Tree Talk

Perfect for a walk in the woods. No equipment needed.

Overview

Tree Talk is a woodland game about learning to interpret emotions so you can help a group of trees. Designed for four or more people aged 10-years-old and above.  A  game can last between ten minutes to one hour.

Tree Talk can be enjoyed by a family on an autumn walk, or a group of friends enjoying a springtime stroll. 

Aim

Players take on the roles of either human explorers or trees. The explorers need to find out what is distressing the trees by asking questions and interpreting the non-verbal cues of the trees. The game ends when the explorers discover the problem. One person acts as the forest spirit, who can whisper clues to the explorers.

How to play

You decide:

• who will play the trees (at least two people);
• who will play the explorers (at least one person); and,
• who will play the forest sprit (one person). 

The forest spirit should help the explorers, if required, as the trees cannot use words to explain what they are worried about.

Next

Each person playing a tree should pick one they will stand next to. Those playing the explorers should walk away a little distance, so that they cannot not hear what the trees are discussing.

The trees and the forest spirit should decide what problem the wood is suffering from. They may also want to discuss different ways they can convey this problem using movement or facial expressions to represent the emotions of the trees, or tree type actions they could describe to the forest guide. When the discussion is complete the people should stand next to their tree. Once the game starts the people playing the trees should not speak.

The forest guide should then tell the explorers that they can enter that part of the forest. As the explorers approach a tree, the person stood next it should react, using movement or facial expressions. The explorers can ask questions which the trees then react to. The turns should alternate between the explorers asking a question and one or more of the trees answering using facial expressions or movement. 

Tips

If children are part of the game, it can be fun for them to play the human explorers, guided by one or more adults, and for the other adults to be the trees.

Tree actions: shaking arms to represent shaking branches – the faster the more distress; drooping head or body to represent sadness or hunger; swaying side to side to represent agitation; arms reaching out to represent need or anger; shaking of head representing the canopy swishing – no; nodding of head representing the canopy bobbing – yes.

Explorer questions: are humans doing something; are animals doing something; is the problem chemical; does the problem happen at night; is the problem in the ground; is food a problem?

Possible problems: wood cutter chopping down trees; over grazing by animals; fire is approaching; pollution in the water or air; algal bloom poisoning a nearby river. 

Licence

Tree Talk by Ben Lee is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 4.0

This means you are welcome to distribute, remix, adapt, and build upon the material in any medium or format, for non-commercial purposes only. If you modify or adapt the material, you must license the modified material under identical terms. You must also  give credit to the creator, Ben Lee.