Season after season, we visit our “Giant Tree” and marvel at the tall twin trunks of this beautiful being. The famous Potawatomi botanist Dr. Robin Wall Kimmerer encourages us to get to know nature by forming a strong personal bond with our plant and other relatives, giving them names based on a loving relationship. This beautiful being has been around for a “century and a half” according to the children.
The children gather around the tree gently exploring the bark, paying attention to the “arm of the tree that is hurt”. Questions emerge such as: “What lives under the tree?”, “How long will it stand?”, “Are these plants growing from the tree or from the earth (Ivy)?”. The children contemplate and discuss their inquiries in the company of our friend “Giant Tree”. Someone announces, “I heard that trees have a heartbeat, do you think we could hear it?”. The children and educators gather around the tree and listen for the heartbeat, and each person describes the sounds they hear. The children celebrate their relationship with the tree first, then inquire about the anatomy of the giant Canoe Wood, Saddle-Leaf, also known as Tulip Poplar or Liriodendron Tulipifera (Lilly tree that brings tulips forth). Humans and tree in calming unity.
During mindfulness or magic spot time, the children quietly, gently observe the towering giants around us. I wonder how many generations looked up lovingly at the canopy above at Woodside National Historic Site contemplating the beauty, the science, the history, and the complexity of The Forest.
On The Forest floor the children explore the possibilities of gravity and ice crystals working together in creating “Avalanches!”. It has been inspiring to hear all the knowledge discovered, contemplated, and shared at Woodside today.
When you observe the canopy of trees in winter time, what do you wonder about?
Eva