Date: December 12, 1998

Grade Level: All

Subject(s):

• Science/Botany

Duration: two one hour sessions

Description: Students will compare trees by studying leaves, in order to tell them apart.

Goals: Students will be able to determine differences in trees by their leaves, seeds, and flowers.

Objectives: Students will be able to:

• Describe how leaf shapes, sizes, and other traits differ from tree to tree
• Identify tress by their leaves
• Make a reproduction of a tree

Materials: Paint, markers, crayons, butcher paper, drawing paper, glue, scissors, chart, Clifford's First Autumn by Norman Bridwell and When Autumn Comes by Robert Mass.

Procedure:

As a motivation The teacher will read Clifford's First Autumn by Norman Bridwell and When Autumn Comes by Robert Mass.

1. The teacher will take the students outside to a place where there are trees and have the students gather two or three leaves from different trees.
2. The class will go back into the classroom and the students will examine the leaves that they chose.
3. The teacher will ask the following questions:
   • Look for differences in your leaves
     How are your leaves the same?
     Do you see teeth?
     Do you see any hairs?
     Do they feel rough or smooth?
     

4. The class will make a chart of the leaves that they found :
   • Leaf Number of Students
     Oak I I I I I
     Beech I I I I I I I I
     Elm I I I I I I I
     Pine I I I I I I I I I
     Maple I I I I I I I I I I I I I
     

5. Each student will trade one leaf with another student. The class will go back outside and the students will try to find the tree that matches their leaf.
6. As a class, the students will examine the trees to see:
   • What color the leaves are
     How big or small the tree is
     If the tree has many or few leaves
     If the leaves grow far apart or close together
     What color the bark is
     How the bark feels
     What the flowers or nuts look like

7. The students will collect flowers and nuts from the trees if they are on the ground and safe to bring.
8. On day two the children will be broken into groups of four to five students, each representing a different tree.
9. Again the children will be taken outside to look at their tree.
10. The children will be making a reproduction of a real tree. The children will make leaf rubbings and cut them out, draw the nuts and flowers, and glue them to a pre -made bark. If it is warm enough and not windy this can be done outside.
11. The teacher will hang the trees in the classroom.
    

Assessment: Accuracy of the reproduction and participation in the activity