I was taught this song in my college trees class. The student that shared it with the class said she had learned it Girl Scouts.
There are several species or types of oaks. The White Oak is the state tree of Illinois, among other states. Sing this song to the tune of “Row, row, row your boat” to try to identify what type of oak you are looking at. The branching structures will match the song.
Know, know know your oaks,
Look at how they grow
Red oak, White oak, Pin oak, Bur oak
Red Oak (make a ‘V’ with your arms above your head)
White Oak (hold your arms straight out from your shoulders)
Pin Oak (make an upside down “V” with your arms pointing toward the ground)
Bur Oak (make your arms twist in different directions)
And the acorns down below! (wiggle your fingers and point to the ground)
© The Naturarian
Some nice acorns there. 🙂
I love these types of song where you actually learn something too. 🙂
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Thank you! Yes, I love learning songs and mnemonics for learning things. I’ve made up many to ID trees. I also have a dance for metasequoia glyptostroboides (Redwood). Not as fun as this one, but I’ll never miss this tree 😉
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I am just impressed that you can spell it! 😀
Also – I’d love to see the dance! 😀 😀
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Ha! I’ll have to have some wine in me to do that… 😉
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No problem! 😀
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that is interesting!!!! we have lots of oaks here and I will look what kind of oaks we have with your song ;O)
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I wish I could say this encompassed ALL of the oaks, however it’s just a small representation. If you shoot me a pix of the leaf, I’d be able to tell ya!!
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they are nekked now but I will take a photo… or is an old leaf good too?
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Old works also! As long as its whole 🙂
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What a cheerful song and great way to get the youngsters interested in noticing the subtleties in the environment around them – a tree is not simply “a tree” if you know your “Bur” from your “Pin”.
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Ha ha! Thank you ☺️ Yes! Even the few adults I sang this to, did the dance with it. 🤣
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The main thing I know about oaks is that you make whisky barrels out of white oak. Red oak leaks because the tubular cell structure is so large.
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Very interesting! I did not know using white is better over red for whisky barrels… I wonder if they use them for whiskey barrels, also? 🤔🤣😂🤣
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Not just better than red oak. It is impossible to use red oak because the whiskey, whisky, bourbon et al will just seep out and be lost.
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😮😧 Alcohol abuse! 😋
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