The Waiting Tree
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.
- (Child 1) “This is my idea. This is what we’re going to do. We’re going to build a tower of pointin’, and it can hear anything from trees.”
- (Teacher) “Could you say that again?”
- (Child 1) “The Tower of Pointin’, and it can hear anything from trees. This is the Tower of Pointing and it can point at treeeeees. It’s a tower that is pointy.”
- (Child 2) “Look at this thing that is pointy if you push it very hard.” (looking at the child’s plan)
- (Child 1) “It can hear the location of trees. Because there’s supercomputers inside.”
- (Child 2) “At the top, (?) at a tree and then you can hear. Well, the super computer’s down at the bottom.”
- (Teacher) “I remember when we were outside, and the kids were asking the tree ‘what is your naaaammmeee’, and they were shouting! But the tree didn’t say anything.”
- (Child 1) “But you can hear it when you’re in this.”
- (Teacher) “In our real life?”
- (Child 1) “Nope. In the tower of pointin’. This is the tower of pointin’.”
- (Teacher) “I don’t think we have a super computer.”
- (Child 1) “THIS IS THE TOWER OF POINTINNNGGGG!” (in photos 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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