Wood facts for kids
Wood is the main substance in trees. It is mainly formed by the xylem vessels which carry water up the plant. The two main substances in wood are cellulose and lignin. Wood is used to make buildings and furniture, and also for art. Firewood is a fuel. Paper is made from wood fibres. Wood is a renewable resource although it has become scarcer in recent centuries.
Wood is hard to cut, but it is also strong. A lumberjack is a person who cuts down trees. After a tree falls, the wood in it can be cut into long, straight pieces called lumber. Lumber can then be used to make posts, or put together with nails, screws, or even glue to make wooden frames for other shapes.
Wood comes in many different kinds. Oak, maple (hardwood) and pine and redwood (softwood) are widely used types of wood. Woods are usually divided into softwood (from conifers) and hardwood from flowering plants.
Housing
For a long time and even today, many buildings, mostly houses, have been made of wood. To build a house with wood, lumber is put together into frames that are the shape of each wall, floor, and roof of the house. Then the frames are placed into the shape of a house. Then the frames can be covered to make solid walls. Sometimes the walls are made of more wood.
When the outside of a house or building is covered in wood, the wooden pieces are usually flat and stacked. These pieces are called shingles. Wood is also sometimes used in other parts of the house, like doors and staircases. Wood is also used to make fences.
Carpentry
Carpenters make houses of mostly soft wood such as pine. For many kinds of furniture they use harder wood such as maple or oak. When someone builds something with wood, they often paint it. Paint protects and beautifies the wood. Some people like the look of wood, so they put clear paint called varnish on it. This helps to protect the wood and gives it a shiny finish.
Some people make art with wood. Sometimes sculptures are built with wood: see Grinling Gibbons.
Regular pencils are made of wood. Inside is the "lead", which is not actually lead. Clay or wax and graphite form the "lead" in a pencil.
Paper
Wood is turned into paper in large factories called paper mills. Heat, chemicals and machines separate the cellulose fibers from other parts and press the fibers into paper.
- Jane F.W. 1970. The structure of wood. 2nd ed, edited by K. Wilson & D.J.B. White. London: Adam & Charles Black. ISBN: 9780713609127
Related pages
Images for kids
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Diagram of secondary growth in a tree showing idealized vertical and horizontal sections. A new layer of wood is added in each growing season, thickening the stem, existing branches and roots, to form a growth ring.
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A knot on a tree trunk
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Wood knot in vertical section
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A section of a Yew branch showing 27 annual growth rings, pale sapwood, dark heartwood, and pith (center dark spot). The dark radial lines are small knots.
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Cross-section of an Oak Log Showing Growth Rings
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The wood of coast redwood is distinctively red.
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Magnified cross-section of black walnut, showing the vessels, rays (white lines) and annual rings: this is intermediate between diffuse-porous and ring-porous, with vessel size declining gradually
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Earlywood and latewood in a softwood; radial view, growth rings closely spaced in Rocky Mountain Douglas-fir
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Earlywood and latewood in a ring-porous wood (ash) in a Fraxinus excelsior; tangential view, wide growth rings
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Chemical structure of lignin, which makes up about 25% of wood dry matter and is responsible for many of its properties.
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The Saitta House, Dyker Heights, Brooklyn, New York built in 1899 is made of and decorated in wood.
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The churches of Kizhi, Russia are among a handful of World Heritage Sites built entirely of wood, without metal joints. See Kizhi Pogost for more details.
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Wood can be cut into straight planks and made into a wood flooring.
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Prayer Bead with the Adoration of the Magi and the Crucifixion, Gothic boxwood miniature
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See also
In Spanish: Madera para niños
