‘THE GIVING TREE': Kindergartners plant sapling in celebration of Arbor Day

If you plant it, it will grow — and they will come once a month to measure its progress.

In celebration of Florida’s Arbor Day last Friday, the Destin Elementary School kindergartners planted a young tulip poplar Monday afternoon on school grounds near the dolphin statue.

“It’s pretty much a stick right now, but in few weeks leaves will begin sprouting from the growth buds,” Sheila Dunning told the group of youngsters.

Dunning, an extension agent with the University of Florida, has been planting saplings at the school for the past three years as part of a grant program received by DES teacher Dawn Pack. 

The young trees not only become a part of the school’s landscape, but also are the subject of a five-year science project for the kindergartners.

“By the time they’re in middle school, they will be ready,” Dunning told The Log. “Hopefully this will spark their interest in science, because if they don’t by fifth grade they usually won’t.”

In addition to learning about the basics of the scientific method, the students also read “The Giving Tree,” by Shel Silverstein.  

The story is about the relationship between a boy and tree. The tree provides the boy with apples to eat, shade from the sun and branches to swing from, but as the boy grows older he asks more and more of the tree until finally he asks the tree if he can cut it down so he can build a boat to sail in.

Years later the boy, now an old man, returns to the tree that’s now just a stump. Despite the fact that the tree has nothing left to give, it still offers the old man a place to sit and rest. 

Unlike the boy in the story, the students will only ask the tree for shade while they measure and record it’s growth over the next five years.

As of Monday, the poplar was 2 ½ inches around and 25 inches tall with 17 growth buds that will later grow into branches. After learning a little bit about the tree, it was time to dig the hole.

Troy Pack grabbed the shovel and dug a hole that was just the right depth and big enough around to let the roots spread out and not suffocate the tree.

“I thought it was cool when he did the perfect size hole,” said kindergartner Colton Tankersley.

When asked what the tree could be used for in the future the kindergartners said shade, oxygen to breathe and paper for coloring — but Dunning assured students that this tree probably won’t be chopped down.

“I bet by the time you you’re in the fifth grade this little tree will be as big as these other trees,” Dunning said.