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Gilded Edges, Golden Leaves

Students will celebrate nature's beauty as they create illustrated poems.

Lesson Plan

Supplies Needed

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  • Cardstock

Steps

  • Step 1

    Have an outdoor class discussion about why it is important to take care of the environment. Ask students to look at the beauty that surrounds them. Perhaps it's a tree swaying in the breeze, a bee visiting a flower, or the way the sun warms a bench. Ask them to collect some leaves that have fallen.

  • Step 2

    Ask students to write a poem that celebrates nature. It could be rhyming verse, a haiku, an acrostic, or other form. After they've finalized it have them write it in the center of a piece of paper, making sure to leave blank space around the writing where the frame will go.

  • Step 3

    Have students create the frame by tearing out the center of another piece of paper. They can gild the inside rim of the frame with gold or another color of tempera paint. Then have them embellish the frame by brushing one of the leaves they collected with paint and pressing it down several times along the paper frame.

  • Step 4

    When their work is dry have them present the poems to the class and talk about the importance of preserving the natural beauty of our world.

Standards

LA: Write using words, numbers, and images to inform and explain, share experiences, and create narratives, either fictional or non-fictional.

SS: People, Places, and Environments: Understand linkages between human decisions and consequences.

Adaptations

Read a book such as "The Lorax" by Dr. Seuss or "Our House Is on Fire: Greta Thunberg's Call to Save the Planet" by Jeannette Winter and have students discuss the lessons they imparted.

Invite a conservationist or sustainability specialist to talk to the class about how we can all take steps to protect the planet.