A guide for using our resources

Children will investigate autumn leaves..

Science Focus: scientific investigation, autumn leaves

CCSS (and states that have similar standards):  RI.1.1 key details; RF.1.2 phonological awareness; RF.1.3 phonics and word analysis; RI.1.5 text features; SL.1.1 collaborative conversations

Simple, spectacular ideas to boost your lessons.

• In this book, a little girl tells all about her tree and its leaves.
• Gorgeous collages bring this classic to life.

• Work together to find and circle the following words in the article: look, the, you, can.
• Use a different color as students search for each word.

• Syllabication is the process of splitting words into syllables. While doing so in written form is a skill for later in first grade, students should practice the skill fi rst with phonemic awareness. When each word is done, ask students to state the number of syllables.
• Try it with words from the issue, like fall (1 syllable), leaves (1 syllable), colors (2 syllables: co/lors), investigate (4 syllables: in/ve/sti/ gate), and veins (1 syllable).

Skill: scientific exploration, measurement

Materials: My Leaf skill sheet, leaves, crayons, math cubes

• Go out with children to find leaves, or bring leaves to class. Let each child choose a leaf.
• Have children make rubbings of their leaves on the skill sheet.
• Using math cubes, have children measure the leaf rubbing. Then have them write the number to complete the sentence.