The giving tree

The Giving Tree was first published in 1964 and is a story about a boy who loves a tree. The tree loves the boy and is happy to give whatever he needs. As the boy grows up, he takes all her apples and sells them, removes her branches to build a house, chops down her trunk to build a boat and, in the end, sits on her stump as an old man.

The story can be a great conversation starter about caring about things we love, like the tree. The beautiful old tree is just a stump at the end of the story. What could the boy have done to save the tree and to nurture it? Imagine he had planted a few seeds. How long does it take a tree to grow into a big tree? Imagine he had not taken all the apples to sell but rather shared them with his friends and family and left some for the birds. Do the children have a favourite tree? What is special about it? Have they ever sat under a big tree on a hot day?