This term our inquiry theme is cedar.  We went down into our school forest yesterday armed with clipboards, pencils, keen eyes, and questioning minds to record the things we notice and wonder about the cedar trees (we had started this last week, but didn’t have enough time).

Here are a few of the students ideas:

Teddy-The leaves are close apart and far apart. Some of the leaves are dangling. Some leaves are longer than the others. I wonder why the leaves are so bendy. I wonder how the leaves attach and grow.

Kip-The leaves are flat on the cedar trees. The bark is flat and in little strips. The wood between the leaves iv very bumpy. The yellow cedar and the red cedar look different. The cedar cone is very bumpy and looks like waves.

Acacia-Red cedar has some red on it. One side of the leaves are lighter and the other side is darker. I notice dark and light in the cones. There are tiny white stripes on the cedar leaves.

Sinead- The inside is smooth and red and black, and a little bit of brown. I wonder how old they can get.

Clara-One side is darker colour and the other is lighter. You can count by the rings around to see how old the tree is.  One tree was 34 and another tree was 41.

Ruby-The green leaves are sort of scaly.

Cayden-The cedar leaves are green. Some are short and some are tall. Red cedar trees are tall. They are two colours: red and pink.

Ryder-Red bark smells neat. I notice:hard bark, tiny cones, and strong branches. How tall can they get? Are they good for houses?

Rylann-Cedar cones are small. They have stringy bark. On the top of the cedar bough it is dark and the bottom is lighter. On the top of the tree the trunk is small are it goes bigger and bigger to the bottom of the tree.

Lina-I wonder how many branches are on the red cedar tree. I wonder why moss grows on the trees. Why is the bark so rough? When you peel the cedar bark, underneath it is red. You can count the rings and it tells you how old it is.

Ayla-Cedar trees have little cones. Why does Old Man’s Beard grow on trees? I noticed that the cedar trees have long strong branches. How many cedars are there in the world? Why does green stuff grow on the trees? Why do the branches droop down? I noticed stringy bark. I noticed there was a pattern on the bark of green stuff growing then red cedar.

Joselyn-I noticed that cedar cones are tiny. I wonder where cedar trees grow. I wonder what the circumference is. Some trees are red like cedar trees. There are two kinds of cedar trees. I wonder how long cedar trees live.

Harmony-I see a square.  There are tow types of cedar: yellow cedar and red cedar. How many are there? I wonder why cedar trees have different lives? They have stringy bark. Another tree had scaly bark. I wonder why the cedar tree cone is small.  I noticed that on a cedar tree the branches go from bigger to smaller to smaller.

James-The branches are really long. I noticed there are lots of branches. They are very tall. They have stringy bark. I wonder how many types of cedar trees there are.