1. Teacher Guide
This lesson is designed to teach kids to ask a critical thinking question that you can’t just put into a search box to solve. To do that, we encourage them with smaller questions that search can help them answer. Make sure that you read the notes for each slide: they not only give you teaching tips but also provide answers and hints so you can help the kids if they are having trouble.
Remember, you can always send feedback to the Bing in the Classroom team at You can learn more about the program at bing.com/classroom and follow the daily lessons on our Partners In Learning site.
Want to extend today’s lesson? Consider using Skype in the Classroom to arrange for your class to chat with another class in today’s location. And if you are using Windows 8, you can also use the Bing apps to learn more about this location and topic; the Travel and News apps in particular make great teaching tools.
Nell Bang-Jensen is a teacher and theater artist living in Philadelphia, PA. Her passion for arts education has led her to a variety of roles including developing curriculum for Philadelphia Young Playwrights and teaching at numerous theaters and schools around the city. She works with playwrights from ages four to ninety on developing new work and is especially interested in alternative literacies and theater for social change. A graduate of Swarthmore College, she currently works in the Artistic Department of the Wilma Theater and, in addition to teaching, is a freelance actor and dramaturg. In 2011, Nell was named a Thomas J. Watson Fellow and spent her fellowship year traveling to seven countries studying how people get their names.
This lesson is designed to teach the Common Core State Standard: Reading Informational Text
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RI.2.5 Know and use various text features (e.g., captions, bold print, subheadings, glossaries, indexes, electronic menus, icons) to locate key facts or information in a text efficiently.
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RI.2.7 Explain how specific images (e.g., a diagram showing how a machine works) contribute to and clarify a text.
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RI.3.5 Use text features and search tools (e.g., key words, sidebars, hyperlinks) to locate information relevant to a given topic efficiently.

2. What clues could you look for that tell you that this is a beech tree?
© Radius Images/Alamy
Having this up as kids come in is a great settle down activity. You can start class by asking them for thoughts about the picture or about ideas on how they could solve the question of the day.

3. What clues could you look for that tell you that this is a beech tree?
Nienhagen Wood sits on the western edge of its namesake village. Situated on the Baltic Sea coast of the Rostock district in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Germany, the forest is primarily beech trees. Just below the forest cliff lies the beach, and it’s the tree’s exposure to the sea air that may have contributed to the forest’s nickname: Ghost Wood. The trees tend to twist inland, with more branches growing away from the sea. On a cloudy day or a foggy evening, Nienhagen Wood can indeed look a little ghostly.
Depending on time, you can either have students read this silently to themselves, have one of them read out loud, or read it out loud yourself.

4. What clues could you look for that tell you that this is a beech tree?1
Image Search
Look up an image of a beech tree leaf. How would you describe it? Look up images of leaves from other trees: what differences do you notice among them? 2
Look up an image of beech tree bark. How would you describe it? Look up images of bark from other trees: what differences do you notice among them? 3
Find a chart that helps you identify different kinds of trees by their leaves. What information can you gain from this chart? What do you notice about the beech tree leaf? 4
Find an image of a whole beech tree. How would you describe its overall shape and color? 5
Web Search
If you didn’t know this was a beech tree, what are steps could you take to identify it?
There are a couple of ways to use this slide, depending on how much technology you have in your classroom. You can have students find answers on their own, divide them into teams to have them do all the questions competitively, or have each team find the answer to a different question and then come back together. If you’re doing teams, it is often wise to assign them roles (one person typing, one person who is in charge of sharing back the answer, etc.)

5. What clues could you look for that tell you that this is a beech tree?5
Minutes
You can adjust this based on how much time you want to give kids. If a group isn’t able to answer in 5 minutes, you can give them the opportunity to update at the end of class or extend time.

6. What clues could you look for that tell you that this is a beech tree?1
Image Search
Look up an image of a beech tree leaf. How would you describe it? Look up images of leaves from other trees: what differences do you notice among them? 2
Look up an image of beech tree bark. How would you describe it? Look up images of bark from other trees: what differences do you notice among them? 3
Find a chart that helps you identify different kinds of trees by their leaves. What information can you gain from this chart? What do you notice about the beech tree leaf? 4
Find an image of a whole beech tree. How would you describe its overall shape and color? 5
Web Search
If you didn’t know this was a beech tree, what are steps could you take to identify it?
You can ask the students verbally or let one of them come up and insert the answer or show how they got it. This way, you also have a record that you can keep as a class and share with parents, others.

