We spent a couple of weeks last month learning all about leaves. Whenever possible, I like to introduce a new unit by letting the students examine tangible items up close and personal. They had a blast choosing leaves from the playground and looking at them up close under the magnifying glass.
We learned that humans breathe in oxygen and breathe out carbon dioxide, while trees and plants do just the opposite. God thought of everything when He created the world! To show the students a leaf actually producing oxygen, we plucked a leaf fresh off a tree and then submerged it in water. A few hours later, we were able to see air bubbles forming on the leaves!
The coolest experiment by far (to me, anyway) is extracting chlorophyll from a leaf! Who knew you could do this with kindergarteners?!? Using fresh leaves, we tore them into small pieces and placed them into a cup. We then covered the pieces with rubbing alcohol and placed a filter strip into the liquid in the bottom of each cup.
We placed our cups into a windowsill and waited ...
The next day, our filter strips showed discoloration ... that's the chlorophyll!
We love science!!
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