During the month of July, our Backyard Book Club read The Ellie McDoodle Diaries: Have Pen, Will Travel. One of the thing I loved most about Ellie is that she's an artist, but she's a scientist too. She's always observing, recording, trying new things, and using all this info to really figure out the world around her.
One of the things Ellie pays attention to is the plant life around her. (She's definitely on the lookout for poison ivy!) So our club did a little leaf hunt right in our own backyard! The challenge was to see who could find the most different kinds of leaves.
Before heading out, we discussed different kinds of leaves. We talked about how things like grass and pine needles are actually leaves. We also talked about conifers and how to tell the difference between three main types of conifers using the handy Square Spruce, Flat Fir, Packet Pine trick (on the last page of the linked pdf). In our yard, we have two out of three kinds of conifers, so I challenged the kids to figure out which one we don't have. (And they totally figured it out!)
Look at all the different kinds of leaves they found! I challenged the kids to do the same thing in their own yard or a local park. Leaves would also make a great thing to add to a sketch journal, wouldn't they?
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