7. What clues could you look for that tell you that this is a beech tree?1
Image Search
Look up an image of a beech tree leaf. How would you describe it? Look up images of leaves from other trees: what differences do you notice among them?
(Possible queries: “Bing/Images: beech tree leaf”, “Bing/Images: tree leaves”).
Students should first look up an image of a beech tree leaf (such as the one found here: and describe it. Answers will vary. They may describe it as dark green, ovular with a pointed top, and “teeth” along the edges (serrated edges) with a vein down the center. Students should then search for other leaves and think about what makes them different from the beech tree leaves. They might notice that leaf shapes can differ dramatically from each other (a maple leaf, for example, seems to have 5 points), and that their colors vary as well.

8. What clues could you look for that tell you that this is a beech tree?2
Image Search
Look up an image of beech tree bark. How would you describe it? Look up images of bark from other trees: what differences do you notice among them?
(Possible queries: “Bing/Images: beech tree bark”, “Bing/Images: tree bark”).
Students should first look up an image of beech tree bark (such as the one found here: and describe it. They may notice that the bark is smooth and grey. They should then search for other tree barks in order to compare them with the beech. They may notice other tree barks have a different texture (most other barks are jagged) and vary in color (most other barks are different shades of brown).

9. What clues could you look for that tell you that this is a beech tree?3
Image Search
Find a chart that helps you identify different kinds of trees by their leaves. What information can you gain from this chart? What do you notice about the beech tree leaf?
(Possible queries: Bing/Images: tree identification”, “Bing/Images: tree leaf identification chart”).
Students should find a chart (such as the one found here: in order to start thinking about the differences among tree leaves, and how their varying shapes and colors can help us identify what tree they are from. Students should locate the beech tree leaf on the chart and notice what makes it different from other leaves. They can also think about what other tree leaves it is similar to.

10. What clues could you look for that tell you that this is a beech tree?4
Image Search
Find an image of a whole beech tree. How would you describe its overall shape and color?
(Possible queries: “Bing/Images: beech tree”, “Bing: beech tree characteristics”).
Students should look at images such as the ones found here: and begin thinking about how they would describe what a beech tree looks like in order to be able to identify it and know what makes it different from other trees. They could think about its branching pattern (that its branches seem spread out), its tall height, and that its leaves are pretty evenly distributed throughout and cover all its branches (it’s not as sparse as some other trees).

11. What clues could you look for that tell you that this is a beech tree?5
Web Search
If you didn’t know this was a beech tree, what are steps could you take to identify it?
(Possible queries: “how to identify a tree”, “steps for tree identification”, “for kids, how to identify trees”).
From
Write down where you see the tree in question. The American hornbeam, for instance, is native to Missouri and found throughout the eastern states, while the pacific silver fir, appears on the West Coast in California, Oregon, Washington and Alaska.
Watch the tree leaves to note whether it is deciduous or evergreen. A deciduous variety loses its leaves during the fall, but an evergreen tree retains most of its foliage throughout these months.
Record the characteristics of the blossoms, including their color(s), the way they grow on the tree and the month(s) that you see them. The eastern redbud, for example, produces pinkish-purple flowers between the end of April to early May and blooms in groups of four to eight on the branches and trunk.
Inspect the leaves of the tree to note the shape, size and color(s). For example, the sourwood grows elliptical-shaped foliage that measures 3 to 8 inches long and 1 1/2 inches to 3 1/2 inches wide. In the summer, the leaves are glossy, dark and bright green, but in the autumn, the foliage changes to plum, scarlet and maroon tones.
Point your browser to the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) "Advanced Search" page to submit your tree information. Use the menus to select the appropriate choices and then click the "Display Results" button on the page. Click the resulting links until you identify your tree.

12. What clues could you look for that tell you that this is a beech tree?
This slide is a chance to summarize the information from the previous slides to build your final answer to the question. Students should think about the steps they could take to identify this tree as a beech tree specifically. They should think about the shape of the tree, color, the specifics of a trees’ leaves (their edges, colors, shape, etc…) as well as the tree bark. They should be able to explain what characteristics of the beech tree makes it unique (for example, its ovular leaves with serrated edges and smooth, gray bark).