Thursday, October 11, 2012

Oak Trees and Acorns!

 We collected acorns and different types of leaves from our backyard.



 
 
Facts about Oak Trees:
  • Oak trees can live 200 or more years
  • Oaks have leaves with four or five pairs of lobes. They grow fruits called acorns in a little cup.
  • Oak trees can start producing acorns when they are 20 years old, but sometimes can go all the way to 50 years for the first production. By the time the tree is 70 to 80 years old it will produce thousands of acorns.
  • The oak trees produce acorns once a year during the fall
  • Oak trees can live a thousand years or more and grow up to 40 m. In Europe, oaks are the oldest of all trees.
  • Oak wood is very strong and durable and so was the main building wood for centuries — used for timber frames in  houses and for building ships.

I used google images and printed a picture of an oak tree, oak tree leaves and acorns and a squirrel.
I had Junebug sort the oak tree leaves from the other leaves. 

 Plus, she sorted the acorns that were nibbled on by the squirrels
from the ones that weren't touched yet :)

 
Ever notice the acorns with the small holes?
Read about this interesting fact before you bring those acorns inside!
 
 Little insects called weevils like to plant their seeds inside acorns before they mature -- during the late summer months. Up to 90% of the acorns in a region can be destroyed by the larvae of the weevils. On the other hand, if there are not enough acorns, that can impact the weevils' population. (from http://ejad.best.vwh.net/java/population/facts_oaks.html)

 
 
 


1 comment:

  1. What a great unit! I love how you expanded on something that is all around us this time of year and helped your kids dive deeper in such a fun way!

    Thanks for linking up to TGIF! I so look forward to seeing eveyrone's creativity. I hope you link up again tomorrow =-)
    Beth

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