Leaf Lotto

Leaf Lotto

This activity is designed for young children in grades 1 - 3. You might be able to adapt it to younger ones. The idea is to match the shape of a leaf to a shape that they already know.

The objectives are: to identify basic leaf shapes, to identify the names of trees by their leaves.

Background:	All leaves fall into the basic shapes of round, oval, spear (long, thin oval), heart, and triangle. Two non-basic shapes are palmately lobed and pinnately lobed. The easiest way to remember something is to correlate it with something you already know. The palmately lobed leaf is a maple, the pinnately lobed can be an oak. When doing this activity I call the maple a hand leaf, since it usually has five lobes. I refer to an oak leaf as a ghost leaf, since it has no apparent shape.
Skills:	The children should know the basic shapes.
Age:	Grades 1 - 3
Activity:	Explain to the child(ren) that everything has a shape. A ball is a circle or round, a window is a square or rectangle. In nature, everything has a shape too. Hold up predrawn cards of a circle, triangle, oval, spear, and heart. Ask them to identify each one and give an example of something that looks like that shape. Now hold up the palmately lobed shape and have someone put their hand on it. They should see the five lobes that are similar to their five fingers. Next show them the pinnately lobed leaf. Explain that it doesn't have a shape that we recognize, but it does have a shape that we can remember. Divide a sheet of paper into four or six sections. Younger children do better with four sections. In each section have the child draw one of the leaf shapes in each section. Take the children on a walk. Depending on your location you can do this in a park, on a treed street, or at camp. See how many leafs they can find that match one of the shapes on their paper. You may want to collect a leaf that matches each shape (fallen leaves only).
Discussion:	Once they have matched their shapes, talk about the different names that trees can have. Show them one leaf for each shape. Tell them the name of the tree that the leaf came from. Don't identify more than 5 to 7 trees.
Adaptations:	Put the children in groups of four. give each group a field guide. See how many leaves they can find and identify for each category.
Brownie Try It! Junior Badge:	Plants (Leaf Hunt); Numbers and Shapes (Nature Shapes) Dabbler Badge #B.1

Resources:

Trees: A Guide to Familiar American Trees
This book fits into your backpack. It shows the part of the country that the tree should be found in as well as large pictures of the leaves. We carry one with us whenever we work at the camps. The kids enjoy looking through the book to match the leaves. The text is informative without being overly wordy.

A Field Guide to Trees and Shrubs has more text. It also goes into more detail on leaf identification. I use it when I can't identify the leaf from the other books. It is a good book for older children who want to know more about the trees. It's a great leader/teacher book if you use it to prepare yourself ahead of time on the trees that you will be seeing on your walk.

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