Lesson Plan

Why Leaves Change Lesson Plan: Bigs Edition

Pigment chemistry, real data and a field guide to your own trees.

This is the Bigs Edition of Why Leaves Change: one ready-to-teach week written just for grades 7-8. Every day follows the same rhythm: Reading on Monday, Writing and Words on Tuesday, Science and Math on Wednesday, a Hands-on Project on Thursday, and Show and Tell on Friday.

The big question: Why do trees spend energy on color just before they let their leaves go?

The Week

• Mon: Thoreau and the Shutdown (Reading) • Tue: Argue the Rake (Writing & Words) • Wed: Pigments, Rf and Percentages (Science & Math) • Thu: Field Guide to Six Trees (Hands-on Project) • Fri: Present the Data (Show & Tell)

Teaching more than one level? The all-levels edition of Why Leaves Change has Littles (K-3), Middles (4-6) and Bigs (7-8) in one file, so siblings or a mixed classroom can study the same topic together.

Perfect for homeschool families, grade 7-8 classrooms, co-ops and substitute plans.

What's inside

• 5 ready-to-teach days for Bigs (grades 7-8), about 90 to 120 minutes a day
• Lab sheet: Pigment Chromatography With Rf
• Sequence cards (The Shutdown Sequence) and a cut-and-sort page (Which Pigment Is It?)
• Writing page: Rake Them or Leave Them?
• Hands-on project: Field Guide to Six Local Trees
• Word search, crossword, scramble and secret code puzzles
• 8 fact cards, 9 vocabulary cards and a book list of 5 titles
• A certificate and an answer key for the grown-up

Instant PDF download after checkout. Print at home.