Look closely at one leaf

Go and find one leaf. Any leaf. Bring it here.

ScienceAges 3–415 minutes3 pagesEnglish textInk-light

Being written

This one is planned but not finished yet. Everything below is what it will contain.

Not drawn yet

I can look at one thing for a long time and draw what is really there.

How the fifteen minutes go

The five steps on this sheet, in the order a child meets them. This is what you will actually be doing, not a description of the method.

Print the one that fits today. Same skill, three depths — and on this sheet they differ like this.

Support

Draw the outline only.

Fewer items, more pictures, hints included, parent reads the instructions.

Core

Outline plus the veins and the colours.

The standard task, recognition, practice and explanation.

Challenge

Draw the same leaf again three days later and compare.

Open-ended. Explain why, make your own example, use it somewhere new.

The same guide that is printed on the back page, so you can read it before you decide to print anything.

The answers

Nothing to mark. The measure is whether the drawing shows something they would not have known without looking, a torn edge, two colours, the veins.

If they get stuck

Ask them to trace around the real leaf first, then fill it in.

Common mistakes

Drawing the idea of a leaf, from memory, without looking at the real one. Ask them to point at the part they are drawing.
An adult saying 'leaves are green'. Look again; most are not, entirely.

When they finish early

Collect three different leaves and line them up by size.