Designs of Nature - Variations on a Leaf

Focus: Leaves may vary in appearance and texture, but they are all designed to function as food producers for their plants.

Puppets (Henry, Goldie Goldenrod, Chlorophyll, Cloud, CO2, Water Drop, Sun)

Materials Checklist
Find Your Own (variety of leaves, one per child, hand lenses)
Puppet Show (puppets, script, CO2 blob, water drop, sun, poster with song words, photosynthesis diagram) Leaf Rubbing (paper, crayons, leaves, diagram of three patterns of veins)
Leaf Look (Leaf Look task sheets, hand lenses (optional))
Back to Back Leaf Drawing (assortment of leaves, paper, pencils)
Tree Leaf ID (5/6 ELF) (Tree Leaf Identification Chart, magazines or catalogs, white paper or cloth)

Supplementary Reference Materials (Why Leaves Change Color, Leaf Look tasks and cards, Leaves, Pictures of Different Leaves, Photosynthesis and Explanation, Three Leaf Types, 5/6 ELF Activity: Tree Leaf Identification, Tree Leaf Chart)

Additional Reading/Resources
Have You Seen Trees, by Joanne Oppenheim.
Leaves in Myth, Magic, and Medicine, by Alice Vitale, Stewart, Tabor, and Chang Publishing, New York, NY, 1997.
Forest Leaves: How to Identify Trees and Shrubs of Northern New England, by Henry Baldwin, Peter Randall Publishing, 1993. ELF Corner: Window Suncatchers (pdf file)
ELF Corner: Meet Your Squirrel Neighbors (pdf file)

For Younger Children
Many of the activities in VINS's new Small Wonders book can be used in ELF, too. To find appropriate activities for children aged 3-6, click here.

Teaching suggestions

You might want to start this unit with a scavenger hunt to collect leaves. Some groups sent home paper bags with a homework assignment for the kids to collect different leaves and bring them in on ELF day. Then the children used these leaves for the activities.

Find Your Own
You might want to first do the leaf rubbing activity and then Find Your Own so that children can compare the leaf each chose to the rubbing, as a check.

Younger children can look for their own from a pile, as written. With older children, make this a hunt for different adaptations. Begin by proposing a problem for a leaf, e.g. shade, windy place, lack of water, herbivores. Mention some of the ways leaves are designed to overcome these challenges. Then have kids hold up leaves they think fit that adaptation.

Include a selection of leaves that are smelly – herbs, geranium, marigold, mint – and talk abut how these odors (and the oils that produce them) benefit the plant.

Rather than collecting the leaves and then having children find their own, could have 2 piles, one that you hand out and then the children have to select the one from pile 2 that is from the same species as theirs.

Puppet Show
For younger children, write words to listen for in the puppet show on the board ahead of time.
Explain carbon dioxide (CO2), H2O and O2 before the show.

Before the puppet show, give each child a card with little pictures/words showing CO2,
water and sunlight. During the song they hold up their card when you mention their role in photosynthesis.

Remember that in addition to creating sugars and releasing oxygen during photosynthesis, plants also use oxygen to convert stored sugars to the energy they need for growing, reproducing, transporting nutrients, etc.

After the puppet show, have the class act out photosynthesis as described in the extensions in HON.

With older children, after you talk about the process of photosynthesis and the role chlorophyll plays, ask "what is happening at this time of year to leaves functionality" to lead into discussion of fall foliage.

Leaf Rubbing
From the puppet show, transition to this activity by asking how food travels from the leaves to nourish all parts of the plant.

Cut out the leaf rubbings and make a collage, organized by vein type OR have kids sort rubbings into piles according to veining pattern.

After the children have done some rubbings, ask them what features are most noticeable on their rubbings. This allows you to talk about design differences and leaf anatomy: lobes, teeth, simple, compound, plus venation.

Fold a sheet of paper in half and place the leaf inside to help keep the leaf in place while rubbing. Turn paper over and change leaves to use the other side. Fold paper inside out and use 2 sides again to make space for two more…

Leaf Look
For older kids, add specific adaptations to find: various leaf venation, lobes, teeth, smooth edges, waxy, fuzzy.

Back to Back Leaf Drawing
For younger students, divide into small groups and have the children try to describe a leaf to a grown-up who is drawing on the board with kids watching the progress.

Play a leaf version of "Eye Spy" in place of Back to Back for younger students. Adult leader describes a leaf from the collection spread out in front of whole (or small) group. The children have to pick out the leaf being described.

Extensions
Leaf Soup Relay (adapted from NJ School of Conservation)
Gather 5-6 leaves from 12 or more different tree species. Mix the leaves well in a basket or box. Then, divide the children into two or more teams. Ten children on a team is a good number. Line the teams up, either facing each other or facing leader, but at a distance, twenty feet or so. Spread the leaves (the "soup") on a table or on the ground. At your signal, the first person runs up and takes one leaf, any leaf from the soup. He runs back and hands it to the next player, who runs to the soup and selects a leaf from a different tree. He runs back, gives the two leaves to the next player who then must select a third different leaf and so on. Whichever team finishes its lineup first it the winner, IF none of their leaves are from the same species. If you play again, have children switch positions so number 1 has more challenge in round 2 and number 10 has less!

Bring in leafy vegetables to show and taste: kale, spinach, chard, etc.

Scratch Painting: trace around a leaf then color inside hard with yellow crayon. Paint over with green paint. Scratch off the paint (chlorophyll breaking down) to reveal yellows.

You might want to try an experiment from Naturescope to see the yellow color in the leaves. Involves paper chromatography of sorts, coffee filters and either alcohol or acetone (nail polish remover, only touched by adults) and mashed up leaves. Get yellow and green bands to appear- need to only leave it in the solvent a short time and then watch for separation.

Press a bunch of different leaves of many shapes and colors ahead of time. Younger students can use these to create leaf creatures. Pressed leaf bookmarks are also a fun craft.

Learning Goals

Concepts/Ideas:

• Leaves come in a variety of shapes, sizes, textures and colors. All leaves share a common function: they manufacture food for the plant.
• In the process called photosynthesis, green plants use the sun's energy to make the sugars and starches they need to grow and reproduce
• Leaves are designed with a system of veins. Each type of plant leaf has its own distinctive pattern of veins.
• Green plants are the basis of the food chain; all animal life ultimately depends on the ability of plants to produce food.

Vocabulary: Leaf, Photosynthesis, Carbon Dioxide, Sunlight Energy, Chlorophyll, Sugar, Veins, Parallel, Pinnate, Palmate, Food Chain

Skills:

• Comparing and contrasting green leaves and leaf vein patterns.
• Active listening to learn about the function of green leaves and their importance as a food source.
• Examining, using a hand lens, a variety of leaves found outdoors.
• Making detailed observations, drawing and taking notes to describe variations in leaves.

Grade Expectations:
Grades PK-K (S30, S34, S38) Leaves are parts of living plants that need sunlight air and water to survive. There are many different sizes and shapes of leaves.

Grades 1-2 (S30, S34, S38) Green leaves are made up of parts that enable them to use sunlight, water, and air to produce plant food. All animals depend on green plants' ability to produce food. Green leaves may be sorted into groups according to shape and vein pattern.

Grades 3-4 (S30, S35, S38) Green plants have physical characteristics that enable them to produce food. All animals' food sources begin with plants. There are many different kinds of leaves; they may be grouped according to similarities in shape.

Grades 5-6 (S34, S38) Plants use energy from the sun to make energy rich food. Animals eat food that plants produce. Plants may be classified according to the shape and arrangement of their leaves and vein patterns.

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