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LEAF's Wisconsin K-12
FORESTRY LESSON GUIDE

Lesson Guide Cover All About the Guide
Lesson Units Breakdown
Getting the Guide
FIELD ENHANCEMENT LESSONS   NEW!
Supplemental Resources
DOWNLOAD THE GUIDE Coming!

All About the Guide

The LEAF Wisconsin K-12 Forestry Lesson Guide includes complete interdisciplinary units for teaching students about forests and forestry in Wisconsin.

Sample Guide Introduction (PDF)
Subject areas addressed in the lessons include Arts, English Language Arts, Math, Science, and Social Studies. The Wisconsin Model Academic Standards and H. Gardner's Multiple Intelligences Theory were referenced during the development of the guide.

The LEAF Lesson Guide is based on principles outlined in the LEAF Conceptual Guide To K-12 Forestry Education in Wisconsin (pdf).

Unit-Based Lessons
The unit-based lessons are divided by grade levels: K-1, 2-3, 4, 5-6, 7-8, and 9-12. Each K-8 unit contains five or more lessons, a careers lesson, and three field enhancements. The 9-12 unit contains five classroom lessons and a careers lesson. Lessons build upon one another to provide connectivity in the students' educational experience. A CD-Rom containing all six units (K-12) is provided with each unit.

When taught together as a unit, these lessons provide students a well-rounded understanding of forestry in Wisconsin. You may find that they are also effective when taught individually and integrated with other classroom material. Each unit is bound separately.

Each lesson includes an introduction, step-by-step procedure for activities, and a conclusion. LEAF lessons contain formative and summative assessments.  Formative assessment is woven throughout each lesson. Questions with answers are provided to help teachers follow the level of understanding of students. Summative assessment ideas are listed at the end of each lesson. Suggested activities have students apply what they have learned in a new way.

Careers Exploration
There are hundreds of interesting and exciting forestry-related careers. In each lesson you will find a career profile of a forestry professional working in Wisconsin. Use these profiles to help students explore careers by reading them aloud, copying and handing them out, or creating a bulletin board. At the end of each unit is a careers activity that utilizes all of the career profiles from the unit.

Field Enhancements
Take your students outside for some hands-on learning and fun with forestry field enhancements. Each unit contains three field enhancements that can be done in your schoolyard or school forest. These activities are designed to enhance the classroom lessons by adding tactile elements and exploration.

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Lesson Units Breakdown

K-1 Unit: 5 classroom lessons, 1 careers lesson, 3 field enhancements  The K-1 Unit is an introduction to trees and forests. Students learn about the parts of a tree, what forests are, and why they are important. More about the K-1 lessons  

2-3 Unit: 6 classroom lessons, 1 careers lesson, 3 field enhancements The 2-3 Unit expands on basic ideas about forests and helps students understand their connection to forests. Students learn about energy flow, basic tree identification skills, forest products, and what it means to be a forest steward. More about the 2-3 lessons

4 Unit: 7 classroom lessons, 1 careers lesson, 3 field enhancements The 4 Unit focuses on Wisconsin forest history. Students learn about the logging days, farming the cutover, events that led to modern forestry, and why forests are important today. More about the 4th grade lessons

5-6 Unit: 8 classroom lessons, 1 careers lesson, 3 field enhancements The 5-6 Unit connects the science of forests with human aspects. Students learn about forest layers, ecosystems, and energy flow. This information is related to the value of trees, forest ownership, and management. More about the 5-6 lessons   

7-8 Unit: 8 classroom lessons, 1 careers lesson, 3 field enhancements The 7-8 Unit highlights a wide variety of topics related to Wisconsin's forests. Students learn about forest biomes; types of forests; biodiversity; forest management; forest trends, issues, products; and sustaining forests. More about the 7-8 lessons   

9-12 Unit: 5 classroom lessons, 1 careers lesson The 9-12 Unit has an environmental science focus. Students learn about forest ecosystem processes, succession, the economics of forest products, and science and technology. More about the 9-12 lessons

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Getting the Guide

The LEAF Lesson Guide is available through a number of our professional development offerings.  Non-formal educators may attend our non-formal educator workshop to receive their printed copy of the guide. Workshops are offered throughout the state of Wisconsin. Take a look at our scheduled workshops to obtain registration materials.

Order Additional Units of the LEAF Guide
To order additional printed units of the LEAF Lesson Guide you must have completed the Forestry Education for the Wisconsin K-12 Classroom workshop. We are making this offer to provide materials for the personal use of teachers who teach multiple grade levels. Multiple copies of the same unit will not be sold to the same individual.

Each additional lesson guide is $30 (this price includes tax and shipping & handling).
Order additional units HERE (PDF)

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Supplemental Resources

7-8 Unit

9-12 Unit

The LEAF Lesson Guide CD-ROM

Each LEAF Lesson Guide comes with a CD-ROM containing all the lessons from all the units. To get the most use out of your CD-ROM, try these suggestions:

  1. Print your overhead transparencies and student pages directly from the CD rather than photocopying them from the book. Images will be high quality and no spiral binding will show on the edges.
  2. Explore lessons from outside the grade-level you teach. Many of the lessons are adaptable and can be modified to fit your teaching situation. This is also valuable if you have switched grade levels since you received your original printed LEAF Guide.
  3. In the 7-8 Unit folder, there are full-color tree identification cards containing images of native Wisconsin trees. Print, laminate, and hang them on on trees around your school to make a tree ID course. If you can't get outside, use the cards in a lab setting to give students experience using a dichotomous key (also found in the 7-8 Unit folder). We have had teachers say the cards are useful for students all the way from kindergarten through high school. The cards are also available on the LEAF web site at: www.uwsp.edu/cnr/leaf/Students/tree_id.aspx so tell your fellow teachers.
  4. Unit 2-3 Lesson 4 has a great list of forest products made in Wisconsin and the cities where they are produced. The list can be printed and given to students to enhance any lesson that includes a discussion on forest products.
  5. Every LEAF lesson contains a career profile of someone working in a forestry-related profession. Print the profiles from all the lessons in all the units (28 different ones in total) and create a forestry career bulletin board, use them as part of a careers unit, or invite a local forestry professional into your class to speak about their job.
  6. If you are studying specific tree species with your students, the species profiles in the 9-12 unit will be particularly helpful (Lesson 3, pages 107-125). The profiles for the American chestnut, American elm, Eastern hemlock, red maple, and white oak contain an overview, article, national range map, and state distribution map.

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