Tree rings

There was a storm a little over a month ago that made a tree from the woods behind our house fall down.  We slept through it and didn't even realize the tree had fallen until we looked out the window the next morning and saw it had fallen on the fence and two other trees.  Mike finally borrowed a chain saw and we got the tree cut down.  We gave the wood to some families in our ward that use wood to heat their homes in the winter but before they got the wood I decided we would learn about trees.  We learned about how trees grow and about tree rings.  We talked about what the distance between the rings mean for the health of the tree as well and how you can identify trees by their bark.  Each of the kids brought their paper and pencils and they sat and sketched what they saw and then they drew their own tree ring art.  Each ring was a year of their life and it was interesting to see what things they included as a "healthy" year and "unhealthy" year.  Even Piper drew one.  It's cute to see her pretend to write.