Now that spring is well and truly here and we have had weeks of sunshine, most of the trees are starting to leaf. You can head out as see what is growing on your walk today.  Pick one leaf off as many different trees as you can spot along your walk and take them home to identify.  Or try to identify them as you go (while still adhering to the government-mandated social distancing recommendations, of course.) The Nature Detectives site by the Woodland Trust is chock full of fabulous, free, printable resources which is where our tree id sheet for this post comes from.  You can join as a family and be sent seasonal nature activities all year round.  They also have a leaf id game for brushing up at home once you have finished your walk.

Tree Identification

You will need:

• a tree identification guide (try this one for leaves if you don’t have one at home)

Head out for a walk or into your back garden.  See how many of the trees along the way you can name.  Which type of tree is the most common in your neighbourhood?  Which have the most leaves at the moment?  Carefully take one leaf from each different type of tree you find to help you ID but save them as we will use them in tomorrow’s activity.

As always, take photos, share them with us on social media (Facebook, twitter and/or instagram) or email them to us.  Let us know what you discover.  We love it when you keep in touch.

Happy identifying!

April