Materials :
leaves collected on field trip or from neighborhood
note paper
pencil
old phonebook or other leaf press
white card stock or construction paper
white glue
word processor
printer or copier labels
Procedure:
Early Elementary students will:
each bring in a tree leaf collected from home or the class will collect from trees on the school
grounds and talk about the trees(How do we know this is a tree? What are the parts of a tree?).
(Teacher will identify leaves to prepare for discussion). Participate in a teacher-led class discussion
and identification of leaves based on the shapes of the leaves. (Using Web site tree list and tree
identification sites' illustrations).
Press the leaves in a large book or press. Glue the leaves on a piece of construction paper. Write the
name of the tree on each. Exhibit and review the types of trees found nearby that are in their class-
room herbarium
Middle School to High School students will:
read pertinent information about deciduous forest of Illinois on Museumlink Forest web site and
other links, noting the format of the Herbarium specimen pages.
collect leaves from trees on field trip or from neighborhood with permission of the owner (5
each). Note on paper the original location of each leaf, and how the leaves are attached to the
branch (alternate or opposite)
press leaves for one week at school between the pages of a leaf press made for the occasion
(with absorptive pages).
Teacher will choose a few leaves for whole class discussion to summarize leaf identification procedure
on web sites and use of vocabulary for students.
use the tree and leaf identification web sites and tree list section of Museumlink Forest site to
identify their leaves and write down their characteristics (https://www.museum.state.il.us/
muslink/behind/htmls/cr_bot_col.html#)
type up the descriptions of the identification on a word processor and print them on label paper
mount each of their leaves onto the card stock with white glue
attach the appropriate label to each herbarium page
exhibit the leaf collection for others to see
keep the collection as a class herbarium.