Trees and Leaves

This week's Beaver meeting involved a lesson on trees, along with an associated craft. To prepare, I went around the neighbourhood picking leaves off the trees. While many had fallen, there were still lots left - some not even turned colour yet. As far as softwoods go, I only took in 2 samples - a small clipping from the spruce in our backyard, and another small clipping from our cedar hedge. The main reason for this was that the craft involved the leaves of the hardwoods. Speaking of which, I managed to get a good number of leaves from White Oak, Sugar Maple, Manitoba Maple (which I learned when looking it up, is actually a 'real' maple, contrary to popular belief), Red Maple, Corkscrew Willow, Service Berry (really nice red all year long), Mountain Ash (Dogberry), Chestnut, and yet another type of maple whose name I could not find in the short time I had to look it up.

I started the talk with a few words about the importance of Nature in the Scouting movement, and reminded the boys that our Beaver Promise is to take care of the world. I also painted a wondrous picture for them and said that if you took an experienced Scout and blindfolded him, and dropped him anywhere in Canada, he'd be able to tell you where he is based on trees, and other vegetation and animals that he saw around him. As an example I then held up the piece of Cedar I had, and mentioned that in Nova Scotia, where I am from, cedars are very uncommon.

To keep things interesting for the boys, during most of the talk I would ask them questions before stating facts. Basically to see if any of them knew the answer to something before I stated it. For example, I started out by saying there were 2 basic types of trees : hardwood, and softwood. I mentioned that if they were going to grow up to be Scientists, they'd have to remember the 'fancy' names for these : deciduous and coniferous. I then held up the pieces of cedar and spruce, and asked the boys if anyone knew what the other name for "softwood" was. One correctly answered "evergreen", and of course I then asked why that name was used, and let one boy explain why.

I then moved on to the hardwoods, and explained a bit about each leaf before passing it around. I started with the Sugar Maple, and asked if anyone knew what type of leaf it was. Of course, several knew it was a Maple, and so I asked what was so special about Maple trees. I eventually coaxed it out of them that we make maple syrup from them, but only from Sugar Maples (which is where they get their name), and not from the other types of maple I had with me. I showed some "helicopters", which are the maple seeds. Then I asked what else was so special about a Maple Leaf (the answer of course being the Canadian Flag)

When I held up the Oak leaf, one boy knew what it was. I then asked what kind of nuts grow on Oak trees - acorns of course. I then asked which animal loves Oak trees - and one boy immediately blurted out "squirrels". I went on to explain that there are several different types of Oak tree that are common in Ontario, and that the White Oak that I had, had leaves with rounded edges, but that many other types of Oak had sharp, pointy edges, and slightly different shaped leaves. But that all the leaves looked basically like this one. I did not mention that Oak leaves can be used in dill pickles to help keep them crisp :-) Enzymes in the leaves do this.

I then moved on to a Chestnut leaf, and told them that there are a number of different types of Chestnut trees which grow in Ontario, and that I thought this one was Horse Chesnut but was not 100% sure.

Of course, after talking about each type of leaf, I passed it around for them to look at.

The next leaf had a lot of small, pointy edges, and I asked if anyone knew what it was. One boy (my oldest), said he thought it was Birch. I could not recall what type of tree I got it off, and went on to explain that there are a number of unrelated trees in Ontario which have leaves which look very much like that - including the Elm. I explained that sometimes to completely identify a tree, you have to see the bark as well as the leaves. And sometimes you even have to see the overall shape of the tree and how it grows - either up straight, or bushy, or whatever.

When I got to the Service Berry, I mentioned that the leaves were such a brilliant purple all year round - or at least the part when the leaves are on the tree. I mentioned that there are lots of really yummy berries on this type of tree, and that every year I hope to be able to pick them, but every year the berries are so yummy that the birds have the tree picked clean in only a matter of days after the berries ripen.

During it all, another boy pointed out the veins on the leaves, and I added that this was the correct term for it. I also had a few examples of compound leaves, like the chestnut, manitoba maple, and Moutain Ash. I explained that some trees have leaves that are made up of a bunch of smaller leaves, and that these are called "compound leaves".

One thing I forgot to talk about, was to ask the boys what is the important job that leaves serve for the trees, then to explain that they make food from sunlight by means of a process called 'photosynthesis'.

When we were done here, we went on to the craft. I had a roll of wax paper, a clothes iron, and a newspaper. In hindsight I should have had a sheet of the wax paper already torn off for each boy - about twice the size of a sheet of loose leaf and folded in half. We eventually got one to each boy, and got them to select a few leaves and place them on the wax paper. We had a special station set up on the floor, with newspaper layed out and the iron turned on. Of course we had to be VERY careful about keeping the boys away from the hot iron, but we managed just fine. The only problem child was my oldest, of course.

Fortunately, I'd tried this the night before at home, and found out that wax paper is not what it used to be, and does not work very well. It seems that most of the wax has been removed from it, my wife says because too many people were putting it in the microwave oven and having the wax melt on their food. Which probably makes sense since most of the packages you see say something on them about it being safe for the microwave. My wife says that you can get "Heavy Duty" wax paper which is like the old school stuff, but I looked all over and could not find any. So what I did, was I took a block of paraffin wax and grated it on a fine grater. This made maybe 2 cups of grated wax, not all of which got used. When I was ironing the leaves between the folded wax paper, I'd sprinkle a tablespoon or two of grated wax under and over the leaves, then flapped it over and ironed it. Worked really well with this addition!

Several parents told me in email afterwards what a great presentation I'd done, and how much the boys enjoyed it!

Oh, here is the best site I found for identifying trees in Ontario. Googling will find you a few other good ones.