Meet Grandforest Tree
Meet Grandforest Tree. He lives in our Environmental Center Classroom, and he has many tales to tell. We love to listen to him tell us stories about nature and the environment. He has a really neat voice. We also like to try to find the different creatures which make their home in Grandforest Tree. If you look carefully, you will find a bat, preying mantis, a 5 lined skink, an opossum, a raccoon, a snail, ants, and much more! We like to use the puppets and tell our own stories just like Grandforest Tree.
Click here to see pictures of children with Grandforest Tree
Below is a list of some of the stories he tells us.
To Be a Tree -imagery on the parts of a tree
Why Squirrel Hops Between the Trees - myth of how the squirrel lost his wings
The Butterfly Creature - butterfly description
Become a Nature Lover - use our 5 senses to observe a tree
For the Birds - a story about a bird who didn't migrate south
The Butterfly Tree - monarch migration
Forgotten Forest - planting trees for Arbor Day
Petra the Impatient Pupa - metamorphosis
Home Again, Home Again - collecting animals from the wild
A Tree is a Home - habitats
Celia's Jewels - spider webs
Predators - Are They the Bad Guys?
Flying Feathers - migrating south
To Be An Ant
To Be A Seed
The Tale of the Wartville Wizard - littering
First Day in the Desert
The Rotten Log - animal habitats
A Special Time of Day - nocturnal animals
Zapus - care of animals
Rabbits and Foxes - predators and prey
Trees Are Important - products from trees
We Are Sun Powered - food chains
When I was
doing a unit on Environmental Storytelling I discovered a wonderful book called Exploring
the Forest With Grandforest Tree. (Click on the book and you will go
to Acorn Naturalists where I purchased it.) This book had wonderful stories
in it. When we built the Environmental Classroom I wanted to make a full
size model of Grandforest Tree. One of the teachers at our school had her
husband provide the voice for Grandforest Tree. There are many more
stories I have collected for him to put on tape. We always begin the tapes
with "Hello everyone, I am Grandforest Tree and I am very old and very
wise, and I have many tales to tell." The primary children love
listening to his tapes, and the upper grade children have created a number of
stories for Grandforest Tree to tell which we are going to put onto tapes.
Whenever anyone sees Grandforest Tree, they always ask me how he was made. The basic trunk and major limbs were built for me by the Alabama Shakespeare Theatre set designer. He brought the tree to the room in three pieces and finished the assembly in the classroom. I do know that he has a wooden base and that the major limbs are made out of chicken wire which is covered with a material like canvas which was draped in stiffening liquid. The designer painted the trunk and face of Grandforest Tree. The cost for the basic trunk and three major limbs was $970.00. I collected branches from trash piles in front of people's houses and attached them to the limbs of the tree. Basically I punched holes in the limbs and used hot glue to secure them in place. In the case of some of the larger limbs, I used monofilament hanging from the ceiling to give extra support. I ordered an entire case of oak leaves from a floral supply company, drilled holes onto the branches, and individually glued the leaves onto the branches. I added insects, spider webs, a real bird nest, and anything else I could find to make the tree more interesting.
The Good Earth Tellers - A unit on Environmental Storytelling
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