Evergreen Trees - Forest School Walk KS1

Evergreen tree identification for KS1 outdoor learning: a guided winter walk with needle ID, bark rubbing, pinecone sorting and a tree height challenge.

Choose the Quick Route (6 stations, about an hour) or the Full Expedition (10 stations, about two hours) and decide on the day. Every station has a Reveal Card for the child to read aloud, a crib sheet telling the adult what to say, and a recording or drawing page for the findings.

What children will explore

• Identification - four types of evergreen needle, using a Needle Detective reference card
• Bark - rubbing patterns collected from real tree trunks
• Sorting and comparing - pinecones, open and closed
• Measuring - a tree’s height with the shadow-step method
• Observation through the senses - scratching and sniffing needles and describing the scents
• Prediction - a pinecone weather station tracked at home for 7 days

What’s inside - 23 pages

• Grown-up run sheet and crib sheets
• Adventure map and mission briefing
• 10 Reveal Cards (5 pages, 2 per page)
• Needle Detective reference card
• 7 recording and drawing pages, including a guided field log, the canopy from below and a favourite tree
• Back-home pinecone weather station experiment
• Certificate of completion
• Winter adventure passport and cut-out badge

Why teachers and parents love this pack

• Two routes fit a full forest school morning or a shorter outdoor session
• The crib sheets mean no prep and no guessing about what to say
• Real science skills: identification, observation, measurement and prediction
• Reveal Cards keep children leading the walk rather than following
• The take-home experiment extends the learning for a full week
• Botanical watercolour illustrations on every page

Best printed in colour, single-sided. Laminate the Reveal Cards and Needle Detective card to reuse them. Adult supervision is needed at all outdoor stations.

Instant PDF download, 23 pages. A4 and US Letter. Print as many copies as you need for your class or family.

Created by Lex & Fox Press using a mix of human and AI techniques.