Project Learning Tree's Forest Exchange Boxes

Forests offer endless opportunities for exploration with children. Project Learning Tree® (PLT) helps educators take students outdoors and into the woods to experience nature and learn about the importance of forests. To help bring global attention to America’s forests for the 2011 UN Year of the Forests, educators and students around the country are compiling and decorating a “Forest Exchange Box” to showcase the unique characteristics of America’s woodlands.

Throughout the year, Forest Exchange Boxes from every state will be displayed at venues across the country to celebrate International Year of Forests.

Your Students Can Create and Exchange a Forest Box

Students of any grade level, their teachers, and others passionate about forests, can compile and decorate a Forest Exchange Box. A box can include natural objects; examples of tree and wood products we use every day; student poems, drawings, sound and video recordings, and more! Through these boxes we learn who owns and manages forests; the benefits we get from forests – like clean air, water, and recreation; and how individuals and communities use, enjoy, and depend on forests.

Classes of students can gather samples of items from their forest (including their recordings, writings, and drawings) and exchange their own forest box with another school in a different part of the United States. If you are interested in participating, a copy of the specially designed PLT Activity 20 “Environmental Exchange Box” and information about finding an exchange partner is available online from the PLT website atwww.plt.org. Also read “PLT’s Environmental Exchange Box Activity Provides an Array of Teaching and Learning Opportunities” for some ideas and examples of the many opportunities this PLT activity provides to connect students’ learning to multiple subject areas.