Winter Tree Study: Our Sweet Gum Tree

This time of year our Sweet Gum tree has lost all its leaves and is totally bare except for a few of the sticker balls hanging here and there.


Here are the tree's trunk and branches.


My son used the Seasonal Tree Study page to record his observations and his sketch. He looked carefully at and drew the buds on his journal page.



Here is our tree last summer with all its leaves.

We followed the suggestion in the Handbook of Nature Study on page 624 and we took a twig with buds, put it into a vase with water, and then placed it in a warm, light place to see what happens.

I added in some forsythia branches as well to see if they will bloom inside this year.

We really enjoyed watching this tree all year long. We are thinking about choosing a different tree to watch this year.