Arbor Day Poster Contest

• Community & Urban Forestry Program
• Home
• CUF Grants
• IRA Grants
• Arbor Day Poster Contest
• Newsletter
• Publications
• Indiana Community Forestry Council

Arbor Day Poster Contest

Join 5th grade students and teachers across the state in submitting original artwork for the annual Arbor Day poster contest by the Indiana DNR Division of Forestry’s Community and Urban Forestry program (CUF) and Indiana Project Learning Tree. Discover the important role of trees in Indiana’s urban and forest communities with annual themes designed to grow students’ understanding, appreciation, and stewardship of the trees around them. If you have any questions, please contact our office at urbanforestry@dnr.IN.gov.

How to Enter

1. Students create their own posters
   Explore this year’s theme with 5th grade students in the classroom and ask them to create a poster reflecting the theme and their own understanding of the importance of trees and forests.
2. Select a schoolwide winner
   Gather your student’s posters and select a winner through a judging panel of school staff, students, parents, and/or tree professionals. You may consider reaching out to your community’s tree board, city arborist, environmental nonprofit organizations, or local nurseries for tree professionals to see if they are interested in helping. Students who attend nonparticipating schools or are home-schooled may submit posters individually.
3. Submit your school’s winner to the Indiana DNR Division of Forestry
   Scan your winning poster and include the following Contest Entry Form with the poster. Submit to urbanforestry@dnr.IN.gov with the subject line “Arbor Day Poster Contest Entry”. The deadline for entry is April 1, 2025. Winners will be announced by April 18, 2025.

2024-2025 Contest Theme: Healthy Trees, Healthy Me!

Trees provide a wide range of physical and mental health benefits for people who live around them. Whether it’s through the ecosystem services they provide, the environment they create, or the way we engage with them, research shows the important role trees play in human health.

• Through photosynthesis, trees take in carbon dioxide from the air and produce oxygen we breathe.
• Trees slow the flow of rainwater, filter pollutants, and hold soil in place to help protect the quality of our drinking water.
• Trees cool our environment through evapotranspiration, a process by which water evaporates from a tree’s leaves when heated by the sun. This cooling effect is especially important in urban environments where road and building surfaces retain heat and cause the area to be much warmer than surrounding rural areas.
• Forests promote more active lifestyles for the people who live near them.
• Spending time among trees helps reduce stress, improve mood, and increase attentiveness.
• Exposure to trees boosts the immune system and lowers the incidence of some chronic diseases.

Educational Resources

When we support a healthy canopy of trees in our community, we can live healthier lives. We encourage teachers to engage their students with the amazing health benefits of trees by introducing this theme into your classrooms. Below are some lesson plans and activity resources to help you get started, including a list of Indiana Academic Standards you can meet by fully participating in this contest.

• Alignment to Indiana 5th Grade Academic Standards
  • Science (5-LS1-1; 5-ESS3-1)
  • Health & Wellness (3-5 1.3)
  • Visual Arts (Anchor Standards 1-8)
• Project Learning Tree:
  • Project Learning Tree is an award-winning environmental education program designed for educators of youth of all ages. Engage your students in learning about the environment through the lens of trees and forests. Explore the Project Learning Tree website for curriculum resources and free activities you can incorporate into your classroom.
  • Questions about PLT in Indiana? Interested in PLT professional development? Contact Indiana PLT coordinator Lexi Eiler at leiler@dnr.IN.gov.
• Arbor Day Foundation
  • The Arbor Day Foundation is a nonprofit organization dedicated to tree-planting, urban forestry, and education to solve issues of climate change, community, and biodiversity. Explore the Arbor Day website to learn more about its programs and resources.
  • See the Arbor Day Foundation’s Learning Hub for its Tree Campus K-12 program for a curation of free and paid curriculum resources and classroom activities.
  • Get some inspiration for classroom tree topics from the Arbor Day Foundation and access the learning materials in Carly’s Kids Corner!

Contest Prizes

First, second, and third place winners will receive prizes in addition to being featured on social media. The teacher of the first place winner will receive a prize, and the first place winner will also receive a free tree planting at their school.

Contest Rules

1. Eligibility: All Indiana 5th grade students are eligible to enter their school’s poster contest. Each school may submit only one poster to the statewide contest. All schools are eligible to enter the statewide contest, including homeschools.
2. Originality: Poster must be original artwork, no collages, no use of cartoon characters or television figures (many of these figures are copyrighted and cannot be reprinted).
3. Medium: Posters may be drawn using markers, crayons, paint pens, watercolor, ink, acrylic, colored pencils, and/or tempera paints. Keep in mind that the poster must be digitized to be submitted.
4. Theme: The contest theme, Oak Trees: Superheroes of the Forest, must be on the poster, and the poster should be related to the theme in some meaningful way. Words on the entry should be legible and spelled correctly. Any included tree facts should be true, accurate, and verifiable.
5. Entry Form: Please fill out and submit one contest entry form for school-winning entries in the statewide competition. Please have students print their names in the lower-right corner of the front of their poster.
6. Sharing Permissions: Posters submitted become the property of the Indiana Department of Natural Resources and may be used, without compensation, to promote future contests and other urban forest outreach programs.