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Activity Three

Step 1                                                                                                       

Answer this question on a piece of paper: What will be revealed if you were to make rubbings of leaves? 

Step 2

Use the bag of leaves with the different leaves in it and make some rubbings of them to support your answer.  What did you find?  What type of pattern did the leaves form?  What is the rough ridged feeling of the leaf called?  Do you notice the lines in the leaves these are called veins.  

Step 3

What do you think the veins do for the leaf?  List your ideas on a sheet of paper.  You you said that the veins provide structure for the leaf and carry water and other substances needed by the leaf for growth then you were correct. Now think of ways that leaf veins are like the veins in your own body. Good job, now you can go to the next step.  

Step 4

Botanists, scientists who study plants, have looked at all kinds of leaves and have identified three basic types of leaf venation patterns.  Parallel leaves have veins that look like many straight lines all running in the same direction from the base to the tip.  Palmate leaves have several main veins that all start from one point near the base.  The veins resemble the palm of the hand with fingers extending in different directions.  Pinnate leaves have one main vein with many large veins that branch off sideways all along the main vein.  The veins look like a feather.  Click this link Leaf Venation Patterns and complete the worksheet to be handed in after it is completed.

Step 5

Now look at the leaf rubbings you have done.  What type of leaf patterns do each of them have?  Record your answer by each rubbing.

Now that you have completed the steps about leaf rubbings you are ready for the homework assignment.  

Step 6

Other objects besides leaves have patterns that can be revealed through rubbing.  What objects do you have at home that might reveal patterns or hidden messages when rubbed?  Write your  ideas down on a piece of paper.  Here are a few examples to get you started ex.  bottles, plastic, cans, and food containers.  For your homework assignment, you need make two or three rubbings from objects you have at home.  They need to be objects other than what are in the examples.  Just rub the objects on a sheet of paper and label what the object is and bring it to class to share with the rest of the class.

Step7

Now complete the vocabulary worksheet and and it in.

Now you are ready for the next activity:  Activity four

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