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Background: Leaves come in many shapes and sizes. Some have saw-toothed edges, while others have perfectly smooth edges. Some leaves grow directly across the branch from another leaf and are known as opposite-leafed plants. Alternate-leafed plants never have leaves opposite of one another. Instead, first there is a leaf on the left and then there is one on the right. Another clue to identifying leaves is the number of leaflets or leaf blades on the flat green part attached to the stem. Simple leaves have just one blade while compound leaves have three or more leaflets on the same stem. Evergreens have leaves that look like needles.Take the time to simply relax and enjoy the beauty of the area trees and their leaves. Notice how some will reflect the sun’s light, have several shades and colors, or simply bob, sway, or flutter in the wind.
Fall Indoor / Outdoor / Rain / Shine Objective: To have students learn the basic leaf types and begin to identify leaves by their shapes and patterns.You’ll need: *The Treeture characters, as learning tools, can be adapted to any grade level. For example, students in grades K-1 could utilize coloring pages, finger puppets, and collages. Stories, poems, creation of new Treeture characters, newsletters, and plays could be fun and used as mentoring projects by 5th and 6th graders for younger students. Another entertaining and educational activity is to hold a Treeture Fair. This project has been successfully implemented in several schools. Each Treeture character can be enlarged and placed on an easel on a table with an appropriate experiment or example of its tree role. Extension:
The world’s largest leaves are 65’ long with stems up to 13’. They grow on two kinds of palm trees: the raffia palm of the Masearene Islands in the Indian Ocean and the Amazonian bamboo palm of South America. (Nature’s Wild by James Marsh) Suggested Readings:
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