The Giving Tree

Name: The Giving Tree
Author: Shel Silverstein

A story that explores service and opens a conversation with your child.

★★★★★ Loved by families

Read the Guiding Questions Find this book →

♥ This book teaches: Service. using what you have to help others.

Before, During & After Reading

Guiding Questions for Parents.

Definition: Service is doing something nice or helpful for someone else. Summary: This is a classic children’s story that can be enjoyed by all ages, even grandparents! It’s about a boy and a tree - the boy loves a tree that unselfishly gives everything to make the boy happy. The boy plays in the tree when he’s young, but as he grows up, his needs change. The tree gives him his branches and trunk to build a house and a boat until there’s only a stump left. The old man, with only memories of his boyhood, sits and rests on the stump. The tree’s joy comes from giving everything to the boy she loves. Lesson Objectives:

Students are more interested in doing acts of kindness and they have more appreciation for those who do a lot to care for them.

Guiding Questions:

Why do you think the tree kept giving and giving, even when the boy didn’t appreciate her?
What were some of the ways the tree made the little boy happy?
What kind of tree was this?
Have you ever hugged a tree? Try it!
What did the tree ask the boy to do when the boy came back after he had grown up?
What did the boy, now a grown man, tell the tree?
What did the grown man do with the trunk of the tree?
When the tree said, “I’m just an old stump…”, what did the boy do?
Is there someone who does a lot for you who would love it if you showed them some appreciation? What will you do?
Read this story with a grandparent or elder person, and ask them what they think of it. Do they feel like the tree that experiences a lot of joy in giving?

🌿 Virtue Connection: Service means using what you have been given to help others.

About the Story.

This guide is part of the Values & Virtues library, a free collection of 400+ book guides and activities organized around 12 core virtues for children from pre-K to 6th grade. Each guide includes Guiding Questions designed to open a real conversation with your child in 10 minutes or less.