I started with some 12x12 scrapbook cardstock and cut rectangles for the girls to glue onto their backgrounds for their tree trunks. I had them draw their own branches with markers and then we talked about how not just fruit grows on trees. I'm allergic to walnuts so I don't have them in the house but they seemed to understand the concept from the picture and the YouTube video in the guide. I had some little round flower seeds I had gotten for free so the girls used those to stand in for their walnuts.
We gathered leaves from our maple tree but I think next time I use leaves in a craft, I will make sure they are not so dried out. These were very crunchy and curled, which made them difficult to attach securely without ending up with powdered leaf everywhere. They glued a couple on their pictures but it didn't really work well.
I punched out the pear poem from the Chestnut unit but rather than have them putting glue and glitter on the one they made into a necklace, I used the outline left in the paper to trace some extra pears. They glued these to their trees, then added the glitter to them. My reasoning was that they would certainly want to wear the necklaces right away and would end up with glittery glue all over their shirts. This worked just fine (and they did want to wear the necklaces, which ended up as bracelets because I cut the cords too short). 
After talking about the chestnuts and their spiny outerwear, the girls settled on purple paint for the final addition to their masterpieces. After I figured out how to help them not end up with gobs of paint on their paper (by dabbing the porcupine balls on the paper plate containing the paint), they had a blast adding "chestnuts" to their multipurpose trees.
I really love how the final project turned out. The girls seemed to enjoy the process, too. It helped to not spend a lot of time on one step, coming and going as we interspersed the other activities. It made for a really great balance of creative and academic time.
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