Montessori at home Cultural Botany LEAVES Study is designed for preschoolers and kindergartners to explore plants and its parts through hands-on invitations to learn.
Inspired by nature’s gifts of blooming flowers and thickening emerald foliage of trees, we started our at home Leaves Botany Montessori cultural Study, and today, Adrian wished to go outside and collect different leaves and explore them up close. So, “following the child” I had put together a lesson about leaves.
Leaves help plants make their own food. Within the leaf, there is a green material called chlorophyll, which absorbs sunlight to make a natural sugar that the plant uses for food. This process is called photosynthesis, during which carbon dioxide, which can be toxic in high concentration and poisonous to humans, is used by the plant while oxygen, which is one of the most important elements required to sustain life, is released. Thus, plants and people live in a symbiotic relationship, where trees are indispensable to Earth’s air being fresh and clean, and people can commit to preserving forests and planting new ones.
Eyewitness Plant book (buy here) explains in details “leaving leaves” and its variety, while featuring stunning real-life photographs, offering young readers a unique eyewitness view of the fascinating world of plants, including plant’s anatomy and growth.
Leaves Botany Montessori Study
The leaf has veins for carrying converted sugar to other parts of the plant. The flat, green part of the leaf is called the blade. The edge of the leaf is called the margin. Leaves are called “sun-catchers” because they “catch” the sun that the plant needs to make food. Evergreen plants do not lose their leaves in the winter, so their leaves need to be tough to survive several years in the wind, sun, and rain. Some evergreen leaves have waxy upper surface and downy underside. 
Adrian is using the Due Scope Microscope (buy here) which features three objective lenses: 40x, 100x, and 400x magnifications, and two light sources. To observe a solid item like a leaf, Adrian uses the light source above the stage. Find more details about this Microscope in a “Microscope Study” post here.
Rhododendron evergreen leaf has a waxy upper surface to prevent it from drying out.
A felt-like down on leaf’s undersides retains moisture and keep insects away.
The Trees book (buy here) with its beautiful overlay pages offers further insights into trees, leaves and nature’s cycle ~ In the fall, leaves lose their chlorophyll, which allows for other colors in the leaf to show, so that we see yellow, orange, red and even purple leaves.
Adrian likes shading over leaves with a chunky beeswax block crayon (buy here) and seeing the veins and the margin of the leaf emerges. (For more on the shading over, read here a post “Sandpaper Numbers Extensions: using marbles and shading over”.)
This is a super fun nature-inspired idea we generally do with dried leaves! Can you tell that blue is Adrian’s favorite color! While regular crayons might crumble the fragile leaf, oil crayons really work wonders with these nature finds.
To find out which “Botany 🌸 Books 📚 we are 📖 Reading” see a post here.
We learned more about leaves and nature’s cycle in a post “Learning about ❄️🌸🌳🍂Seasons” ~ read here.
Have you downloaded my NEW eBook? It has everything you need to know to get started on your Montessori journey, as well as a CURRICULUM outline reference guide, the order of lessons, and the age when they should be introduced, in my opinion. See details HERE.
Also, check out HERE Homeschooling The Montessori Way Yearly membership in case you are exhausted from swimming in the vast ocean of irrelevant information and saving activities you never get to! I am here to help! WE CAN DO THIS TOGETHER!
4 Comments
Really good thought. This post inspiring more people.Its a better way to learn about the leaf. An interesting topic it is. I enjoyed reading, and the knowledge and perspective that my reading gives me has strengthened my teaching skills and presentation abilities. Just letting you know how I feel! You always had great informative, down-to-earth, enjoyable, real-life posts!
Thank you So much for your sweet comment. It means a lot to me knowing that you find our lessons useful and enjoyable. Please, leave comments; I always read them 🙂 Anya p.s you can also follow me on Instagram
I really love this post. As a Montessori teacher I feel inspired by your photos and plan on using some of these in my classroom in the fall. Can you please share the title of the book that is shown in these photos? Thank you so much.
Thank you so much Sarah for your kind comment. All the books are linked under (click here) – when you click “here” it should take you to the book. For example DK Plant is https://amzn.to/3ebOPnD
Alternatively, the Trees book is here https://amzn.to/3q3bSnx
Let me know if you are missing any, Anya