Investigating Leaves!

We gathered around the table this morning and asked the children to take on the role of a "scientist".   We talked a little bit about what scientists do.  Gabi and I brought leaves in this morning for our meeting.  We spilled them out onto the table: red,yellow, orange and green, they were beautiful!  "Let's look up close at the leaves and what we notice about them."  Everyone gathered a few leaves and dove into close observation. 

Samantha: "I see red, yellow, green!"

Hayley:  " Just one is a poison,because it has spikes."

Graham: " Mine are green and red."

Harold: " Mine has holes."

Ben:  "This one has 1,2,3 colors,red,yellow and green."

Tomorrow we will continue to observe the autumn leaves.  The children will have the opportunity to sketch the leaves with black drawing pens and watercolors.  When children sketch,they look closely, capturing what they see, bit,by bit, in a drawing line.  When they work with watercolor paints, they notice color and the ways in which one color blends and gives way to another.  By using these media, we want to focus on the way the children see the leaves.