Leaf Man, Leaf Man, What Do You See?  is a collaborative Internet project for K - 3 classes students in USA and Canada.   It offers students an opportunity to learn about other areas and the fall season through Internet sharing of writing and pictures of their own communities.

Just like in the book, your Leaf Man (woman, girl, boy) will travel around your town or school community showing the beautiful autumn season at its best.  We'll use the writing pattern found in Brown Bear, Brown Bear (with our own innovation) to write about what the Leaf Man sees.  Or choose something different - classes may use any writing format that fits the project.

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Why Do It?

• The project fits well in a study about seasons, communities, or weather, and includes whole-class and individual student literacy activities. 

• It is easily aligned to literacy, science, and technology standards. 

• This is a great opportunity for teachers to develop and share a differentiated unit of study!

•  It's a good project for teachers new to Internet collaboration as well as those more experienced.

• Suggested activities and resources are provided. 

 

Project Requirements

Students will:

• Collect some autumn leaves and make a leaf person from the leaves or from paper (see resources)

• Decide where you want to your leaf person "to go" in your school or town.

• Write about and illustrate/take photo of your idea.

• Contribute to a class book or make a Leaf Man adventure of your own!

Teachers will register for the project and receive confirmation in early September.

• Submit by November 10, 2008: A brief narrative in an email about their class activities related to the project including any other book titles students enjoyed. 

• A sample of written student work (1-2 examples of individual or whole-class writing). 

• One to five images of student work and leaves in your area.

Please send all text in email with images (jpg or gif files only) attached.
     Sorry - Please do not send doc files, PowerPoint slides or videos.
     * *Look in resources for ideas about linking to image sharing sites.

If you prefer to post to your own webpage, wiki, or blog, please make sure to  link to our project homepage and indicate that your class participated in this project.  A link will be made to your page from the project.

• Identify signs of autumn in their area, share with their class, engage in lessons/activities related to autumn. 

• Identify your leaves.  See  Autumn Leaf Scrapbook and Tree Identification Guide.

• Share special events taking place in your community during the fall.

• Use a map to show the location of towns from other participating classes.

• Write poem about your town/state/region/country (poetry formats). 

• Read or listen to another autumn book and respond in a creative way of your choosing.

• Illustrate your area's features (see resources)

• Leaf Man could interview government officials or celebrities or your local historian.

• Compare/contrast types of towns (urban/suburban/rural) in your area or use towns from participating classes.

• Draw a local or regional map.

• Map location of other class towns using  How far Is It?
  Use this information on longitude and latitude to explain why autumn looks the same or different in your region.  Check out the other links when you get there.

• Create a postcard about your area in autumn.

• Write a song about your town and sing to a familiar tune.

• Create a travel brochure highlighting autumn events in your area. 

• Write an email response to other classes about their projects.

• Create a slide show for visitors showing signs of autumn or special autumn events in your area (see resources)

• Forecast the expected weather during autumn from data found on Internet weather sites. 

• Select an animal in your area and write how it prepares for winter; create a timeline with software showing this information.

• Create an illustration with graphic software.

• Take a survey and graph your classmates' favorite sports, colors, food, or activities for fall.

Use educational software to enrich this study and enhance student learning  (Kidspiration, Scholastic Keyes, Graph Club, Excel, Word, Word Art, KidPix, Paint , Smartboard and other programs).

Send email (marcimcg@aol.com) with:

Name and title (Mr., Ms., Miss, Mrs.)
Grade
Name of school
Town, State, Province

Registration starts in August.  A confirmation email will be sent during the first week of September.

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©  2008 M. McGowan - All rights reserved.