L is for Leaf

For the second week of October, we moved on to a new topic, which will last several weeks—trees! It started off with L is for leaf, learning about how trees grow and the functions of a leaf. We examined the anatomy of a leaf and learned about chlorophyll and photosynthesis. Then we took a trip to the mountains and gathered as many different kinds of leaves as we could find. We brought them back home and drew them and tried to identify them. The ones we couldn’t identify, we just labeled the leaf shape (rhomboid, ovate, etc.) Then we used the leaves to make leaf rubbings, stencils, and other fun art projects. From Huyler’s Click magazine, we got a card matching game with different kinds of leaves that fit in just perfectly.
As an object lesson, we looked at a plant and saw one leaf that felt it wanted to be on its own and go see the world apart from the plant. He sat in the window all week, getting more yellow and shriveled. When we watered the plant, the separate leaf didn’t get any nourishment, and although he was in the sunlight, his photosynthesis didn’t work at all. We read several Bible passages about those who trust in the Lord being like a tree planted by the water, and then read that those who have Jesus have life, and our words to remember that week were “I will live and grow in Jesus”.
An extra activity we did that week was a classical music exercise. Although unrelated to the L is for Leaf category, it sort of followed up on the M is for Moon week. We listened to Ludwig von Beethoven’s Moonlight Sonata and pretended we were float-walking on the moon. We found a good web page for kids to learn about composers, so we read what it said about Beethoven. Anyone interested can click here and check it out!