Live Oak Tree Story Puppet Reading

Size: px

Start display at page:

Download "Live Oak Tree Story Puppet Reading"

Clarissa Armstrong
6 years ago
Views:

1 Live Oak Tree Story Puppet Reading Narrator: Imagine that the year is 1477 and a Scrub jay is burying many acorns, like they do every year. It is a good year for a tree to begin growing. One little acorn is able to sprout here in San Carlos. The squirrels have enough to eat so they miss it, the Indians must have plenty of acorns because they miss it too. The Scrub Jay buried and forgot it, in just the right place. There is just the right amount of moisture in the ground, just the right amount of cover to make a mulch, there is lots of sunshine and lots of protection for the acorn sprout, so the deer don t nibble the new leaves off the stem. And so the Live Oak begins to grow. And what will happen as it is growing? What things will occur during the lifetime of this oak tree and its environment? Narrator: Let s first look at rocks, because they make the base, the soil. We are in a special place in California, on a seam in the earth, in a canyon. Because of this, we get some different kinds of rocks falling down the hill where our little Oak tree is growing. They are brought down by water, earthquakes and landslides. One of the rocks may be granite. Granite is made of many minerals, and it looks like a lot of little crystals. Another rock that may come down the mountain to the west is Sandstone. If you chip it, there may be little grains of sand. Then, there a is rock that comes down from the other side of the canyon called Serpentine, it is California s state rock. It is smooth and slick and sort of soapy and green. All these rocks pile up at the bottom of the valley near our tree. The rocks add minerals and texture to the soil as rain and wind break them down. As our tree grows in these rocks, many creatures come to live here. Red-tail Hawk: Although I am not usually interested in rocks, my keen eye sight lets me tell the difference between a rock and a creature I want to catch like a mouse, squirrel, lizard or snake. Narrator: Now as the Oak tree grows, other things are going to grow around it or fall down beside it. Maybe one of the things that is going to grow is a vine, like poison oak. Poison oak loves to grow under and on the Oak tree in the oak woodland forest.

2 Live Oak Tree Story Page 2 Narrator: The tree is young for an Oak, about 50 years old now. This particular Oak is an evergreen. Will it lose its leaves? But why do we call it evergreen? Let me take a moment and tell you about our evergreen skin. You don t have the same skin that you had a few years ago. Your skin stretches and grows with you. You lose a little bit of skin all the time. Our Oak tree is going to lose some of its leaves, but it will always have some green ones on it, hence the name evergreen. Now, what s the other kind of tree called that loses all its leaves? Can you think of a deciduous animal? Coyote: Many mammals like me, shed our fur twice a year. We never shed all our fur at the same time, but as our winter coat comes in, the summer coat falls out. Rattlesnake: Every once in a while a snake, like me, comes along. I have been growing, but my skin hasn t stretched, so it is too tight. I find a rock to rub up against, and peel off my skin. Narrator: We don t find many of the snake s skins around because many little bugs can t wait to eat it up. The skin will decay and become part of the soil. From up the hill, pine trees drop branches, needles, and cones and Buckeye trees drop buckeyes. These are blown, washed or carried down the hill, and land under the oak tree and become part of the forest floor. A squirrel, who is hungry, finds a buckeye, and eats some of it and drops the rest beside the tree. Narrator: Acorn woodpeckers find a soft or decaying tree, full of bugs, which is easy to dig into. Can you imagine taking your nose, and drilling a hole in the tree? Well, that s what the acorn woodpeckers do. They have specially designed beaks. While they are drilling, they eat the bugs they find under the bark. Then, they stuff the acorns into their holes. A group of acorn woodpeckers work together They store their acorns in one tree for the group to eat all through the winter. They also help take care of each other s young. Quail: I am a California Quail, the state bird. I like to live near the oak tree, in the chaparral on the ground with my family. You can sometimes spot us running for cover with all our children running after us.

