Night Tree Activities

Night Tree by Eve Bunting tells a beautiful story about one family’s yearly tradition to decorate a tree for the animals in the woods. This is a great book to add to your December read aloud collection. Here are some activities you can pair with this story.

About the Book

By moonlight in the quiet forest, a young boy and his family decorate their favorite tree with popcorn, apples, tangerines, and sunflower-seed balls as a gift for the animals of the woods.

If you don’t already have a copy of this book in your school or classroom library, you can find it on Amazon.

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Night Tree Activities

This picture book companion focuses mainly on comprehension and vocabulary. These 12 comprehension questions will help guide the discussion as you read. Students can also respond to these questions in writing.

After reading the story, students can put the story back together with this sequencing activity.

Once students can sequence the story, they are more prepared to retell or summarize the story. I have even included a spinner activity that focuses on story elements.

I chose 12 vocabulary words for this story. Each vocabulary card has a matching definition. Students can play a memory matching game or use them in a pocket chart center. Then, students can work with their vocabulary words using this fill-in-the-blanks page and vocabulary match-up activity.

I also included a few extras. First, there is a tree-themed following directions activity. Can your students find my favorite tree? There are also two character focused graphic organizers.

Night Tree Writing Craft

Finally, I have included a writing craft to pair with this story. Students will create a night tree scene of their own. In the story, the family decorated the tree with apples, tangerines, popcorn strings, and balls of sunflower seeds and pressed millet and honey. Your students can decorate their tree using markers, paint, hole punch circles, glitter glue, and more!

To add to the night scene, students can add a starry sky using metallic sharpie markers or white paint.

There are several writing prompts to choose from, but students are welcome to choose their own. There are writing pages with standard lines (shown) and handwriting lines.