the tree is dying if you find brown needles under it.

Gardner: You need water to be a tree.

Tannin: Evergreens don’t loose their leaves in the fall.

Ella: If you pick needles off a pine tree they don’t grow back.

Elizabeth: Why would a tree have bricks in it?

Acadia: The bricks might help the tree to stand up.

As we leave Project Circle and make intentions for the work we are interested in pursuing during  Project Time (Investigative Research) many of the children represent a tree.....a real tree.