3 Live Oak Tree Story Page 3 Narrator: The Oak is now 100 years old and the year is Who is living around here? The native Californians. Some European explorers who sailed up the coast passed by, but they didn t leave many traces. The native Californians are collecting acorns from under the tree. Here are a couple more stones to add, smooth pebbles. Perhaps an Ohlone girl is helping her mother. She goes down to the stream near by and is looking for nice smooth round stones to use as boiling stones. These stones aren t going to work, so she tosses them at the foot of the tree. Later, there is an Ohlone boy working with his father to make arrowheads. They traded with another tribe to get Obsidian. The Obsidian has very sharp edges and is chipped into the form of an arrowhead. These pieces of Obsidian are the pieces that were chipped off. Mouse: I scurry about the pieces of rock looking for seeds and grains to eat. Can you think of animals that would be attracted to the oak tree because I am here? Hint, they would want to eat me. Narrator: The Oak tree is getting bigger and bigger. It s going to spread out its branches and be very large, and provide a nice place for birds to nest. Great Horned Owls will nest in this big tree s holes, while the other birds nest in the branches. Owls are predators. What is a predator? The owl who lives in a tree usually leaves the other birds who live in the same tree alone. He goes away from his tree to hunt for food. There are Stellar s Jays in the tree as well. The Jay flies up to the top of the tree, and squawks at the first sign of danger. All the other animals run for cover or get cautious to see what is coming. Birds drop feathers while sitting in the branches of the tree preening themselves. Bobcat: I am on the look out for the animals that visit and live in the tree. Birds, mice and rabbits are my favorite critters to eat. I got my name Bobcat because of my short tail. Narrator: There is a squirrel who climbs up to build a nest. Gray in color it matches the tree bark. Squirrels look to the oak for shelter. Brown or golden squirrels, colored like the soil and grasses, live in holes in the ground. Each kind of squirrel is camouflaged to match their homes.

4 Live Oak Tree Story Page 4 Skunk: I am not camouflaged but I am protected from predators by my smell. I love to roam around the Oak tree at night, sniffing for food. During the day, I curl up in a burrow that another creature has dug. The rabbit also lives in burrows that other creatures create. Rabbit: Down on the ground, around the roots of the tree, we may find gophers or maybe me. The gopher is very important to the tree. The gopher digs holes and tunnels in the soil around the tree. The soil is a hard clay-like dirt. When the rain comes the water runs off. The gopher holes not only aerate, get air into the soil, but also fill with water which gets the water to soak into the soil and water the tree. I like to nibble on the grasses and plants that grow near the oak tree. Narrator: We have deer in the woodland forest. What signs of deer might there be by the Oak tree. A deer comes by and lays down under the tree for shelter. When he gets up, he makes a pile of droppings. Great fertilizer for the tree. Maybe a deer is old or sick and is killed by a coyote near the tree. The coyote, while eating, scatters the bones under the tree. Or a deer needs to shed its antlers and uses the tree to knock them off. We don t find many antlers in the woods because they are full of calcium and phosphorus which are chemicals that make up our bones and teeth. We get calcium in the foods we eat, but small mammals in the forest gnaw on the antlers and bones to get their calcium. If the soil is muddy, a deer track is made as it walks by. Turkey Vulture: I am part of the clean up crew. My family and friends search for dead animals and begin the decomposing process by eating them. Narrator: The tree is now three hundred years old. In 1777, the first settlers from Mexico are coming into this area. With them come many changes for California and the Oak tree too. The Missionaries have many trees cut down and have the fields plowed near the Missions. They bring new plants like mustard, corn and wheat. Other settlers build Rancheros and they bring herds of cows, horses and sheep that graze around the oaks.

5 Live Oak Tree Story Page 5 Raven: Some animals have a hard time living with settlers. I don t mind people around, but people don t always like me. I like to eat a lot of the same foods as people, like grains and corn. Narrator: The tree is getting old, almost four hundred years. There are more people and homes around the tree. Hold one arm up vertically and the other out horizontally. Which tires first? We find a large tree limb on the ground. A storm was too much for the tree to continue to support the weight of the branch. This creates homes for many decomposers like fungus, insects-termites, and bacteria. The decomposers break down the limb which creates nutrients for the soil that the tree and surrounding plants need. Lizard: The rotting log also creates a home for me. Western fence lizards, also known as blue bellies, find insects to eat on and around the Oak tree. Narrator: There are galls found on the ground under the Live Oak Tree. These are formed when a female wasp breaks into the bark and the tree sap comes out. While the sap is still soft she lays her eggs in is. The sap hardens and becomes a gall. The eggs hatch and the larvae of the wasp chew away at the inside of the gall. Once the larvae metamorphose into wasps, they chew holes in the gall to get out. Raccoon: I scavenge for food around the Oak tree. I love grubs. I find my food by feeling in the crevices in the tree and fallen limbs. Most animals use sight and smell to find their food, but not me, I use my hands. I can live in may places that seem safe, sometimes in the tree trunk. Narrator: The tree is now 500 years old and dying. It is now in a school yard with houses all around. School maintenance sees that the tree is becoming unsafe and take it down. They find a seedling from the tree and protect it, so that is can grow to take the tree s place. What will this new tree see in the next 500 years?

Each One Teach One Habitat Features Snags

Each One Teach One Habitat Features Snags Snags are tree trunks that remain standing after the tree has died. Snags can stand for many years before falling to earth to become a nurselog. Woodpeckers make