A Tree Is a Plant

A Tree Is a Plant

A tree is a plant. A tree is the biggest plant that grows. Most kinds of trees grow from seeds the way most small plants do. There are many kinds of trees. Here are a few of them. How many do you know?

Many kinds of trees

This tree grows in the country. It might grow in your yard, too. Do you know what kind it is? This is an apple tree.

Multiple Choice

What is this picture of?

• city

• country

Multiple Choice

What is this picture of?

• city

• country

This apple tree came from a seed. The seed was small. It grew inside an apple. Have you ever seen an apple seed? Ask an adult to help you cut an apple in two. The seeds are in the center. They look like this.

Multiple Choice

Why should you ask an adult to help you cut an apple for you?

• Cutting apples is dangerous.

• Cutting apples is no fun.

Most apple trees come from seeds that are planted. Sometimes an apple tree grows from a seed that falls to the ground. The wind blows leaves over the seed. The wind blows soil over the seed.

All winter the seed lies under the leaves and the soil. All winter the seed lies under the ice and the snow and is pushed into the ground. Spring comes. Rain falls. The sun comes out and warms the earth. The seed begins to grow.

At first the young plant does not look like a tree. The tree is very small. It is only a stem with two leaves. It has no apples on it. A tree must grow up before it has apples on it. Each year the tree grows. It grows tall. In seven years it is so tall that you can stand under its branches. In the spring there are blossoms on the tree, Spring is apple blossom time.

Multiple Choice

What is this part of the plant?

• Leaves

• Seed

• Stem

• Roots

The blossoms last only a few days. Then they fall to the ground. Now there are green leaves on the tree.

Multiple Choice

How many days will the blossoms stay on the apple tree?

• Seven days

• All Spring

• Two or three days

Among the leaves there are small apples. The apples are where the blossoms were before. The apples are green, and they are almost too small for you to see. The apples grow slowly. They grow all during the spring and summer.

In the fall they are large and ripe. They are ready to eat. We can see the apples and the leaves on the branches. We can see the branches growing out of the ground.

Multiple Choice

What season are the apples ripe to eat?

• Spring

• Summer

• Winter

• Fall

We can see the bark of the tree. The bark covers the branches and the trunk like a coat. But there is a part of the tree that we cannot see.

Multiple Choice

What part of the tree is this?

• Roots

• Bark

• branches

Multiple Choice

What part of the tree is this?

• Branches

• Roots

• Trunk

We cannot see the roots. They are under the ground. Some of the roots are large. Some of them are as small as hairs. The roots grow like branches under the ground. A tree could not live without roots.

Roots hold the trunk in the ground. Roots keep the tree from falling when the wind blows. Roots keep the rain from washing the tree out of the ground.

Multiple Choice

How do the roots help the tree?

• Make food from the sun

• Hold the tree in the ground.

Hundreds and hundreds of leaves grow on the branches. The leaves make food from water and air. When the sun shines the food goes into the branches. It goes into the trunk and roots. it goes to every part of the tree.

Fall comes and winter is near. The work of the leaves is over. The leaves turn yellow and brown. The leaves die and fall to the ground.

Multiple Choice

What season are the leaves done their work?

• Fall

• Winter

• Summer

• Spring

Now the tree is bare. All winter it looks dead. But the tree is not dead. Under its coat of bark the tree is alive.

Multiple Choice

What does the tree is bare mean?

• The tree looks like a bear.

• The tree is dead.

• There are no leaves on the tree.

Spring comes again. Rain falls.

The sun warms the earth. The tree blossoms, and new leaves grow. As long as it lives, the apple tree grows. As long as it lives, the apple tree blossoms in the spring, the apples grow on it.

When do you like apple trees best? IN spring when they are covered with blossoms?

In summer when they are covered in leaves?

In winter when they are bare?

Or in fall when they are covered with apples?