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Leafing Through Leaves
When leaves start falling in your neighborhood, take your child on a leaf lookout and learn all about trees.
What you need:
- area with trees
- shopping bag
- sheets of blank paper (optional)
- black or brown crayon (optional)
What you do:
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First, gather a leaf from several different types of trees in your neighborhood or park. Put the leaves in a bag and head out with your child.
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Pull a leaf out of the bag and see if your can match it to a tree.
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If you take some paper and a crayon, your child can also make a bark rubbing of some of the trees. Just press the paper to the bark and rub the crayon lightly over it. A crayon stub rubbed on its side works great for this activity.
You can help your child compile his or her own tree book, complete with the leaves, the names of the trees the leaves come from, and their bark rubbings.
To help you identify the trees, refer to First Guide to Trees by George A. Petrides. The Ohio Public Library also has a helpful tree identification site: http://www.oplin.org/tree/