Families have little time left to teach young children the science and art of leaves. For these activities you’ll need a bag, variety of leaves, paintbrush or sponge, paper, paper plates, heavy book, clear packing tape, and white craft glue, and smart phone or camera.

While walking with children collect a bagful leaves like maple, oak, and willow. Discuss how maple trees are shaped like an open hand whereas oaks are long and thin with a few fingers sticking out.

Now it is time for sorting before the leaves curl. Back home help children tape a sample leaf on each plate as a label. Now take out a few leaves at a time and help children match leaves to one on each plate. Keep it simple.

Science conversations

You can carry on a science conversation about attributes like kind of tree, color and shape. Then you can explain why leaves change colors. The leaf’s main job is to make sugar food for plants to live and grow. They use part of the air called carbon dioxide, sunlight, and green color in the leaves. There are many excellent library books and free online education videos to teach photosynthesis vocabulary to children of all ages. The food is carried by the trunk to the roots and stored. As sunlight hours become shorter in October the work slows down and a wall forms across the base of each leaf and closing it off from the tree. The water supply is stopped so a leaf dries and dies. As it dies, green color fades so red, yellow, orange and other colors that were there all along show up. Eventually leaves turn shades brown. Older children will enjoy “leaf pigment experiments” found online to show the different hidden colors.

Pressing leaves

After sorting, press fresh but dry leaves by placing them in a thick book with a few more books on top overnight. You can spray leaves first with hair spray and allow to dry to retain color. Paper towel sheets can keep leaves from touching book pages.

After a few days, leaves will be flat enough for art. Children can make gift bookmarks by coloring strips of paper and gluing on small leaves. Adults can place clear wide packing tape on the front and back.

Children can also dab a little red, orange, or brown poster paint or almost dry watercolor paint on a brush. Adults can hold a leaf on a piece of paper while children gently dab the paint around the leaf’s border.

Children can also make rubbings by placing a leaf under a paper and gently running a peeled crayon over the leaf. The leaf’s veins and outline will show up.