A Letter to Teachers

Dear Teacher, Thank you for your interest in the Christmas Tree Education Kit. Christmas trees rank right after managed forests as an environmentally friendly crop. In Ontario, Christmas trees are frequently grown close to urban areas.

Our Education Kit on Christmas trees almost naturally leads to additional exploration of other subjects with your students: history, culture, farming, the environment, plants, forests. We have created a Virtual Tree Farm as part of our web site. Use the Virtual Tree Farm as an additional resource to the teacher's guide. There are many photos, images, new information and activity pages for students of all ages. As tree farmers, we hope that studying Christmas trees will above all encourage children to appreciate the significance and beauty of nature, in contrast to the man made items in their environment.

The Kit is designed to be user friendly. Each lesson is divided into teaching plans with corresponding student packages. There are activity materials available as well as information sheets suitable for hand-out and use at home by the student's family. Complementing environmental programs is the hand-out: Extended Use of Christmas Trees. Please copy the materials, as needed.

Contact an association member in your area to arrange for:

• a class visit to the farm
• a grower to visit your class
• obtaining tree cross-section disks, showing annual growth rings
• hard copy of our activity sheets for classroom use

The Education Package

The education package has been assembled to ease use by educators. This site consists of seven separate pages. Each page contains one lesson consisting of the Teaching Plan followed by the Student Package. There are activity sheets available for each lesson as well as background information, please request hard copy from a local grower or by email: Christmas Tree Farmers of Ontario. Please feel free to download any part or all of our Education package.

TEACHING PLANS and STUDENTS' PACKAGE

• Lesson One, The History of Christmas Trees, Part One
• Lesson Two, The History of Christmas Trees, Part Two
• Lesson Three, The History of Christmas Trees, Part Three
• Lesson Four, Christmas Tree Farming in Ontario
• Lesson Five, Identifying Christmas Trees
• Lesson Six, A Christmas Tree Field Trip

BACKGROUND INFORMATION

Background information is available from a local grower or by E-mail from CTFO. Please request the materials in which you are interested.

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