Our Leaf Shapes Study

It’s Mavi’s midterm break this week, and I decided to have activities that both boys can do together.  First in mind is a leaf study since we are surrounded by beautiful and colorful leaves.  They are just too gorgeous when they change colors, and I don’t want to miss that opportunity!  We also used our Montessori Inspired Leaf Shapes printable for this activity, which you can buy from my shop.

We started by reading books like Why Do Leaves Change Color and My First Montessori Book of Leaf Shapes.  These are really great books to begin with!  After that, we explored and gathered leaves from our neighborhood for days.  I remember that we had to walk on different routes each day to collect other kinds of leaf shapes.  I also made a Montessori Inspired Parts of a Leaf Booklet and Nomenclature Cards, which we will use in our upcoming activities.

I hate the idea of laminating natural objects, as this removes their natural texture's feel.  But I read somewhere that laminating leaves preserve their color and shape for longer, and that’s what I did!

I also made these Montessori Inspired Leaf Shapes Nomenclature Cards for the boys.  I hand-drawn these and used markers for the colors. Vito, who is currently crazy over nomenclature cards, enjoyed matching the shapes!

According to Mavi, these are giant cards, which are way better than the ones I used to make (back in 2013).

And I made Mavi match our laminated leaves to the control cards of the leaf shapes.  Some of the conditions were difficult to identify.

As an extension, we did nature journaling! I attached the leaves to the board and made the boys paint their favorite leaf or leaves, considering the shapes.  Vito was identifying the leaves through their colors (understandable for his age) while Mavi chose “the most beautiful” leaf (but later on decided to paint some more).

Vito’s work. He’s making green and red leaves.

Mavi’s works.

It was another successful activity on my part because the boys participated and enjoyed the activities.  Hope I will have the same response when we do parts of a leaf!

Get the cards here:

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