Leaves! Leaves! Leaves!

This book isn't necessarily a stunning literary specimen, but it provided a great background for a project I did with my daughter. In this story, Buddy and his mom make observations about trees in each of the four seasons. It explains how and why trees change, and helps children notice what is going on around them. After reading this book, we made a "Four Seasons Tree Book." Here's what we did:

I printed four copies of a leaf-less tree, pictures of spring buds opening, pictures of green summer leaves, pictures of autumn foliage, and pictures of closed winter buds. I also printed pictures of spring grass and mud, summer grass, leaf-covered autumn grass, and ground covered in snow. I made a cover that said "My Four Seasons Tree Book" and I also printed one page that had the words 'spring', 'summer', 'fall', and 'winter' on it. All of these things I printed on card stock. After printing, I cut out the pictures of leaves in different seasons, and I cut up the different ground coverings into small pieces. I left the page with the names of seasons on it whole. I used a three-hole-punch on each of the four tree pages and the cover. If you want to try this project, I made the document I used for all of this printing and cutting into a PDF and here it is. Look at me, being all fancy and stuff. (It is quite possible, by the way, that my nifty little PDF violates some copyright law or other with the pictures I copied from the internet. SO, if I've offended you or stolen your stuff, let me know and I'll fix it.)

Now...where were we?

I brought these prepared materials to my daughter and we completed the following steps over two or three days:

We read Leaves! Leaves! Leaves! and talked about how trees are different in each season. We started with winter. My daughter took one of the tree pages and colored the trunk of the tree and its branches. I presented a tray with all the different leaf pictures on it. Based on what we learned in the book, she was able to identify which leaf pictures belonged on the winter tree. She chose the right ones and we glued them on. We did the same thing with a tray filled with the different ground coverings. Then I presented the page with the names of each of the four seasons. By sounding out the words she was able to discern which one said 'Winter.' We had previously been working on her scissor skills, so I had drawn dashed boxes around each word and she was able to cut out the word 'Winter,' which we then glued onto the bottom of the page she had just completed.

We repeated each of these steps for each of the three remaining seasons. I was pleased with the variety of skills practiced in this project, and the repetition of these skills with the completion of each page was also helpful. I also encouraged her to color the sky and draw in any surroundings (birds, squirrels, flowers...) she wanted to include in her picture, but she never has been big on coloring so in most cases she courteously abstained.

For the finishing touches, my daughter decorated the cover of the book and we tied it all together with some yarn. She was thrilled to have made her own book and she was very proud to "read" it to her dad when he got home.

For a more in-depth exploration of trees, I would recommend A Tree Is Growing. There is a simpler body of main text with all sorts of informative insets and side bars for the more curious (and more patient) children. There are plenty of interesting facts to educate and amuse both reader and child. A great follow-up to this activity!