Activity: Sorting leaves into groups - Levels 1 and 2

Learning Outcome
I will be able to:

• describe the shapes of different leaves
• group leaves of a similar shape
• share my ideas with others

Success criteria

Success criteria	Self-assessment			Peer assessment			Teacher assessment
I can describe the shapes of different leaves.
I can use this description to group leaves of a similar shape.
I can explain how I grouped the leaves to others.

Putting leaves into groups (Word 2007, 2 MB)

Have a look at the leaves above. List all the words used to describe the shape of them. Now choose two of these words that mean the opposite, such as ‘long’ and ‘short’.

1. Based on the two words you have chosen, divide the leaves into two groups. 

2. Now choose another two words that mean the opposite of each other, and divide each of the two groups above into another two groups. You should now have a total four groups.

3. Now choose another two words that mean the opposite of each other, and divide each of the four groups above into another two groups. You should now have a total eight groups.

4. Have a look at how other students have divided their leaves. What are the differences between your groups and theirs?

Where to next?

• How could you divide the groups again?
• If we started sorting again, could we sort the leaves in a different way?
• What other living things could you group?

For teachers

Instead of using photos of the leaves, actual leaves from the forest could be provided. ‘Life size guide to native trees’ by Andrew Crowe is helpful in identifying the common plants from Aotearoa’s forests. This task was taken from ‘ Leaves Sort-up’. Words to describe the leaves could include long, short, fat, skinny, smooth edge and serrated (toothed) edge. The students grouping of leaves may look similar to the following diagram.