Leaf Hunt

To kick off the lesson, we read “We’re Going on a Leaf Hunt” by Steve Metzger. I then told students we were going on our own leaf hunt! I reminded students that we had been working with numbers within five. I also reminded students of sight words learned thus far. Using a Keynote prepared prior to the lesson, students were shown examples of pictures one can create with five leaves. Students also had the option to create their own picture.  Students would then use sight words to create a sentence for their picture. Showing examples of this ahead of time allows students to create with the end in mind and get excited about the task at hand. 

We were off! We went outside and searched for five of the finest leaves around! It was evident students were engaged in the task. Students were excited to move outside, and hunt for leaves. I was excited because students had to pick up the leaf and place it in their bags while they counted. This action reinforces one-to-one correspondence, as well as counting and cardinality. We didn’t stay outside long. Students could not wait to create an image that was uniquely their own, so inside the classroom we went. 

Once our images were created, we decided on our pattern, “I can see a _____.” We discussed concepts of print: books contain pages, pages contain words, words are made up of letters, and words are separated by spaces. A star was placed in the left corner of their pages to reinforce the concept of reading and writing left to right.  Motivated by excitement to create their pages, each student wrote a sentence to match his or her picture. 

Next, pictures were taken of students’ pages. Using Keynote, students recorded themselves (with an adult’s help) reading their sentences. The class was excited to try out this feature on Keynote. Often when technology is in the mix, student engagement will increase. 

We included a front and back cover for our hardcopy. As a class we decided on a title that encompasses what our book is all about. Once the front cover was created, we uploaded its image to Keynote and exported it to a video file. During snack we watched our final product! One could see the joy on students’ faces as the book played, especially when a student’s very own page appeared! At the same time, the artifact displays the power of teamwork. We had made our own pattern book!

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