Fall Leaf Discovery

Our class enjoyed a beautiful Fall day in our school yard trying to find leaves of all the colours of the rainbow (they quickly discovered that there were no blue leaves to be found). When we returned to school, we sorted the leaves into colour piles and the some students decided to create a pile that had "polka dots".

 

They began asking questions, "Why are there so many leaves with black spots on them.", "I wonder how that happened?". We decided to send home a sample of the leaf with black spots and ask the question to each family,  "Why do you think these leaves have black spots on them?" We had an overwhelming response and found it interesting that families had some of the same thoughts:

-The leaves are changing colour and dying.

-They have a tree disease/sickness

-Maybe a fungus or caterpillars.

-Turning into dirt, mud on them.

-The sun burnt it.

-They are "Tar Spots", a fungal disease on Maple tree leaves.

An answer that taught me something new, "The trees have black spots on them because when temperatures reach the high 60's and the plant has been wet for 6- 9 hours it starts to build up a fungus known as "Diplocarpon Rosae" or black spot fungus."

 

We want to thank all our families for participating in our brainstorming. It made the research more meaningful to each student and they were eager to share the thoughts of their family with the class!!