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Maple Leaf Silhouettes

The maple tree is the national tree of Canada. Students will explore how it came to be featured on the flag and create a spatter painting silhouette featuring maple leaves.

Lesson Plan

Supplies Needed

Gather all the supplies needed to bring your craft ideas to life! From paints and markers to glue and scissors, our crafts section has everything to spark creativity and make every project truly special.

  • Maple Leaves
  • Paper
  • Recycled Cardboard Box
  • Toothbrush

Steps

  • Step 1

    The maple tree is the National Arboreal Emblem of Canada, and its flag features a red maple leaf on a white background with a red stripe at each side. Have students look at an image of the flag and research how this symbol came to be featured on it. What did its original flag look like? When was the maple leaf flag inaugurated as the official flag? Why was the maple leaf chosen?

  • Step 2

    There are over 100 species of maple trees. The two most common are the sugar maple and the red maple. Ask students to look at images of some of the varieties and learn about where they grow and some of their uses and byproducts. For example, Canada is the world's largest producer of maple syrup. When weather permits, take the class outside to look for fallen maple leaves. 

  • Step 3

    Ask students to place a piece of light paper inside a shallow recycled box or box lid, then arrange a few of the collected leaves on the paper. Then have them dip a clean toothbrush in paint, hold it over the box, and brush their fingers across the bristles to splatter a good amount of paint over the leaves and the paper. When the paint is dry they can remove the leaves, dip the leaves in paint, and press the leaves around the leaf silhouettes that were created.

  • Step 4

    Have students present their art and talk about some of the facts they learned about the symbolism and uses of maple trees.

Standards

SS: Individual Development and Identity: Describe factors important to the development of personal identity and the context of identity within families, peer or affinity groups, schools, communities, and nationalities. 

SCI: Explore similarities and differences in patterns and use them to sort, classify, communicate, and analyze natural phenomena and change.

Adaptations

Most of the world's maple syrup comes from Canada. Have students look up some interesting facts about this product known as "liquid gold" in Canada. For example, it was the indigenous Iroquois people who first tapped a maple tree and pioneered the process of extracting the sap and transforming it into syrup and sugar crystals. And it takes 40 gallons of sap to produce one gallon of syrup.

"The Maple Leaf Rag" by Scott Joplin (1868-1917) is one of the most famous piano ragtime pieces, and it became the model for ragtime compositions by subsequent composers. It may have been inspired by the Maple Leaf Club, a meeting place for African Americans in Sedalia, Missouri, where Joplin was living. Have students explore the life and works of Scott Joplin, known as the "King of Ragtime."