Download Plants: Deciduous and evergreen trees

Plants: Deciduous and evergreen trees
Objectives
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Understand that plants change their appearance over time.
Compare and group different types of plants.
Plenary
Revise basic knowledge of plants by brainstorming names of trees and other plants. Show the
pupils a set of photographs of an oak tree in the spring/summer, autumn and winter. Is it the
same tree? What are the differences between the photographs? Explain that trees and other
plants can change their appearance.
Changing plants
Explain that some trees stay green all the way through the year and therefore they are called
evergreen. Types of evergreen trees include pine and cedar trees. Show the pupils
photographs of evergreen trees in winter, or if possible, find real evergreen trees in the local
environment.
However, deciduous trees do not look the same all the way through the year. They lose their
leaves in winter. Show the pupils a time lapse video of a deciduous tree or forest through the
seasons. Explain that while the biggest change for deciduous trees is losing their leaves, they
actually change all the way through the year; they grow flowers which can turn into fruit
during the summer, and their leaves go brown in autumn before they fall off. After winter,
buds grow, and leaves grow from these buds and the cycle repeats.
Pupils must note:
Evergreen trees keep their leaves all year but deciduous trees lose their leaves every year.
Pupils are not required to be able to spell ‘deciduous’.
ACTIVITY: Pupils should place their hand on a large sheet of paper with fingers spread out
wide. They should then draw around their hand and wrist so the resulting outline looks like a
bare tree. Draw two more hand-trees.
Using coloured pens, pupils should decorate the three bare trees: the first as a deciduous tree
in the spring/summer (green leaves), the second as a deciduous tree in the autumn (brown
leaves) and the third as a deciduous tree in the winter (no leaves).
Comparing plants
Select photographs of various plants and attach blu-tack to the back of them. Show the pupils
pairs of photographs and ask them to make simple comparisons between the different plants.
Explain that these comparisons can be used to put plants into groups. It is important for
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scientists to be able to compare things and sort them into groups; scientists who put plants
and animals into groups are called taxonomists.
Draw a line down the centre of the whiteboard, labelling one side of the whiteboard as
‘flowers’ and the other side as ‘no flowers’. Ask pupils to place all the photographs in the
relevant categories.
ACTIVITY: Pupils should go outside and collect different types of leaves. Take them back
into the classroom and, using books, try to identify what plants the leaves belonged to. Pupils
should think of a way of sorting the leaves into categories e.g.: by shape, colour or markings,
using magnifying glasses to look closely at the leaves if necessary. They should glue the
leaves into their exercise books, grouped into these categories.
Pupils must note:
It is important for scientists to be able to group plants.
Possible extra-curricular questions
Do any animals change in winter?
Many animals living in the Arctic, such as hares, foxes and weasels can turn white during
winter in order to hide in the snow and lots of animals grow thick ‘winter coats’ including
some cats. Some animals are even described as ‘deciduous’, including some deer, whose
antlers fall off for winter.
What categories are plants put into?
All plants are split into two groups: algae and land plants. Land plants are grouped into
vascular plants (e.g.: moss), non-vascular plants (e.g.: ferns) and seed plants. Most of the
plants we are familiar with are seed plants.
What causes trees to lose their leaves?
Keeping leaves alive when it is cold and dark would use up a lot of energy, so trees lose their
leaves to help survive the winter. When the days become darker, the process of abscission
begins. In abscission, trees absorb food from their leaves and then block off the leaves’
supply of water, so they turn dry, turn brown and fall off.
Why do evergreen trees have long, thin leaves?
Deciduous trees usually have flat, broad leaves and evergreen trees usually have long, thin
leaves (often needles). All trees lose water from their leaves, but the shape of an evergreen
tree’s leaves means less water is lost. Because more useful water is stored, evergreen trees
can survive well in conditions in which deciduous trees cannot.
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