Grade: Primary school

Leaf Rubbings
This is a quick and easy way of recording the shape of leaves, their veins and other details in the forest.  Place the leaf, vein side uppermost, under a piece of white paper.  Working on a hard surface, rub a wax crayon on its side over the paper immediately above the leaf using even pressure.  The leaf impression will now appear.

You could take some leaves back to the classroom for rubbings.  Give each pupil two sheets of paper and let them choose leaves and different coloured crayons to do rubbings.  A branch should be drawn on one sheet of paper.  Children should cut out their leaves and stick them on to the branch (see picture below).  You could draw a large tree trunk on poster sheets and stick the branches onto this to create your own tree for inside the classroom.

Bark Rubbings
Many trees can be identified from the pattern and texture of their bark.  A useful way of studying and recording bark is to make rubbings using wax crayons.  Let the children work in pairs with one holding the paper firmly on the bark while the other rubs.