In the Rainbow Room, there is much discussion about the “waiting tree” outside our classroom.  At the bottom of our outdoor staircase, the waiting tree is a tree we gather by as we wait for each other to come down the stairs.

There are many questions about the waiting tree that started one day when a child laid their head on the bark and tried to hear the voice of the tree.  Children began to ask:  Does it hear?  Can it talk?  Does it have friends?  Does it have human parts such as lungs, ears, a heart, or feelings?

A child made a “tower of pointing” to raise up into the tree.  A portion of the children’s discussion while in the studio is below.

Currently, there is work between the children trying to figure out how to get “the tower of pointin'” up into the top of the tree so “it can hear the location of trees”.  Last Friday, some children tried to see if balloons would go up to the top.  Some children have been working on a pulley and rope system as well.  Children are creative, deep thinkers, often coming up with ideas we might not think of as adults.

We are reaching out to the tree together, making it gifts, and trying to listen to it.  An amplifier with microphone/listening device was brought outside and the children held it to the tree to listen to the sounds it might make.  We are considering the difference between us and how a tree might experience things.  Some children think the ears of a tree are in its leaves.  Some think it hears from its “toes” (roots). This is all good practice for all of us in how to be thoughtful and attentive to another’s perspective.

As teachers, we have been discussing trees and we’ve discovered resources along the way.  We would like to share them in case you are as interested as we are.

The Hidden Life of Trees by Peter Wohlleben is a book that discusses the feelings of trees and how they communicate.  There was a podcast on NPR about it.

A bioacoustician, Bernie Krause, has made recordings of thirsty trees and the sounds they make.

Our classroom has a new book titled Wise Trees, a book of tree portraits.   We will be looking at this in class very soon.

David Haskell has written a book about The Songs of Trees.

We invite you to leave us comments and questions as we are in the early stages of our tree study.  Your voice will help us as we move along in this project.

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