Object: A slice of tree. Large enough that the rings will show clearly.

Boys and girls, most of you know that this is a piece of a tree. It is cut out of the middle of the tree. Can you see the rings? These are growth rings. A tree grows one ring wider each year. If you look carefully, you can tell if the season was wet or dry (wide rings mean wet weather). Sometimes you can see scars that show the tree was struck by lightning or high winds. You may even see woodpecker holes in the bark. The stories a tree tells are many.

In the far west, a high tree fell to the ground a few years ago. When the scientists examined the tree, they discovered that t…