If I Were a Tree - Writing Prompt

An Earth Day prompt in two matched halves: one page asks students to write about their life as a tree, and the other asks them to draw themselves as one, showing what surrounds them in their tree home.

Grades: Preschool–5, Elementary
Pages: 2
File type: PDF
Preparation: Print ready

Updated Apr 11, 2025

Subject: Spring, Graphic Arts, Seasons, Creative Writing, Holidays, Creative Arts, Holiday & Seasonal, Writing, ELA
Topic: Earth Day, Earth Day Drawing
Resource types: Bulletin Boards, Centers, Posters, Writing Prompts, Classroom Decor, Activities, Worksheets & Printables
Preparation: Print ready

From the author

About this resource

Need a fresh and fun Earth Day activity that’ll get your students thinking, and giggling, a little?

If I Were a Tree is a creative writing and drawing prompt that invites students to imagine life from a tree’s point of view. Would they sway in the wind, shelter birds, or complain about squirrels running all over them? This two-part activity encourages imagination, empathy for nature, and a few chuckles along the way.

Students will write a short piece describing what kind of tree they’d be and what their “tree life” would look like. Then, they’ll draw their leafy alter ego! It’s thoughtful, silly, and makes for a great Earth Day classroom display that’s full of personality (and bark jokes).

Ways to Use It:

Earth Day writing centre or whole class activity
Morning work or early finisher option
Creative bulletin board display
Paired with tree- or nature-themed read-alouds

Why Teachers Love It:

Encourages creativity while building writing skills
Easy to prep, just print and go
Combines art and writing for a fun, balanced task
Sparks meaningful conversations about nature
Works for a variety of elementary grade levels

Let your students go out on a limb, creatively! 🌳

Pdf file includes 2 pages.

In the classroom

Teaching tips & learning objectives

Learning objectives

Write from an imagined point of view, answering where they would grow and what they would see as a tree
Frame the piece around Earth Day, as the prompt directs, rather than writing about trees in general
Show the same idea as a picture, including both the tree itself and what surrounds it

Teaching tips

The two pages are a matched pair on one idea, so a student who stalls on the writing can start with the drawing and describe what they have drawn
The written prompt contains two separate questions — where would I grow, and what would I see — so splitting them on the board gives students two clear things to cover
Earth Day is named inside the prompt itself, which places the pair inside an Earth Day or spring unit rather than making it a general nature task
Each sheet carries only a heading, a Name line and one instruction, so the open space takes as much or as little as a given student produces

Skills covered

Imaginative first-person writing — students take a tree's point of view and answer where they would grow and what they would see from there.
Descriptive setting — the drawing page asks for what is around the tree as well as the tree itself, so students have to picture a place, not just a subject.
Linking a piece of writing to an occasion — the prompt names Earth Day, so the response has to sit inside that frame.

Good to know

Questions teachers ask about this resource

In If I Were a Tree - Writing Prompt, how do the two pages work together?

They are the same idea in two forms. One page takes a written response to "where would I grow and what would I see"; the other takes a drawing of the student as a tree with its surroundings. Both share the heading and a Name line, so they can be run as a pair or one at a time.

Is the prompt tied to a particular occasion?

Yes — Earth Day is named in the writing instruction itself, so the piece is framed around the day rather than being a general nature or seasonal prompt.