From Seed to Seed:
Plant Science for K-8 Educators

Activity 12: A Leaf Is a Leaf ... Right?

Grades: K-4

Associated Lesson Topics:

• Leaves
• Classification systems
• Role of leaves in photosynthesis

National Standards:

• SCIENCE: Standard C
• MATH: Data Analysis and Probability Standard
• LANGUAGE ARTS: Reading 10

Planting the Seed...

Do all leaves look the same? Pass around some different types of leaves. What words would you use to describe these leaves? their edges? their surface? their vein patterns? their shape?

Teacher Information:

Although leaves seem quite simple, there are many ways to describe them. In fact, an infinite number of different types of leaves exist in the natural world. In this activity, students will learn about the characteristics of leaves by looking at and comparing several different types. They will also learn how botanists, like Linnaeus, used these characteristics to classify plants.

Necessary Materials:

• Collection of several different tree leaves.
• Forest, stand of trees, or greenhouse.
• Leaf and tree guide.

Procedure:

• Provide each student or small group of students with a tree leaf.
• Present the students with the different categories they can use to describe their leaves, including color, size, shape, margins, dissection, texture, way it is attached to the stem, and vein pattern.
• Have students describe their leaves in their journals using each category. They can then use these recorded observations and a leaf and tree guide to determine what tree their leaf came from.

Or...

• Take your students to a forest, nearby stand of trees, or greenhouse and send them on a scavenger hunt. Who can find the smallest leaf? The largest? The most unusual? A simple leaf? A compound leaf? Students can either collect the leaves or locate them and draw a picture of each leaf in their journals.
Be sure to identify the leaves of poison ivy, oak, and sumac with your students prior to sending them off on their scavenger hunt.

Harvesting the Crop...

Why do you think there are so many different kinds of leaves? How do you think the different features of leaves might help plants? What do you think the purpose of a leaf is? Could the differences among leaves help them to do their job more effectively? Compare leaves found locally to pictures of leaves in another ecosystem-a rainforest, for example-and question students about the differences they see. What do you notice when you compare the leaves from these two ecosystems? Why might leaves in the rainforest be so large?

Sources

• Leaf and tree guides
  Leaf & Tree Guide Rona Beame, Workman Publishing, 1989
  Carolina Biological Supply www.carolina.com

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