Leaves, Leaves, and More Leaves!

Our outdoor yard has a number of different trees. The students were beginning to notice changes in the leaves. Many leaves began to enter our classroom as students asked questions and wondered about the red leaves. 


Ms. Eslami suggested we take a walk around our playground and look at the trees in our yard. We have many different types of trees and the students were excited about touching and looking.

Students told us what they saw...

D.K: I see leaves falling down and off the tree

K.B: there are red leaves on the grass, some are yellow

: I see red leaves (holding up one leaf) this one is red

A.B: some leaves are starting to fall

: some are orange

T.K: I think we need water

A.L: the wind is blowing leaves down

: I saw a pinecone on the ground

P.D: I have a leaf I see dirt on it

M.P: I see leaves on the grass

E.M: my trees at home that has points that don’t come off, one is here (pointing to the pine tree)

D.K: it smells like pollen

C.C: I see tree

E.K: the tree

We moved to look at different trees in the yard that have different types of trees. 

A.M: I see green and yellow

K.B: (holding a red leaf in her hand) these leaves don’t look the same. They aren’t the same shape and colour. They won’ be red, they will be yellow

A.L: I wonder why some are still green

Looking at the pine tree...

: it will all look like this (holding up the dead pine needles)

We have been reading a lot of different books about leaves and about fall. Students have been excited to look outside and observe the different changes that are happening right in our own yard! We have learned there are a lot of different types of leaves! One book we read called ‘Autumn Leaves’ has taught us a lot of different types of leaves!

We sat in a circle on our carpet for a class meeting. Each student was given their own leaf to hold and explore. At different times throughout the month students have been told about ‘detective eyes’. This is when they look very closely and look to see all the of detail around them. This doesn’t just mean what they see, but what they can touch, hear or smell. Students looked at their leaf using these ‘detective eyes’ to see all the details they could.

Ms. Tompkins: Examine your leaf. What do you see?

- there are spikes on it 

E.M- I see about mine is it has stripes on his leaves



D.K- I see lots of stripes on the back, so much that it looks like its one thousand, on the top, bottom and middle

A.M- I see some dark spots on the back and on top

- I see kind of like white looks like there are worms

- I think mine has a little hole

- I see spikes, my leaf is yellow

- mine is so yellow and changed colours

T.K- I see brown

D.Z- I see spikes

P.D- I see a tiny hole

A.L- It’s changing colour (pointing to the stem)




- it’s called a stem

E.K- it’s red 

D.S- it’s brown has a big hole



V.A- I see lots of colour changing, yellow, black and red

N.M- I see yellow

M.P- I see holes

A.K- I see spikes

C.C- I see spiders




D.R- it have spikes on it

D.D- Mine has red and yellow on it

K.B- it’s sharp

A.B- it’s pointy and sharp

Z.H- I see a stem

Students were encouraged to use the leaves in their daily writing during Thinking and Learning Time. Many students used the leaves for pictures and art.

K.B- stem connects to the tree so it grows

Z.H- the leaves turn brown and red and fall



Ms. Tompkins found a large maple leaf and brought it in to show the students. They were amazed. We decided to look closely at it by putting it on the light table. Then she put an overhead sheet on top and traced all the details she saw. We talked about how we could add writing to it and hang it up for our daily writing.

 Students were excited to get their turn to look at all the details of the leaf and draw it on the special overhead paper.

 Stay tuned to see what we do with these :)