September is the one month when nature changes quickly enough for a child to watch it happen. Not in a book. Outside, on the walk to school. Most September nature activities for kids involve inventing something new to do. This month you only have to look at the same place more than once.
Seven changes are easy to find. The sun sets more than an hour earlier on 30 September than on the 1st. The grass is wet in the morning even when it has not rained, because the ground cools overnight and water vapour turns into droplets on the cold blades. Leaves change colour. Berries and apples turn red and soften. Mushrooms push up after rain. Insects grow scarce. Birds gather in flocks.
And here is the part that surprises most people: a leaf does not fall because it dies. The tree pushes it off.
At the base of every leaf stalk, the tree builds its own layer of cells, a separation layer. Before that layer is finished, the tree pulls nutrients out of the leaf and stores them in the branch until next spring. Only then does the layer let go. A tree shedding its leaves is tidying up and saving the valuable parts first. That is work, not decay.
Noticing that something you assumed was random is actually a process sits at the heart of science. We wrote more about that in What is STEAM learning?.
Try it at home: the September route
This is not an experiment you finish today. It is a route you walk more than once.
Suitable for: 4-12 years
You need one place you already walk past, a phone or paper and pencil, and one sheet per week.
- Choose the spot together. It should be the child's tree.
- Stand on exactly the same point and take one photo. Mark the point with a stone.
- Write the date and let the child draw one thing they see.
- Repeat on the same day each week through September.
- Lay all four sheets side by side at the end.
- Ask which change came first, and which came last.
Step 5 is the one that does something to a child. Four dull sheets become a film when they lie side by side.
And one more: what if you choose two spots, one in shade and one in sun? We are not saying a word.
Questions worth wondering about
- Who decides that the leaves should fall now, the tree or the weather?
- How does a tree "know" it is September, when it has neither eyes nor a clock?
- If you had to prove to someone that autumn had begun, what would you measure, and how would you know your measurement was good enough?
Every child is made of good atoms. At Good Atoms we help them discover it. Explore free content at goodatoms.com.
Next time you walk past your tree, look at it a little longer than usual.